basketball or run a quick 40-meter dash. "A lot of kids will tell you they want to be like Mike," says one student, referring to the most recognized black athlete, basketball star Michael Jordan. In this context, being like Mike does not mean becoming an entrepreneur, a corporate spokesman, or a college graduate. It means being a highflying, windmill slammer of a ballplayer.(http://racerelations.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm)Faced with the historic indignities of racism and segregation, blacks came to view sports as a source of inspiration. During the early part of the century, for instance, the boxing victories of Jack Johnson and Joe Louis served as tangible proof that black men could compete against whites and win. The same held true for Jackie Robinson's entry into Major League Baseball in 1947. Black baseball fans, no matter where they lived, became instant Brooklyn Dodger loyalists. The sports arena became a battleground against white supremacy. Ironically, the victory also concerned the black middle class, which did not want sports to replace churches and schools as the major focuses of the black community. To some degree, this is what has happened since Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line. Some of the numbers are striking. More than 40 percent of pro-baseball players are now black or Latino, a figure that has come to look low compared with the National Football League, which is 65 percent black, and the National Basketball Association, which is 80 percent black. This is such that Jason Williams, a rare white star, is nicknamed "White Chocolate." (http://racerelations.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm)Whites have in some respects become sports' second-class citizens. In a surreal inversion of Robinson's era, white athletes are frequently the ones now tagged by the stereotypes of skin color. White athletes, even when they play sports dominated by blacks, are still entering an industry not only controlled by whites in ev...
