Slavery in Sports: The Role of the Black Athlete

By Professor Acie Earl

INTRO – Co edited by T-Bone.
Growing up in a predominately white area of Moline, IL I definitely felt something was wrong or odd. In my grade school I was often 1 of 4 or 6 African Americans in a school of 300 K thru 6 students. Most of the 4 or 6 were sibling groups who went to the same school. Of those sibling groups, we often knew each other from our parents knowing or working together, and in some cases, we lived on the same block or in the same neighborhood.
In gym class or before and after school we were often picked 1st because others saw us as taller, faster, stronger, or more coordinated than the other white kids. Teachers often pushed us to play sports and compete against other schools or other classes for the teacher to be a winner. Mr. Brown in the 5/6th grade encouraged me to go out for track, and taught me volleyball and 4 square. Both sports that helped me with basketball. He coached after school sports and liked to go to different schools and win by having an athletic, tall team of African Americans

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098362966

Book preview

physically.

CHAPTER 1 – THE ORGINS OF SLAVERY-Co -edited by Dr. Deondre Earl

WE HAVE TO PAINT the PICTURE AND START SOME PLACE.  SLAVERY has been a staple in history since the beginning of time.  Although European’s masterminded the trade they often get all the blame for slavery as we know it today. In biblical times slavery was very prevalent to the Hebrews, Israelites, Persians and Babylonians’.

In Ancient Greece and Egypt they both had slaves and it was practiced in Rome and China as well.  The Turkish and Yugoslavian empire also took slaves from each other to fight the Chinese Ghangis and Kublai Khan dynasty to Alexander the Great and the Persians along with Dynus and Xerces before him.

The Europeans are widely considered the greatest purveyors of slavery in light of their indelible global reputation.  It is evident the pursuit of profit, free labor for centuries, and the abandonment of morality affected America even today. Most of it was due to the people who died and the overall greed of the trade.  The Dutch, English, French and Spaniards were the most cruel and greedy of the American slave trade.  At first they just were making deals with African leaders and tribes to take the criminals of waring African tribal war.  Then they turned tribes and countries against each other by giving weapons and creating false skirmishes.  Even today some of the wars and genocide we see in Africa still stem from the slave trade. 

Slave traders could and often would load a boat 2 by 2 in multiple tiers packed to the tilt with human cargo.  Females were the main booty, get it?  It is a pirate term for loot and spoils.  But or butt, lol in the black community booty means something else.  Females bred more slaves and saved the traders in shipping more slaves by sometimes being impregnated.  Many slaves died during the passage being bound to each other for a 30-45 day passage.  But the strongest slaves survived the passage and their descendants are alive and well in the sports world of today.

From the middle passage we see blacks have developed anxiety to not be bound up, not allowed to move and often have fast twitch reflexes. Blacks have sea sickness and motion sickness and some do not like the smell of salt water.  I am like that, I can’t stand the ocean or beach water and do not like dip and wave on a boat or plane, much less a roller coaster etc.  I can sit still, but often do not.  The super slave was developed as anyone who could survive that and prosper and perform at a high level in the fields.  One would have to be strong, to fight disease and pestilence on those voyages as a strong individual. The west coast African countries were hit the hardest as they are the easiest to conquer and get to, the west coast African nations were hard to enslave and get to.  The Nile river jungle served as a great buffer with many logistical hurdles.  Countries like Ghana a Nigeria have some of the darkest people in Africa since their population is not mix with European blood.  They are a proud people and have a chip on their shoulder since they were not enslaved like some of their African close countries.  I have witnessed this 1st hand playing against December Mutombo in the NBA and my ex college teammate Phil Chime.  Both of which proudly proclaim their descendants were never enslaved unlike us.  Also they would mention they know their culture and blood lines. The magnitude of the number of slaves sold or traded to foreigners remains astonishing even by today’s standards.  When the African slave trade is often described as loading to maximum boat capacity much like cargo.  Females were disproportionally represented on the boats.  The slave traders considered African females as crop seeds and often impregnated them during passage. Pregnant African slave women would sell for more at the slave auction.

