Breaking the Color Line

AS Barack Obama was making his acceptance speech last night as President- Elect of the United States. He was doing what Jackie Robinson had done some 60 years earlier. Becoming the first African American in a position that had up to that point always been held by white males. I know, you are probably thinking hold on how can you compare a baseball player to the job of President of the mighty United States? It may be not as much of a stretch as you think. First, both institutions were Lilly white ,both were held in high esteem by the public and helped to define us as a nation. Also both baseball and the presidency are uniquely American. Obama is similar to Robinson in the fact that he may have not been the greatest orator or leader in the African American Community as Robinson was not the greatest player in the Negro Leagues but both of them were the right men for the job and the time. Like Robinson, Obama owes his opportunity to many who sacrificed at great personal and collective loss to set the stage for his victory. For Robinson it was great Negro Le augers like Rube Foster, Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson and Satchell Paige all arguably better players than Robinson but did not have the will, calmness and soberness of task to take on all the attacks that would come from being the first. For Obama it was leaders like Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey , A Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisolm who made it possible for him to become the first. Like Robinson, Obama has the personality and popularity that can transcend race Robinson prevailed but not without personal sacrifice but he made it easier for those who followed let's hope that Obama can do the same.

The Great Debate
By Michael Robinson

As we approach the Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., some things to ponder:
I recently viewed the movie, “The Great Debaters”, the story about the members of the Wiley College Debate Team of the mid to late 1930’s. Wiley College was a small rural African American School located in Texas during the Jim Crow Era.
The thing that stood out most in this movie was that this small college in
Texas had some of our best and brightest minds housed within their campus. They showed how they debated other HBCU’s like Praie View A&M in Texas, Fisk University in Tennessee and Howard University of Washington D.C. all notable academic institutions at the time. The debaters were well prepared because the expectations for them were high and care and nurturing was present. What does this have to do with sports? Plenty, during this time, our HBCU’s were producing our best academic stars; their athletic teams were producing our best black athletes. In those days it was rare for an African American Athlete to go a predominantly white school and succeed. Sure there were of course some like Jesse Owens but, for the most part our institutions were the focal point of Black Athletic Achievement. Sadly, today that story has changed, our schools no longer get the top academic African American Students, and we long since lost our top athletes to the larger white schools. You may say isn’t that what Dr. King and others wanted during the civil rights movement; equal opportunity, integration, a colorblind society? Yes that is what they wanted, but I don’t think they wanted it at the cost of the institutions that gave them their first opportunities at a quality education when other schools wouldn’t even consider admitting them. Also I would argue that we have not yet achieved equal opportunity, integration or color blindness. If there is equal opportunity then why are there only 4% of the Football Head Coaches at major Universities African American? If there is integration why are many of our best and brightest flocking to the white Universities for athletics and academics? And the best and brightest white students aren’t coming to the African American Colleges. This scenario means it’s only a one-way street, which makes it assimilation not integration. A situation, which I don’t believe the Black Civil Rights Leaders, envisioned during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. The result of this means that our society is still very much separate but unequal. Predominantly white institutions routinely schedule HBCU’s in football, baseball and basketball for the purpose of pummeling them and padding their win totals. Years ago, before they took all the great players from these schools they would never schedule them for fear of being beaten by a smaller school. I am not advocating a return to segregation, but what I would like to see is the African American Community contribute to their HBCU’s through donations to the Alumni Associations and Booster Clubs, contribute scholarship money both academic and athletic. Additionally, I am advocating a even more radical concept why don’t parent’s who have blue chip players in the top sports start sending their kids back to the Black Schools. All it would take would be about 100 blue chippers a year to change the landscape of college sports and begin to shift the balance of power towards the HBCU’s. Some people may say that is not realistic because the top players want exposure to pro scouts, and that’s why they go to the big schools. I somewhat disagree; the scouts want the most talented players they don’t really care what schools they come from. In the 50’s 60’s 70’s and early 80’s they went to the black schools all the time to get top players. Just look at the Schools black athletes were chosen from during this era it’s a who’s who of Black Colleges. Let’s support the schools that support African Americans student-athletes and have no problem hiring Black Head Coaches. Like the young debater asks in the movie “The Great Debaters” when told they had a chance to debate a white school, he replied, “why do we have to debate a white school to validate us”. I could ask our young athletes the same question, why do we need a major college program to validate our success on the field and on the court?