Racism In The Frontier Myth Video
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has pulled an allegedly racist ad Racism In The Frontier Myth.That Washington played with Jackie Robinson is a fact, so is the public campaign, fronted by Black journalist Halley Harding, that resulted in the Rams signing him.
It's also true that he first played for the Rams in the fall ofhalf a year before Robinson suited up for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The pair roomed together on the road, faced racism on and off the field, and left their short NFL careers traumatized by bigotry. Granted, the story of the NFL's reintegration is obscure compared with Robinson's epic. It makes sense for the NFL and its broadcast partner to tell Washington's story on this stage. This year Target is selling Black History Month t-shirts, and the UFC is positioning this month's fight cards, with Black athletes in main events, as a celebration of Black history. They seem less about confronting ugly history than rehabbing the Racism In The Frontier Myth image.
You have Successfully Subscribed!
And it's CBS's prerogative, since it spent big on broadcast rights and had an afternoon's worth of airtime to fill. A Washington feature, even riddled with holes, beats one more story about the bromance between Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. Washington's experience contradicts the myth that racism recedes with time. Both the NFL and big league baseball started out integrated, gradually became all-white, and then stayed segregated.
Washington wasn't the NFL's first Black player; the league's colour line was just over a Racism In The Frontier Myth old when Washington crossed it. But if you think the passive march of time cures racism, remember that activism helped get Washington signed, and that racism persisted after he arrived.
You might also enjoy these articles...
The full details of Washington's story also undermine the idea that winning, and the financial windfalls Froniter brings, are enough incentive to force pro sports teams to find the best candidates and put them in a position to succeed. We know how that story goes in Canada. Herb Carnegie flourished in the Quebec Senior League but NHL executives could never find his phone number, even as they signed his white teammates.
The only Black candidate to earn a head coaching job this cycle was David Culley, who inherits the terminally dysfunctional Houston Texans, and whose promotion we could charitably label "backhanded. Or we could note that this year's Super Bowl, with its renewed interest in Black history, played out as long-standing allegations of racial bias in the NFL's landmark concussion class-action source made headlines again. The practice, known as "race norming," was invented as a way to avoid over-diagnosing Black students as learning-disabled, correcting for the segregated, under-resourced schools they might have attended. But doctors mentioned in the ABC report complain that the practice handicaps Black patients' test scores.
It's tougher to argue NFL-related head trauma caused low scores when race norming suggests Racism In The Frontier Myth people are prone to score poorly anyway, and the uncertainty can limit Black players' access to settlement cash. The league insists it doesn't force doctors to consider race when evaluating potential settlement claims, but the ABC report points out that guidelines sent to doctors recommend a "full demographic correction" when assessing NFL retirees.
Get Daily Updates.
If the allegations sound ugly, it's because they are. At best, it's a misunderstanding between the league and doctors over the meaning of "full demographic correction," an honest mistake that disproportionately harms Black Frontire.
And at worst, the league's recommending a policy it knows will limit settlement money for Black retirees living with cognitive impairment. Either way, it's more Racism In The Frontier Myth evidence of the extent to which race, and racism still shape the modern NFL. The pre-Super Bowl feature on Washington portrayed his signing as a happy ending, but that move merely allowed Black people to enter a playing field that the facts tell us still isn't level. In he won the National Newspaper Award for "Long Shots," a serial narrative about a high school basketball team from Scarborough.
Later created, hosted and co-produced "Sportonomics," a weekly Racis series examining the business of Sport. And he spent his last two years at the Star authoring the Sports Prism initiative, a weekly feature covering the intersection of sports, race, business, politics and culture. A variety of newsletters you'll love, delivered straight to you. Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted.
By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses. Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.]
In it something is. Many thanks for the information, now I will know.