Not Black and White

The NFL draft dominated the sporting news media this past week, although for months before that as well. Every player available was discussed, debated, tested and critiqued. Some of it was interesting, but the vast majority of it was overkill. Far too many nights Sports Center was talking about the only sport not being played, while good baseball was being ignored.

One conversation, though, was far deeper reaching than simply the events of this weekend’s draft. The debatably top rated quarterback in the draft, Geno Smith, received many criticisms throughout the months leading up to the draft for his work ethic, his dedication, his football IQ, and, frankly, his quality as a draft prospect altogether. This would have been the end of my interest if it wasn’t for a conversation between ESPN analysts Steven A. Smith and Skip Bayless. The two were debating the place that race has in football. Stephen A. Smith was arguing that the criticism that Geno had received, saying that such comments, which couldn’t be quantified with his statistical performance, were clearly a factor of racism. The conversation focused on the overall lack of African-American quarterbacks in the league, and that these players received far greater critical analysis than their white counterparts.

It was especially disheartening to see that this conversation came in the same month as the release of the widely acclaimed movie “42,” the story of Jackie Robinson and his quest to break the color barrier in professional sports. Over 65 years after the man’s major league debut, the league all came together to wear his jersey number to honor the great man’s work at unifying the sports world.

One man, though, is not and will not be the answer. All athletes, coaches, and fans need to demonstrate the same strength that Robinson showed. Veiled racism, like criticizing a players athletic intellect when no real factors exist, must be brought to the light. This of course is not a conversation about Geno Smith. Frankly, I have heard more than enough about Geno Smith, whether he was black, white, or any other racial background. This is an issue that plays out on far too many fields across the sports world.

At the Indiana University baseball field yesterday, I took in the first three innings of a game between my Hoosiers and the visiting Michigan Wolverines. Having experienced the Sports Center conversation earlier that week, I happened to be a little more observant of the players taking the field. Of the 20 players starting the game, all but one player from either team was as white as the Hoosiers’ home jerseys. Of course, you can’t totally tell someone’s racial background simply based on the color of their skin, but from my front row seat right next to the dugout, it would be safe to say that there was little to no ethnic diversity going on in that dugout. Now I won’t claim to know anything about the demographics of my campus, and I strongly believe that both in the sports and academic worlds the best should get the chance to play/learn, no matter what their racial background. It just strikes me as odd that a team would have such strikingly homogenous backgrounds.

Racism has become more ambient, a little better hidden. In the environments where I live, people aren’t downright outspoken about their disdain or hatred of a particular individual based on the color of their skin. But that doesn’t mean the prejudices aren’t there. In fact, they have the power to be even more debilitating to our social structure if we are unable to see them and appreciate the difficulty that they cause to our world.

Sports have always been the places where we can see the social mindset of our nation. And while the sports world continues to discuss the next barrier, the sexual orientation barrier, we can’t forget that our work with race is not finished. It won’t be finished until we no longer talk about Geno Smith as any different from Matt Barkley, with the exception of their skills on the football field.