The consequential physical and mental impacts include anxiety, fast twitch reflexes, kinetics, and disdain for the smell of saltwater. The moniker of super slave was given to those who were able to overcome the physical and psychological challenges of the voyage and perform at a high level later.

CHAPTER 2-THE DESTINATION-CO EDITED BY J.B.N.

European slave traders thought they could take the Africans right to America to work right away.  As they found that was quite wrong with some of hardest, toughest tribesman from Africa. They were not easy to tame and catch at any point during slavery.  For them it was worth a try because they were desperate.  Remember the indentured servants of the colonists and explorers were already freed from work.  It is estimated that over 80-90% of Native Americans had died off so there was no one to help farm and cultivate the new Americas as the New world settlers tried to have them do. 

Europeans thought Africans would be easy to break and enslave, but that was far from the case.  The 1st Africans who were enslaved were from the Roman and Greek wars of the B.C. era and mid evil times.  They sometimes were outcasts of warring African tribes and they had heart, passion and were ruthless warriors. They often rebelled against their enslavers and sometimes committed suicide on the boats or when they arrived. Europeans had an idea to break their spirit.  They would break the trip up and planned drop offs, pick-ups, cargo refueling and then created slave trade ports from Europe to the West Indies islands.

Perhaps you have been to the West Indies, Jamaica, St Kits, St, Canary Islands , St. Andrew and Santo Domingo and wondered why the people are so dark?, or the people look more black skinned? Also there is often funny accent to us we hear but not funny at all when we learn their origins. It is a mix of European and African dialects and languages.  The Caribbean islands were the slave ports where slaves were broken in and taught how to be a slave.  In order to teach someone something you either have to start from scratch when someone is young or wipe everything out and re boot their thinking and habits; and that is what was done.  Africans were not allowed to use their native language, talk the native tongue and slang, use their own names, or worship their native religions. 

We still see that today, as most African Americans are Christian, and have Christian names.  My grandmother named my uncles and aunts English or Spanish names: Glenn, Leon, Barbra, and Mark.  My parents did the same as brothers are named Brent Chad, and Dorian. But we all have English middle names, Boyd, Winston, Demar and Vincent. I am named after my father, my name is little odd which I will detail later.

Occasionally you will see many blacks have some French names since the French was were one of the 1st countries to respect the African American culture and people.  Monique, Dominique, Louis have been popular names with blacks. The French also help explore and settle some of the southern and Midwest states and cities of the south such as New Orleans and other parts of the Deep South.  Actually the city where I was born Peoria, the state Illinois, and the city I grew up in Moline were French settlements.  The French helped settle and explore the Missipippi river area and even owned a few states before selling them back to America congress.  The French got along well with the Native Americans and

Remember slaves were broken in first in the islands, then brought to the states. Their kids were taken and re taught the American slave culture.  If you always thought and were taught you were a slave you know nothing different then the bad cycle repeats itself.  Generations of African Americans grew up and died thinking and knowing they were meant to be a slave and nothing will or would change that.  They forgot who they were and where they came from. They were forbid to practice their culture, religion, and language for centuries.

That was the game changer in the American slave trade was the calculated and systematic plan to erase and eradicate the African culture.  We read in the Bible that even the Hebrew slaves were allowed to speak Hebrew and worship their Gods and prophets.  Pharaoh and Egyptians did not make the Hebrews speak Egyptian and nor make them worship their many Gods such as Horus, Seth, Ra, or Osiris. 

Same story goes for most of us Afro –Americans. My family knows our Native American culture pretty well and not our African culture.  In 2017, I researched my ancestry.com and found out my/our major gene markers.  I found out we were 25% Cameroon /Congo, 22% Nigerian, 16% Ivory coast- Ghana, 11% Mali, and 26% other.  We knew the other genes to be Irish and Native American /Choctaw. The African side makes much sense to us since some of these countries have very tall people and some of the most stubborn and passionate people.  My family has those same traits from the African side and we knew about our Irish slave owner and the Native American sides. 

