Introduction
One of the biggest problems in the domain of American journalism has to do with the journalists’ weakening ability to identify properly the cause-effect subtleties of a particular social issue that they expound upon. As a result, it is only on rare occasions that the journalistic pieces in question contain any practical suggestions as to how the concerned issue should be dealt with. The 2019 article It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges (by Jemele Hill) stands out as a perfect example in this regard. After all, despite having succeeded at outlining the problem with the ongoing exploitation of Black athletes by the predominantly White colleges and universities, the author has failed at identifying the phenomenon’s discursive significance. In its turn, this goes to undermine the actual workability of the suggested solutions to addressing the problem on the author’s part. This critical essay will explore the validity of the above-stated at length.
Critical review
The main idea that it is being promoted throughout the article’s entirety is that the country’s White-Protestant elites continue to take practical advantage of the Black people’s socially underprivileged status. Specifically, the predominantly White college and universities make a point in providing different enrollment incentives to only those Black applicants who have what it takes to prove an asset to the on-campus football or basketball teams. When assessed from the analytical perspective, such a situation will indeed appear suggestive of the ongoing commercial exploitation of the most physically talented Black students in this country. As Hill aptly noted: “Black athletes have attracted money and attention to the predominantly white universities that showcase them” (5). According to the author, this raises a certain doubt about the full appropriateness of the currently enacted educational policies in the US.
Hill goes to illustrate her argumentative stance with respect to Kayvon Thibodeaux: one of the most famed high-school football players in the US. Even though Kayvon initially considered enrolling in Florida A&M University (listed as a “Historically Black College and/or University,” HBCU), he nevertheless ended up choosing in favor of the University of Oregon, known for the disproportionally small number of Black students that study there. The reason behind his decision, in this regard, was purely practical: while affiliated with the University of Oregon, it will be much likelier for Kayvon to succeed in pursuing the career of a highly sought-for football player in the 1st Division.
As the person had put it: “Nobody wants to eat McDonald’s when you can get filet mignon” (3). According to the author, there is another commonly overlooked negative effect to the trend in question: by deciding to enroll in the traditionally White places of higher learning, Black athletes indirectly contribute towards the ongoing functional deterioration of more and more HBCUs. The described situation’s long-term effect is obvious: the eventual closing of the economically “non-efficient” HBCUs will result in undermining the socio-economic status of African-Americans in this country. After all, “In a country where the racial wealth gap remains enormous… institutions that nurture a black middle class are crucial” (Hill 6).
The earlier outlined considerations have brought the author to conclude that the “flight” of talented Black athletes to predominantly White colleges and universities can no longer be deemed tolerable and that the time has come for the situation to be addressed once and for all.
As one can infer from the article’s context, Hill believes that there are two effective and mutually complementary approaches to putting an end to the concerned “flight.” These are rising public awareness about the practice’s unethical aspects and encouraging Black athletes to take into account the community’s interests while making their educational choices. The author appears to be especially fond of the second approach as the most logical one. After all, according to her, most Black students are naturally predisposed to adhere to the value of racial solidarity.
This, in turn, is supposed to help them substantially within the context of how they go about trying to adopt a socially responsible stance on the issues of personal relevance. Essentially, Hill suggests that it is namely their endowment with the sense of ethnocultural solidary that should guide the educational choices of the most physically gifted young African-Americans, especially given the fact that many of them are personally acquainted with each other. As the author argued: “Many of the top high-school (Black) players, especially in basketball, know one another… they could redraw the landscape of college basketball” (Hill 26). Hill concludes her article by stressing out once again that the realities of contemporary living in America call for the enactment of the educational policy that would provide a viable solution to the issue.
Nevertheless, even though Hill’s article indeed contains a number of valuable insights into what accounts for the driving forces behind the discussed phenomenon, it can hardly be deemed particularly enlightening. Probably the most evident reason for this is that, while describing the “flight” of Black athletes from HBCUs, the author did not take into consideration the highly systemic nature of the issue. Subsequently, this prevented Hill from properly placing the article’s discursive accents. It is understood, of course, that the practice of “buying off” Black football and basketball players by the “White” colleges and universities is strongly unethical.
