Same Problems, Different Era: Have We Come Full Circle?

In the 1930s when America was still a nation far from sports integration, Black churchgoers would fret that "every Joe Louis victory would reinforce white stereotypes of the brutal warrior" (from Entine's Taboo, Ch. 24). The segregation of sports served as a point of attack for non-Whites to prove their ability to be quality competitors if only given the opportunity. African American athletes slowly began making strides within the White community, participating in competitions here and there. Slowly but surely, sports began to integrate, and with each success of an African American athlete, the hearts of countless African Americans nationwide welled with pride.

Nowadays, African Americans have sort of 'taken over' the sports world, at least in most of the mainstream sports of today. Some professional sports leagues are predominantly made up of African Americans, like the NBA. Not only are there a great amount of Black players, there is pretty much a general consensus that it is the Black players that tend to be to the most physically dominant on the court, or on the field in the NFL. But with this dominance, we seem to have come full circle and we are back to being concerned about the stereotypes that are being reinforced and perpetuated with each new Black player that gets an athletic scholarship to play ball at a University or when another player gets drafted into the NBA. Look at the pattern over time:

1930s : fear of stereotypes -> integration -> success/pride among AA's -> domination/high prevalence of AA's in professional leagues -> fear of stereotypes/exploitation : 2000s

While we have made significant strides since the 1930s as a nation, we still find ourselves in some of the same predicaments as before, contemplating what it really means to play ball as a Black athlete in America. Black players have excelled so much that it has come to the point of putting too much emphasis on sports and not enough on education. It is at this point when the "dumb jock" stereotypes are in danger of being perpetuated and when there are concerns about schools exploiting players for their talent without placing enough emphasis on preparing them for life (i.e. getting an education -- hellooooo that's why you're in school, isn't it?!)

I just had this thought while reading some of the articles posted for class, and I thought I would share. It's interesting that although we, as a nation, like to think we have distanced ourselves significantly from such eras as the 1930s, we are still fighting some of the same battles today, though perhaps in different forms.