In the June and July issue of AARP Magazine, there are several pages devoted to the achievements of blacks in sports. There is mention of Pele, the world famous soccer player; Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman, to win three Olympic gold medals; Jack Johnson, the first Black heavy weight boxing champ[ion of the world (1908); Arthur Ashe, the only Black tennis player to win men’s singles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open; Willie O’Ree, the first Black player in the National Hockey League; Fritz Pollard, the first Black head coach in the National Football League; Michael Jordon, the first Black to negotiate a mega-endorsement deal; Althea Gibson, the first Black to win a Grand Slam tennis title in the French Open; Jesse Owens, the winner of four gold medals and the black player that destroyed the myth of Hitler’s white supremacy; Debi Thomas, the first Black to win a medal at the Winter Olympics; Charlie Sifford, the first Black to play the PGA Tour; Wendell Scott, the first Black driver winner in the NASCAR Grand National, and many others in film, science, the arts, literature, and other genre. All of this is great, but not enough.
The road to justice is long. Many of us remember if we grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, there were only a few Black images on TV, in Film, and all the rest of the categories. We had to grow up with white images that received all of the honors. One must remember that the rules of white supremacy regulated the actions of Black people in every way. Blacks were treated to the thorns of democracy as voting rights were restricted, public facilities were segregated, graveyards were divided into black and white cemeteries, Black people were told to say “yes sir” and “yes ma’am” to the youngest of whites. Black people were only good enough to service the needs of whites. This meant that Black folk were allowed to excel in sports, singing, comedy, and vocational skills. Therefore, we have made progress, but not a long way.
Racialized whites don’t have a problem with some accomplishments because anyone of the famous Black folks alive today can be stopped by police, patted down, beaten, or killed. Despite these accomplishments the rules of white supremacy allow for the majority of the wealthiest people to be white, the U.S. Congress is mostly white, U.S. governors are mostly white, TV editors at over 90 % white, over 90% of the music producers are white, most teachers are white, and most university professors are white. I could go on and on with these differences, but the point that I am making is that the reins of power are still controlled under a white racist scheme.
It is important that we identify various forms of white supremacy. We are familiar with racist cops calling Black people the “N” word but let’s look at the more subtle forms. Whites who want to deny that racism exists might say, “I don’t see skin color,” while others say things like, “Focusing on race is what divides us.” Older baloney comments include, “I was in the military” or “One of my relatives is married to a person of color.” All of these comments do not erase the fact that we still live in a very racist country that hopes we will be satisfied with a few awards, a few movies, a few accomplishments, but at the same time they seek to remove our democratic right to vote and learn.
