40 million dollar slave thesis
IN his provocative, passionate, important and disturbing book — part memoir, part history, part journalism — William C. Rhoden, a sports columnist for The New York Times, builds a historical framework that both accounts for the varieties of African-American athletic experience in the past and continues to explain them today. His vision here is a little murky, but he knows too much history to feel sanguine about the one black-owned franchise in the N. In the face of these powerful arguments, I wish I did not also have to point out errors, like getting wrong the date of Plessy v. The white counterattack consisted of physical interference with black riders on the track, owners refusing to hire black jockeys and the exclusionary practices of the newly formed Jockey Club. Professional baseball had already gotten rid of Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first black major leaguer, after the season, and the turn-of-the-century cycling sensation Major Taylor left the increasingly segregated, occasionally violent world of American racing for the freer air of Paris.
Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete
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Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied.
Rhoden, black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the mul From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied.
Rhoden, black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built. Provocative and controversial, Rhoden's Forty Million Dollar Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of black athletes in the United States, from the plantation to their beginnings in nineteenth-century boxing rings and at the first Kentucky Derby to the history-making accomplishments of notable figures such as Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson, and Willie Mays.
Rhoden makes the cogent argument that black athletes' "evolution" has merely been a journey from literal plantations to today's figurative ones, in the form of collegiate and professional sports programs.
Drawing from his decades as a sportswriter, Rhoden contends that black athletes' exercise of true power is as limited today as when masters forced their slaves to race and fight. Sweeping and meticulously detailed, Forty Million Dollar Slaves is an eye-opening exploration of a metaphor we only thought we knew.
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Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Aug 15, Sean Gibson rated it really liked it. View 2 comments. Jul 29, Trish rated it liked it Shelves: america , journalism , nonfiction , sports , history , totally-unexpected , race.
This is not the book I thought it would be when I picked it out. I was expecting a book about contracts, money, recruiting, and trading. Rhodes touches on all those things, but this book is primarily a history book, drawing distant and not-explicitly-stated parallels between the slave markets at the beginning and the meat markets of college recruiting at the end.
This book is ten years old already, but because it focuses on history, it is still relevant today. I wonder if it would hold up under scrutiny. Rhodes also speaks of a fighter in the 19th Century called Molineaux, who needed to travel to Britain to pursue his sport, since whites and blacks were not allowed to fight one another in the U.
Much was made of Molineaux in London, and he was painted at least four times by leading artists of the time. Molineaux lost his historic fight with Cribb, a white contender, due to shenanigans by audience challengers which dispirited Molineaux and allowed Cribb to recover long enough to thrash him. They became valuable property for white owners. They were free to ply their trade, excel, and win, but they were still owned. The profession was elevated and black riders were replaced by whites as the purses got larger.
As the parade of sports in which blacks excelled are related, Rhoden points out the integration of sports initially occurred outside the United States: Molineaux in England, Jack Johnson in Australia, Jackie Robinson in Canada.
Rhodes recounts a catch in which Mays caught a potentially run-making hit with a basket catch below his belt buckle. But did this black style, which only accelerated in the years after Mays, ever enhance black power in the industry? Not really, Rhoden tells us. That style was sold, literally, to white corporations. What distinguishes sports from other industries is the nature of the raw materialL For the past fifty years, the prime raw resource in the sports industry has been black muscle.
There is way more discussion to be had on this subject, considering Rhoden closed up shop just as he was getting to present day. And the book is ten years old. I am sure there are others that address this topic that I have missed. We watch a lot of sports in this country. Seems to me it would be wise to own up to what it really means for athletes, for viewers, for corporations, and for corporate owners.
View 1 comment. Shelves: sports. This book is a must read especially for those among us who claim that these Million Dollar athletes should do more in the community.
While that is a valid conversation, those same people who say this, never take the time to understand the centuries old games and institutions that are at work here. Just one o This book is a must read especially for those among us who claim that these Million Dollar athletes should do more in the community. If you don't attempt to be part of the solution to the problem, then you become part of the problem. But judging by todays socially-unenlightened crop of sports icons, one might suspect that rich history of activism and advocating for the underclass to be more fairy tale than fact.
For the once-widespread dedication to hard-fought, collective advancement has been all but abandoned by the current generation of superstars, at least according to William C. Rhoden, a sportswriter for The New York Times since , concedes that most pros now make more money in one season than his childhood heroes could accumulate over the course of their entire careers. But he also argues that these financial rewards ought to translate into an even more effective advocacy bloc for African-American advancement.