However, contrary to how it is being done in Hill’s article, it is wrong addressing the described situation as such that represents the value of a “thing in itself.” Apparently, it never occurred to the author that the discussed problem derives from a far larger problem of the ongoing commercialization of just about all the aspects of American society’s functioning. Hence, the article’s main weakness: it does not expose the objective preconditions behind the problem’s initial formation. Yes, it is regrettable that many prestigious colleges and universities in America consider it perfectly appropriate to exploit Black athletes as a part of pursuing their corporate/institutional agenda. What is even more regrettable, however, is that the operational principles of the American education system have been commercialized to the extent of becoming hardly distinguishable from those of the country’s entertainment industry.
Because in the reviewer’s opinion, It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges represents the example of a rather intellectually shallow investigative effort, it is not very surprising that the suggested solution, on the author’s part, can hardly be deemed workable. As it was mentioned earlier, Hill believes that it will prove possible for the most gifted young Black athletes to be naturally drawn to the prospect of studying in HBCUs. Provided, of course, they have been properly informed about the communal benefits of their would-be decision to enroll in a particular HBUC.
Nevertheless, for those aware of the basic technical specifics of how the human brain assesses the surrounding social/natural environment and addresses different cognitive challenges, such a belief will appear very naïve, to say the least. The reason for this is that, contrary to what Hill would like us to assume, there is nothing “intrinsic” about the Black people’s sense of existential self-identity and its presumed effects on how they position themselves in real-life situations. Yes, it is the truth that many African-Americans indeed tend to take the virtue of racial solidarity much too close to their hearts. This, however, is not because they have been predetermined to act in such a manner by the specifics of their ethnocultural/racial affiliation, but because of these people’s socially underprivileged status. After all, sociologists are well aware that for as long as the representatives of the economically/socially marginalized populations are concerned, their ability to assess life challenges from the strongly communal standpoint is best seen as yet another tool that helps these people to resist the pressures of the essentially Eurocentric American society.
In other words, one will only be naturally prompted to think of its race and its sense of self-identity as being inseparably united, for as long as there is the objective reason for him or her to act in such a manner. By proving themselves thoroughly loyal to the Black community, impoverished African-Americans rightly expect to receive many communal (but perfectly tangible) benefits in return. However, once a particular Black person manages to escape from the clutches of poverty, it becomes only a matter of time before the sense of racial belonging in him will weaken to the point of non-existence. In this regard, African-Americans are no unique. The statistically proven facts that the most long-lasting alliances between people are always interest-based and largely irrespective of the involved individuals’ racial/cultural specifics illustrate the full validity of this suggestion. People can differ in their attitudes towards life, but they are perfectly united in their love of money.
What this means is that there is indeed very little rationale in expecting that, once educated about the importance of contributing to the well-being of HBCUs, Black athletes will suddenly reconsider their decision to enroll in the White-dominated places of learning. Let us not forget, most of the Black famous high-school football and basketball players consist of financially established individuals whose professional careers directly depend on whether they will be able to continue drawing public attention to their sporting accomplishments or not. This alone presupposes that the most promising young Black athletes are innately prompted to place class above race: something that in turn makes them quite indifferent toward the virtues of racial solidarity. As Kayvon noted: “In this day and age, it’s about money” (Hill par. 17). Therefore, there are indeed more than enough reasons to doubt the systemic soundness of the line of reasoning deployed by Hill in her article.
Conclusion
In light of what has been said earlier, the paper’s initial thesis appears thoroughly legitimate. After all, Hill’s article is indeed best described as being highly informative, on the one hand, and yet rather intellectually misleading, on the other. Nevertheless, the author still needs to be given credit for having revealed many of the previously overlooked aspects of the discussed issue. Because of it, Hill’s should be recommended for reading by just about anyone interested in learning more about the current dynamics in the domain of college sports in America.
Work Cited
Hill, Jemele. “It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges.”The Atlantic, Web.