If the post said “exploited” by rich white men, there would at least be something to talk about. That’s true in the “used for profit” sense and we could argue about whether or not they’re being reasonably compensated. NCAA athletes don’t get reasonable compensation. But you’d have a great deal of trouble convincing me that’s the case in the NBA. Salaries in the NBA are large and have been up and up, and unlike the NFL, contracts are guaranteed.
I am not stating that the NBA is literally slavery, so I see no reason to answer these specific arguments. I am not using the term “own” literally so saying that they are not literally owned doesn’t make me rethink my position.
There’s a lot more to the history of American race relations and slavery and plantation culture than the actual legal aspects of those institutions. The point is that there is a lot about the situation that echoes the feelings of centuries if white domination and privilege. Especially on an industry in which the owners are so white and the players are so black. There’s a creepiness about it. Combine that with the occasional insight into the private attitudes if team owners and it echoes loudly through the halls of racial history.
“It’s not literally slavery” is a very weak and ultimately irrelevant answer to the concerns that these circumstances engender.
If you’re going to compare one thing to another, it’s fair to point out that there are lots of important differences between the two things. In this case the differences are so substantial that they make the whole comparison dubious. The fact that the NBA is majority-black and that ownership is majority-white is pretty much the only point that’s even similar, and even the word majority is a big difference. I understand the historical resonance of that structure, and there’s ample evidence Baylor was right about Sterling having a plantation mentality. But that’s a long way from a sensible comparison to slavery. If you want to talk about prison labor, that’s a whole other thing.
Any analogy between multimillionaire athletes and slaves is grossly offensive to victims of enslavement. It’s like a guy saying, “I feel like I’ve been raped” when he gets a bad performance review at work, or describing poor service from a deli as “a modern-day Holocaust”.
That’s just metaphor and hyperbole and it’s natural in human language. It’s silly for it to be considered offensive.
Well there are more salient similarities than that. I agree it’s a poor analogy because of the baggage there and the likelihood of misunderstanding, but I think the following things are similar in many senses.
- NBA athletes are told how to dress and what to say by the NBA
- They are required to speak to press and are punished or fined for a variety of things most people accept as basic freedoms
- They are traded and evaluated primarily on their physical prowess by mostly older White guys
- They are traded like commodities with little ability to control their circumstances
There are more, but I think you get the general point. As long as slavery is a historic precedent most can imagine with some clarity, I think the image of physically imposing Black guys valued and meticulously evaluated for their physical abilities, and being told how to walk, talk, and dress by old White guys will always seem a bit discomforting even if they are being paid a lot of money.
Cmon you make the NBA sound like it’s a craftier way to control black people.
Not at all. I don’t think any of the above, in terms of optics, is by design. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that teams, which cost a lot of money, are owned mostly by White people. It’s also not a coincidence that the disproportionately poor people who take the long shot odds of playing pro ball are Black. Again, I don’t think the analogy works for a variety of reasons, but seeing a old White guy like David Stern telling a bunch of young, Black guys to cover their tattoos and to stop dressing like a thugs is gonna rub some people the wrong way.
If a white guy or a black guy has a bunch of tattoos and dresses like a thug, more than likely they will not be hired for a decent job. Now if old white men are telling these black NBA players to show some respect by dressing in respectful attire then maybe they are doing this to have them set good examples for younger black kids.
I live in a area where a lot of black people live and these black neighborhoods are always stressing to clean up they’re neighborhoods. I seriously doubt these black neighborhoods will ever get cleaned up. I have no idea why but to keep blaming the white man is getting kinda ridiculous. Maybe by dressing in decent clothes these old white men might take these guys more seriously. Even if a old rich black guy saw some goof wearing thug attire, I’m sure he’s gonna tell the guy to take a walk too.
“Respectful attire”? What exactly does that mean?
Who exactly is blaming the White man, and why don’t you think government has a responsibility to clean up every neighborhood?
What are the characteristics of “decent” clothes? You do realize how racist you sound right?
The government has been trying to clean up black neighborhoods for years. I mean I remember years ago Chicago did this big push to clean up Cabrini Green by bringing in more cops and what do you think happened? They car bombed the cops and said they are being mistreated with police brutality. My dad was a Chicago cop and he had cop friends who were black and even they said the black neighborhoods are out of control. A lot of black people in Cabrini Green were good people but they are being controlled by gangs not the white man.
And when I say respectful attire, maybe wearing pants that show off your underwear isn’t a good idea when your at a job. There was a white guy and a black guy who did this at a job I was at and they were both told to pull they’re pants up and they both both refused. Of course they get fired but I look at these two guys like idiots while every black person starts screaming lawsuit. I hate to think I’m racist for thinking stuff like that is stupid as hell but maybe I am then.
What does any of this nonsense have to do with the NBA? It’s not even close to being okay for a group of 30 old white millionaires to be treating 400 of the world’s most elite professional athletes like they are children who need to be taught about “respectful dress.” How freaking condescending.
Oh and that “tattoos prevent you from getting good jobs” sounds a whole lot like Sterling’s plea to learn to live in a racist society.
Well, I think the people reading this can decide if you sound like a racist. BTW, did you find that documentary name yet?
That’s the other thing, I don’t hate black people but why do I have to act like black neighborhoods get a raw deal and have to keep feeling guilty for The Civil War and the 1960’s. I did grow up in a segregated part of Chicago so maybe that’s why I come off as racist. All I know is I wish the best of luck to black neighborhoods. I wish they could figure out a way to clean some of these areas up.
Noooo, I don’t think that’s it.
Yeah, there’s something else.
Oh, you mean those black neighborhoods that grew up because black people weren’t allowed to live in better parts of town? And then in the '60s when functioning black economies were bulldozed and replaced by structural hellholes like Cabrini Green that super-concentrated poverty and desperation like never before? Those neighborhoods?
And now that 500 years of discrimination and oppression have done their trick, you get to wake up one morning and decide that “I don’t hate black people so I can wash my hands of all this and why can’t black people just put it behind them and start acting like Normal people?”
No one gives a shit whether you feel guilty. Feeling guilty is not the issue.
Yeah the issue is Sterling and of course what he said is bad but let’s be honest. He’s getting banned for life not because of what he said but because if he wasn’t banned the streets of LA would be covered in blood from race riots. Yet Oprah Winfrey who want’s to buy the Clippers can say that she feels old white America needs to die before the world gets better. Both people are rich who made statements that offended people. But I doubt there will be any race riots in a white neighborhood if she buys the team.
Please, keep digging.
That’s true. If there’s anything worse than an old, terrible racist, it’s somebody who thinks old, terrible racists make the world worse.