“The Decline of the Black athlete” is actually an interview with a respected sports consultant Harry Edwards. The author is David Leonard, a writer that we have become rather familiar with over the semester. The article was written eight years ago in 2000, during this period Edwards proclaimed that the “golden age” of black athletics was coming to an end. After analyzing the past eight year and what has happened in sport throughout that time period I can safely say that I don’t agree with that statement.
Edwards argues that through various societal processes, that the talent pool of black althetes has begun to drop-off in performance at all levels (Highschool, College, and Professional). Jailing, academic eligibility, and just not having the funds to field teams have also contributed to the decline in black athletes according to Edwards. I must agree with Edwards in some aspects I do believe that society is changing sport and it is changing it dramatically. A perfect example that Edwards used dealt with past heavyweight boxers and the current crop of boxer as of 2000. It was a time where black boxers where galore you had heavyweights such as Ali, Frazier, George Foreman, Sonny Liston, and Larry Holmes. Now, black heavyweights are few and hard to come by; basically there’s Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson and I don’t know if you have been watching boxing lately but that’s not a good thing.
Edwards was right about the fact that the “Golden Age” of black athletes was on the declined, but what he couldn’t predict was the influx of star power that Black America was about to experience. Just imagined the list of athletes and sports that have arrived since this article was wrote in 2000. In just eight years Tiger Woods has taking over the PGA tour and is probably the best golfer of all time and he is only in his 30’s, Lebron James and Kobe Bryant compete for the title of best basketball player on the planet year in and year out, Venus and Serena Williams are still competing and winning Grand Slam Tournaments, and Candance Parker became the first player to ever win Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same season. The golden age only slowed down for a pit stop before accelerating into the 21st century.
1 comment:
I know that I disagreed with what Harry Edwards had to say when I first read this article 8 years ago. I wondered what he knew that other people were not seeing. I wonder if he could have foreseen that 8 years hence, we would be electing a Black President? There cannot be a bigger political "heavy weight" than being President of the United States!
As for boxing, I do not follow it now, but I am familiar with the history of boxing (since I teach the Sport History class). And I know that Black heavy weights have played a huge role in boxing history--not only the names you mentioned, but also Joe Louis and Jack Johnson.
I loved your conclusion: "The golden age only slowed down for a pit stop before accelerating into the 21st century."
Post a Comment