Yet instead, we have entered the age of the apolitical mega-star, carefully packaged products such as Michael Jordan who Rhoden says went to great lengths to cultivate a non-threatening, ever-neutral public image. The author points out that Jordan was a ferocious competitor of unparalleled drive on the court and in the corporate world but not when it came to confronting racism. Insights such as this is what makes Forty Million Dollar Slaves a priceless and prophetic discourse on the path of blacks in sports, dividing its time between African-American history and the present-day dilemma where we find individualism, commercialism, materialism and blase attitudes celebrated at the expense of any concern about a black agenda.
Perhaps most significantly, it asks some very meaningful questions about franchise ownership, pointing out that the integration of baseball simultaneously signaled the demise of the black-owned Negro League. For while Brooklyn Dodger owner Branch Rickey has invariably been hailed for having signed Jackie Robinson, here, he is blamed for helping keep black competitors out of the big leagues, rationalizing preserving a white monopoly with There is no Negro League as far as Im concerned.
Overall, Forty Million Dollar Slaves still offers an optimistic message since thousands of black athletes are now blessed with the means to make major statements about the way their industry is run, provided they remember their roots and somehow develop the wherewithal and inclination to get involved. Nonetheless, such a salvation is not guaranteed, since as the Bible states in Proverbs Where there is no vision, the people perish. Sep 10, Nakia rated it really liked it Shelves: book-club-oakland.
Very eye opening. Though the first two chapters lagged a bit, it immediately became interesting when the book delved into the Jockey Syndrome, and how the decimation of the Negro baseball leagues became a symbol of the negative effects of integration.
I would've given it five stars if more time had been spent on Black female athletes. I Very eye opening. Instead of dedicating the smallest chapter in the book to women, it would have been a great idea to integrate us fully throughout the entire book. Nevertheless, there is a lot of great information in this one. May 08, The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears rated it really liked it Shelves: best-damn-book-ever , books-that-are-keepers , omg-read-this-book-now , author-is-my-rock-star , omg-provocative , genre-black-history , favourite-books , diversity-on-the-shelf Okay, let me get this off my chest first.
Granted, author William C. Rhoden acknowledges his lack but it doesn't excuse it, especially because his historical scholarship of Black male sports figures was so rich and detailed. Damn right, this is not only problematic but a typical narrative when it comes to documenting and acknowledging Black women's lives.
We see this erasure in mainstream feminism, and it' Okay, let me get this off my chest first. We see this erasure in mainstream feminism, and it's there in the oft-forgotten stories of the civil rights movement.
So as much as I enjoyed this book, I have to deduct a star for this erasure. Having said all that, Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete is a book that should be required reading not just for young, Black athletes, but as a historical text to supplement what so often gets left out in the story of Black people in America. I remember the brouhaha when this book arrived like a battering ram on the national consciousness.
ESPN fiercely debated some of the conclusions and some seemed rather perturbed that anyone would dare criticize the deity of Michael Jordan. It took the racial stupidity of Donald Sterling, owner of the L. Clippers to return the spotlight upon Rhoden's book and his assertion that the modern black athlete despite their millions, their shoe endorsements and big homes, is still beholden to a system that both exploits and fears their labor. Many people asked head coach Doc Rivers how he could possibly work for a man who harbored such racial animus.
And the fact that such racial animus was not unknown.
Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black lessons and contemporary cameos to illustrate Rhoden's thesis that even the best. William C. Rhoden, author Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and And whether or not you fully agree with his thesis, Rhoden does.
The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging where packaging is applicable. Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag. See details for additional description. Verified purchase: Yes Condition: New. Just read it, great book!!!
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Look Inside. Rhoden, black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built.
Equal, but Unequal
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Follow the Author
There couldn't be a better time than the present for a Hollywood studio executive, or intrepid indie film producer, to option the rights if it hasn't happened already to William C. It's not a work of fiction, so assuming a fictional scripted account based on the book is the goal, it would require some imagination. In short, New York Times sports columnist Rhoden offers a provocative, loaded assessment of the state of black athletes in America, using the cutting metaphor of the plantation to describe a present-day sports industry that's essentially defined by white ownership and black labor. From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement, black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built. He also sets his sights on athletes like Michael Jordan, who he says have abdicated their responsibility to the community with an apathy that borders on treason. The power black athletes have today is as limited as when masters forced their slaves to race and fight. The title and the notion behind it are certainly attention-getters, and I'm sure Rhoden was fully aware of that when he came up with the idea. In fact, he even admitted that his original title - the symbolic Lost Tribe Wandering - lacked punch. And Rhoden certainly doesn't pull any punches here.
On my coffee table: a new book, Forty Million Dollar Slaves, the thesis of which is that the power dynamic from the old plantations shapes sports.
