The myth of human races

6. You Cannot Judge a Book by its Cover

Chapter 6 You CANNOT JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER Like most Americans who were white, I did not know what a black athlete was like. I just assumed they were not good enough for the big leagues. I had heard the talk, you know, that if you threw at them, they backed down. Pee Wee Reese This is what Pee Wee Reese said! when he learned that, on August 28, 1945, Jackie Robinson had signed a contract with Branch Rickey, which led him two years later to be the first black to play major league baseball. Reese, like most "white" people at the time, believed that "blacks" were athletically inferior to them. Sure, they could box, so the argument went. After all, there was Joe Louis, the "Brown Bomber." They could play baseball, there were "colored" baseball teams; but they were not as good as "whites". They could play basketball ; after all, there were the Harlem Globetrotters, but, though they were excellent, they were better known as clowns. Since no black face was ever seen in professional tennis matches, in ice arenas, or in swimming competitions, it was assumed that "blacks" could not master these sports. Many white people also believed that blacks could not fly airplanes. This assumption was severely challenged when Eleanor Roosevelt took a plane ride with a "Negro" pilot during World War II. The subsequent experiences of the now-famous Tuskegee Airmen debunked this piece of mythology. The history of sports in the United States since the 1930s clearly demonstrates that the assumption that "non-whites" were inferior in sports was unfounded. The breakthrough in track and field really began during the 1936 Olympics, when Jesse Owens broke world records in the lOa-meter and 200-meter dashes and the broad jump. Owens, a 49 50 Alain Corcos triple gold medalist, did more. He destroyed the Nazi myth that the "tall, blond, blue-eyed Aryans" were supermen.2 In the 1950s the "color barrier" also was broken in professional basketball when Walter Brown drafted Chuck Cooper to play for the Boston Celtics.3 The color barrier in football was finally broken in the 1960s, although it is true that as early as 1899, several "black" athletes played college football at the University of Massachusetts and at the University of Michigan. These instances, however, were exceptions. For years southern college teams refused to play their northern teams with integrated squads. Usually, black players were benched when their schools played in the South. Such policies frequently resulted in defeats. A major change came with the end of World War II, when a wave of blacks came into American colleges with benefits from the GI Bill. Many of them played sports. College football was definitely integrated. It took more time for professional football to do the same. The fact that, today, "black" athletes dominate professional basketball, has led many critics to reverse their opinions about black athletic ability . Sports commentators, such as Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder, have declared without proof that blacks are genetically better basketball players than whites. The trouble with this type of reasoning is that, since only "white" faces were seen in ice skating events, tennis matches, or in swimming and golf (that is, until recently), many people were led to conclude that, in these sports at least, white athletes were superior. However, it is hard to believe that, even if they did exist, that black athletic genes would function better in some sports than in others. The truth is that blacks dominate basketball not because they are taller, have bigger hands, jump higher, or run faster than whites, but because of a whole series of complex social and economic reasons. Baseball, basketball , and football are professional sports that are financially rewarding; swimming is not. And though today professional golf and skating are rewarding, it costs a lot of money to become proficient in them. Hence for years only affluent whites could afford to pay for the years of trainlllg necessary. Jimmy the Greek had an explanation for the fact that there were no "blacks" in swimming competitions. According to him, the bone density of blacks is greater than that of whites and because of this, blacks were not "buoyant enough." The trouble with his explanation is that the difference in bone buoyancy between blacks and whites is far too slight, if it exists at all, to make any difference. Of course athletic ability is not dependent on the color of one's skin, the...