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If you got the notes down quick enough, you learned that plantation owners would force the biggest, tallest and strongest of the enslaved to have sex, in an effort to produce future generations of free labor. One of the most despicable transgressions of a deplorable period in American history, the genetic manipulation of Black bodies by white slaveholders is wrongfully understood by many to be a major contributing factor in the athletic dominance by African Americans today — Chris Rock even had a pretty funny bit about it in his stand-up comedy special, Never Scared.
Jokes aside, this is also a ridiculous notion. Beyond the fact that it feels like a blatant injustice to even attempt to grasp at any sort of positive consequence from this brutal infringement upon human rights, the claim that ancestral breeding is the primary source of Black athletic superiority is unsubstantiated by both history and science. According to a study conducted by Oregon State zoologist Josef Uyeda, lasting evolutionary changes in a population require around a million years to occur.
So, if it is not inherent, what is the reason for perceived Black athletic superiority? While it is true that Black athletes make up the majority of more popular professional sports such as football and basketball, when one takes into account the demographics of baseball, hockey, soccer, golf, tennis, gymnastics and other professional sports, it becomes increasingly evident that what Black people actually dominate are the sports that they have access to.
Given the collective economic state of the African American community, football and basketball are simply more realistic extracurricular options for many Black families and their children. Even beyond dollars and cents, however, this idea of opportunity is the true explanation for the preeminence of the Black athlete.
Through daily microaggressions, through popular media, even through our education system, Black people are conditioned to temper our aspirations, to expect less out of life than our white counterparts. Black kids in this country are taught by society to believe that they, simply because of the color of their skin, have limited options. The fact is that, because of centuries of injustice towards African American communities, many Black kids grow up believing that their means of real upward ascension are significantly narrower than that of white kids.
Therefore, it only makes sense that we would see such a large population of Black children with a burning desire to become professional athletes — many see sports as the only way out, the only road to making something of themselves. Of course, millions of white kids grew up wanting nothing more than to play sports at the professional level too.
However, their fervor simply is no match for one of the defining characteristics of the Black experience: desperation. Redick: Is it Kevin Love? Who am I missing? Redick: I remember Rodney Stuckey, who I am fine with, we were in Detroit and he said something to me. I remember we both got a double technical. It was a long time ago. We were all good. But at the same time, if you can play, there is no race. Parsons: Being white in the NBA, there are a lot of stereotypes. Same thing with stereotypes.
But not hate. That was me on my AAU team, so I was always spotted as the shooter by other teams. You got to gain a little more respect. And, I think that gave me a lot of confidence, going up against bigger athletic guys before coming in to the NBA.
A lot of African-Americans that have found success in the league have come up from tough backgrounds or long odds to become NBA players. Was that the same the case for you? Smith: I definitely came from small-town America: Greeley, Colorado. Not too many people know where I came from. My hometown had 1, people, if that. I graduated high school with 67 people. I went to Colorado State, which is not a basketball-oriented school, either.
There were a couple AAU tournaments down near Denver. For me growing up, it was a bunch of farm kids. Fredette: Coming from a small town in upstate New York had its challenges to get noticed. I played AAU against the best with the Albany City Rocks, but going into the game college coaches had no idea who I was and mostly were there to watch other players.
Harrison [Barnes] was one of the only black guys on my high school team. Has it been hard for you to discuss the racial tension with your African-American teammates and how to react as a team to the playing of the national anthem? They were sold an American dream. They came here voluntarily. They were forced here. There are so many layers to it. I would say this with what is going on in our country, the things that Rosa Parks fought for, the things that Martin Luther King was fighting for, there has been progress.
In a way, you can make an argument that things are better. But on the other hand there are some other things where they are still starting behind the eight ball.
So there is still a lot of progress to make. The NBA is a family. We got a great group of guys that want to talk about that stuff, and I want to see change. There are a lot of bad things going on around. It is definitely a scary time, but I think we all want change. Chandler Parsons No.
I see them every day. I see us as all equal. Each person has their own individual right. Each person has their own individual right to protest. Smith: We just wanted to broadcast a sense of unity. This country is kind of broken right now. We just wanted to come together as a team no matter what race, no matter what background, no matter what religion.
Redick: The only time I felt white in a black locker room is with the Donald Sterling thing. Even when I was a kid, I was not aware.
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