The over exposure of sports and entertainment in our society has the potential of keeping a generation of Black children from being all they can be and it needs to be addressed now.

Just 43 years after the end of the Civil War, at the turn of the century, black people had nothing more than the freedom that came as a result of the war. However, there was one man every black person could point to as his or her hero, boxing champion Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson could legally hit a white man and get paid for it. Jack Johnson wore fur coats and fancy suits. He flashed around a lot of money… more money than most whites had. He was the champion of the entire world and could beat any man in the world. Jack Johnson had white women swarming over him. He alone, this superstar athlete, was the symbol of black power.

In the 1930’s when black men were hanged from trees on a regular basis, Joe Louis was the pride and joy of Black America. The post depression era in America hit the black community the hardest, but we had one thing no other race on earth had…the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion.

While employment prospects and affordable educational opportunities for black veterans returning home from World War II were bleak at best in the mid-1940’s, 1947 gave black America its brightest moment since emancipation…Jackie Robinson. If a black man could integrate the national pastime then surely we have arrived. Unfortunately, as far as mainstream America was concerned, we arrived as a people through an athlete not because we were human beings.

With the exception of Barack Obama, who in the history of the black race in America has ever gained more fame than black entertainers? In 1915 Bert Williams, the first great black entertainer made over 100-thousand dollars. In 1963 millions of Black Americans watched their television sets in admiring awe as Sidney Poitier became the first black man to receive an Academy Award. From Duke Ellington to the Jackson Five, to Tupac, Will Smith and Lil Wayne, entertainers have always joined athletes as the most important symbol of Black Achievement in this country; and that’s too bad.

There have always been Black Intellectuals and Black Americans who have achieved greatness in the world of academia.  The list is long and distinguished of those who during the month of February are spoken of to our children and receive token recognition for their accomplishments. They were Doctors, Lawyers, Inventors, Writers, Researchers, Business Men and Women who somehow have wrongfully and through no fault of their own, escaped the title of “Role Model”. No one today wants to know about them. Not flashy enough, not wealthy enough, not glamorous enough not cool enough, and oh God forbid…too white.

I have nothing personal against professional athletes or entertainers. They are taking advantage of niches carved out for blacks… sports and entertainment. However, they represent a major part of what is wrong with children in the black community today. Far too many of these children see nothing else that is meaningful to them. Parents, educators, and the media have failed black children miserably through the lack of adequate exposure to a wide variety of things that would stimulate a young mind.

How many black boys will fail at becoming the next Reggie Bush or LeBron James? How many will fail at becoming the next 50 Cent? What will become of all the years spent on jump shots and rhymes? What will be the payoff?  Saying, “I was trying to reach that star and follow my dreams”  will not feed them and it will not open any doors of occupational opportunity. If just a fraction of them would aspire to be another type of professional, the condition of the black community would change dramatically for the better.

Sports are a great outlet for young people. Participating in sports builds character and promotes teamwork. But unless they are one in a cazillion, even with talent, they will never have the fame and fortune of LeBron James.  The same goes for the young man standing in line for hours to pay $75 to get his rap demo heard by a parasite producer. It’s just not going to happen.

Our black children need balance in thought, balance in their habits, and a much broader view of the types of careers they can make for themselves. Our children need to dream many different dreams. They need to know they can be successful and respected as human beings for being something other than an athlete or entertainer. I often wonder how many Black boys would want to become a scientist if they were given a microscope instead of a basketball to play with.

Of course not all black children aspire to be athletes and rappers but when twenty-five black boys in the fifth grade class I observed were asked what they want to be when they grow up and seventeen respond by saying they want to be a professional athlete or rapper… that indicates to me that on a national level something is terribly wrong and it needs to be addressed soon.

Say It Loud!