As the world revels in the pomp and circumstance of the Olympic Games in London, let’s look back at a recent statement that was made that should provoke us to deeper reflection.
Michael Johnson, in a piece that appeared in the June 30 edition of the Daily Mail, stated, “All my life I believed I became an athlete through my own determination, but it’s impossible to think that being descended from slaves hasn’t left an imprint through the generations … Difficult as it was to hear, slavery has benefited descendants like me — I believe there is a superior athletic gene in us.” Thus proving, once again, why turning to athletes to deconstruct complex social phenomena is sheer folly.
Nevertheless, the world class track legend’s foray into genetics and sociology wasn’t completely fruitless, because it set the table for a deeper look into the reasons that blacks (and other people of color) may exhibit a prowess in certain athletic fields of endeavor, while achievement in other areas may be more problematic.
There are several rather compelling (aside from genetics) and feasible reasons that illuminate the success of athletes of African descent. These dynamics not only explain black success, however, but the achievement of any athlete or individual in society.
Athletes and individuals succeed when they have easy access to needed resources
The aspiring inner-city American basketball player can usually find a court somewhere; the would-be black football player has, by-and-large, no scarcity of leagues in which to play and youngsters from the poorest areas in countries, such as the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, cut their teeth on a game called baseball.
They excel and achieve in these sports because learning the raw essentials of the game doesn’t require a boatload of money and the tools necessary are usually within reach. In our current world financial system of haves, have-nots and can’t-gets, we see, most painfully, the hard reality of what it means to not have access to the essentials of sustainable life: healthcare, food, drinkable water, viable economic options, etc. Limited and scarce resources translate into limited and scarce opportunities for success.
Athletes and individuals succeed when the rules are clear
In the middle of a specified 200-meter butterfly race, the participants don’t have to worry about the changing to the backstroke halfway through. The basketball player isn’t troubled with the thought that during the game someone will make the basket two feet taller, nor is the soccer goalie concerned with whether or not they’ll be blindfolded as they are trying to prevent a goal.
In other words, the strategies of teams may change during the course of a competition; there may even be a trick play or two, but the rules are clear and fixed. There is a reassuring certainty that win, lose or draw, it all takes place within the confines of the rules. This assurance has never been ironclad in the history of human relations, but the lack of it hits oppressed groups especially hard.
Are the rules clear when something as essential as voting is under attack? And of course, it is black, brown, immigrant and poverty-stricken populations that are most at-risk. In the middle of the game, so to speak, the rules are shifting and changing, because, maybe, just maybe, the wrong person or the wrong group of people might succeed.
Are the rules clear when we have spent millions, and indeed, billions of dollars prosecuting and/or incarcerating baseball players, maybe, guilty of using steroids (although the actual charges were lying to Congress and perjury); washed-up politicians who may have been guilty of sleazy behavior, but of no clear election fraud and non-violent offenders who pose no serious threat to society? While at the same time allowing the individuals responsible for the most expensive fraud and theft of wealth in world history to escape not only prosecution or incarceration, but even investigation?
The lack of clarity and constancy in the rules that impact who thrives and who simply just gets by (or doesn’t make it altogether), cements entire groups of people’s place in the winner’s circle or as those who, perpetually, come in last place.
Athletes and individuals succeed when the objective is understood
In soccer the objective is to get the ball in the goal; in basketball, it is to get the ball through the hoop; in football … to get the ball across the goal line. If a player doesn’t understand the objective, there’s very little chance for success. But unlike those in society who long to maintain power and control, it’s in the best interest of an athletic team or individuals of a sport to know and understand what the objectives are.
Yet, it is the ignorance of the masses that ensures the most favorable outcome to those whose agendas don’t include what’s best for society as a whole. Indeed, the last thing they want is a clearly understood and articulated objective or an objective that costs them some treasure, control or power, yet enables a great deal more of the disenfranchised across the globe an opportunity to move up in the standings.
Running or swimming faster than everyone else; having more points than the other team at the end of the game means victory. The African-American and Hispanic kid gets that; the youngsters on the streets of Kabul, San Paulo and Hebron understand that. Those understood and reinforced objectives give us greater insight to the athletic success of the descendants of slaves, than Michael Johnson’s junk science does.
Nevertheless, working harder and being more productive, provides far less security — less and less, it seems, with each passing day. There are many in these communities across America and around the globe who are throwing their hands up in frustration because they don’t understand what the objective is — and there are many in power who are perfectly fine with that.
A society can hardly be considered just or honorable if its maintenance depends on a lack of knowledge.
Athletes and individuals succeed when the playing field is level
In the Olympics, we are unlikely to find that one runner was asked to run with 10 pounds of extra weight on their back when no other runner has; we won’t see boxers asked to fight their double-fisted opponent, with one hand tied behind their backs. The legitimacy of a victory depends upon whether it was fairly achieved.
And yet, isn’t that what we are doing to the inner-city student when we tell them to achieve at the same level as those without outdated textbooks, crumbling schools and sub-standard technology?
Isn’t that what we are doing to the cotton farmer in Africa when their 21 cent a pound cotton is negated by state subsidies that guarantee a minimum price to U.S. farmers — currently about 52 cents per pound — regardless of what happens to world prices?
And, most recently, isn’t that what a certain GOP presidential candidate was saying, really saying, when he said that “cultural differences” — not the Occupation — are why the Palestinian economy struggles as Israel’s flourishes?
What a level playing field in sports means to the athlete is that (absent of any infraction) if I put the ball in the basket or the goal I score, if I catch the football in the endzone it’s a touchdown and if I hit the ball out the park in within the foul poles … it’s a homerun. And although we shouldn’t expect life to ever be that simple or reality to be that uncomplicated, the injustices that create the unlevel playing field should never go unchallenged.
Athletics, imperfect though it may be, still offers the victims of bigotry one of the most fair and objective means of success. The chords of racism and discrimination may still be more pronounced in their daily lives, but between the lines of the field and the court, the lanes of the track, it’s in the background; distant strains, you might say.
The rhythmic patter of running feet; the bass of the bouncing ball; the swish of the net is sweet justice and electric impartiality.
Until society offers a more equal access to needed resources; the righteousness of clear rules and understood objectives; and the justice of a level playing field, the disenfranchised and the disinherited of the world community will not be able to, fully, raise their arms in victory.