We have to understand Slaves were not allowed to read and write, again a vast difference in any other slavery system in world history.  Henceforth now for over 400 years there is huge segment of the black population that were created semi or fully illiterate.  Most African Americas in grade school, Jr, and high school have a lesser reading, mathematical and comprehension/grammar level than their white class mates. But let us understand it is based on English comprehension not overall comprehension.  Very similar or even lower to other minorities such as Latin/ Mexican. I argue that their/our brains are under a severe form of confusion due to 400 years of learning the English language second hand. We as blacks often learned by sound or speaking but not by learning it by a true teaching method we teach in schools today and then.  Remember blacks were not permitted to attend normal white schools until the 1960’s.  We often make exceptions for Latinos and Asians as an ESL, [English as a second language] but not for African Americans because we are deemed American lol].  Can you really not teach a race of people to read and write and send them to sub-par school systems and expect them to compete versus the privileged educated people in this country? Then hold them to the same academic standards as whites or other races who aren’t even American?

    To make matters worse, then penalize blacks under the ACT and SAT standardized test system.  Then hold us/them out of college sports because they can’t read, write, or understand math concepts like white America.  Isn’t that a little condescending? We push African Americans to sports, build them up when they do well and then when they can’t measure up academically we take that away from them?  Hmmm.  Remember, we were brought to this country to work and procreate, compete, work longer and stronger than normal humans.  Not to study and be held to an academic standard of our masters and traders.  Again when we’re not academic we get penalized.  HMMMM, by athletically.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not agreeing with their system and scale.  We as black people in America should not sell out and abandon being held to academic standards and just be allowed to play sports with no standards.  We seldom know the success rate for kids to play college and pro ball is around .0004% at best.  Those stats are for the big 3 or 4 sports such as football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball and softball. 

I want to mention the problem and issue white America has created when they bred and encouraged our race of people to play work the fields 1st and later to play sports.  To penalize them when they don’t measure up to those academic standards of your white race is wrong.  Some black leaders and scholars would argue that these are Jim Crow laws in high school and college. 

For most blacks, the art of dance movement and repetitive skill work was our bread and butter during slavery and sharecropping. Some of it is genetic but doing the same thing each day, with 10-15 hour days in the fields, 6 days a week, for most of the year often breeds a muscle pattern or motor skills that are not natural but can be passed on.  If you pick cotton, tobacco, shuck corn, butcher meat, prepare meals, and clean equipment year after year imagine the fine tune motor skills a person would learn and master.  That is also called practice and work ethic in the sports world.  Often that is what recruiters, coaches and G.M upper management look for in athletes, correct? How long will the black highly skilled athlete practice.  Will they will practice each and every day, and will they do it under grueling circumstances, sick, not feeling well, or bad or sub-par conditions? Sound familiar to the parallel to slavery?  Why is practice so important to coaches, why do they want players to practice long hours and seldom give breaks and water or time off? 

When I was in college in my 1st 3 years, there was no limit to practice times and limits.  Not until my junior year in 1991 the NCAA made a mandate that a college team can only practice a certain number of hours a week.  They later had to give a day off for every so many hours per week.  For me and others it was a God send.  I remember my freshman year, opening weekend of practice.  We started Fri night 6-9pm, Sat morning 9am to 12pm -6-9pm and Sun 10am to 12pm and Sun 6-8pm and then Mon to Fri 1-3.30 , Sat 9am to 12pm and finally a day off Sunday.  I literally thought about quitting and giving up my scholarship after all those days of practice consecutively.  My legs were so sore I could not sleep or even walk or take the bus to class.  I felt sorry for the wrestlers and football players as our practices were not as hard as under Hayden Fry and Dan Gable, both legendary hard and tough coaches who believed in tough practices very hard each day. 

  Over the years there have been numerous coaches and programs that have pushed that rule and have penalized by the NCAA for overworking the players such as Brady Hoke at Michigan football and many others.  Most recently Jimbo Fisher from the Texas Tech football program received a show cause penalty in early 2020 but he also got his team ranked number 6 and to a big time bowl game that season.