sports & race

This morning I went to a current events Sunday School class. This week's class was the story that came last week when a Golf Channel analyst suggested that the rest of the PGA Tour should "lynch" Tiger Woods in a back alley, as a strategy to catch up with the dominant Woods. Our class talked about this specific issue, this analysts subsequent suspension and whether we hold racist tendencies in our hearts. After listening to sports radio and television coverage about the incident over the course of the last week and having the conversation at church today, I am beginning to wonder if sports is the best venue for race discussion in the 21st century.

Whether you look at this incedent, the Don Imus controversy, the NBA dress code or the diminishing numbers of African-American baseball players, many of the meaningful conversations about race are happening not on CNN, but instead on ESPN. Of course this isn't anything new, Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947, when Martin Luther King Jr was 18 years old. Sports is generally ahead of the social curve in terms of opportunities for minorities in the US, likely because sports are so result driven. While sports still remains behind in front office equality, one cannot forget just last year when Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy became the first two African-American coaches in the Super Bowl.

So why is sports leading the way in the conversation? I would argue because sports in probably the most integrated part of our society. It is ironic that my church would choose to talk about this controversy, since churches are possibly the LEAST integrated part of our society. Frankly the San Diego Padres have more experience walking the road of multi-ethnicity, than your pastor probably does. Schools tend to break up by ethnicity. Businesses often segregate themselves. Sports cannot. An NFL coach who doesn't want to work with non-white players will simply not be able to win, thus will not be able to work. Period.

Are sports perfect then? Nope. Not by a long shot. Many African-American players have drawn similarities between professional sports and slavery; they make the observation that while the players make money, the mostly white owners make so much more. When these players retire, they often cannot find jobs in these same organizations that they gave their bodies for. That is not a perfect system. The last calendar year has been marred by instances of racist comments first against the Rutgers basketball team, now against Tiger Woods. The NBA is facing the challenges that come when white people decide that they do not enjoy watching players who act too "street" (ie, too black).

No, not perfect...but the conversations are happening. There is value in that right? I think so, but I also think that for Christians who claim they want to be about racial reconciliation, this is an arena that we need to be in. These conversations are happening and they are happening on a very large and very influential stage. Are we part of it? Are we, the people who proudly acknowledge the depravity of all human hearts, present when people say that some athlete doesn't have a "racist bone in their body"? Are we there when Christian athletes like Deion Sanders are mocked because they don't act like white Christians, are we there? Or, are we in our segregated churches, talking to people like us. Hey, maybe we are too busy telling people to lay down the evils of sports or mourning all Sunday widows out there.