The ways of white folks, I mean, some white folks . . . (Langston Hughes)
Images are important. Picture this .. an arrogant White man yelling orders to Black workers.
At a university where anyone could be fired for using the word “nigger” this image still exists … he image of the white coach overseeing the black basketball team. Am I alone is having an uneasy feeling at the image of Black athletes recruited to perform for White alumni and students?
This image is terrible in today’s economy when “ordinary” Black students are struggling to compete as academic students.
The image is worse at places like the UW, largely White and Asian public schools, where the majority of Black students are here on athletic scholarships. While we claim to want “diversity” and do good things to encourage Back students to prepare for university, Black students in high school know that the UW REALLY wants them if they are tall and capable of jump shots. 
The usual responses by the UW and other state universities are not very reassuring. We are told that the athletics department works hard to assure these athletic workers succeed as students. The obvious catch 22 here is that the college athletes are admitted by standards far below “ordinary” students. Poorly prepared for the university, the Black student athlete is being paid for their services to their White fans by special tutoring services other academically needy students can not get.
The image of Blacks as hired athletes is hard to dismiss. The bad taste gets worse when I listen to recordings of the locker room at another state university, Rutgers. Listen to these sound clips from Eric L. Murdock, then director of player development for Rutgers University, about Rutgers U.’s head men’s basketball coach. Mr. Murdock asserts that Mike Rice Jr. treated players “like slaves.” “Just cracking the whip,” When a player “can’t deliver you cut his toe off like … Kunta Kinte.” Readmore at the Chronicle for Higher Education.
None of this is a surprise. The exploitation of the African American professional and college athlete has manifested for decades. The history and the cultural context of this shameful and racist exploitation has been best articulated in John Hoberman’s DARWIN’S ATHLETES; HOW SPORT HAS DAMAGED BLACK AMERICA AND ORESERVED THE MYTH OF RACE (1997). I’ve recommended Hoberman’s book for years. It is both fascinating and disturbing that in an institution of “higher” education such as the University of Washington, this purposeful or selective ignorance about racism in sports continues to prevail.
Society’s love of sports, even when it comes at the expense of institutional hypocrisy and societal racism, is reflected in internalized racist beliefs. In my view (as well as Hoberman’s, far too many African Americans themselves believe they are somehow superior with physical prowess. For instance, motor-mouth academics such as CNN political commentator Michael Eric Dyson is just as quick to defend the sports status-quo as he does the sexist and violence-prone lyrics and antics of rap artist, declaring that such black over-representations in both can be attributed to a cultural DNA exclusive to African Americans.
Moreover, for all the talk from our too few African American intellectuals, there is hardy a peep from any of them about the racial contradictions of the sports enterprises UNTIL an idiot like Rice screws-up. Recall that Bobby Knight did the same things. The pathological Rice is probably wondering why all the fuss. Unfortunately for him, he used a GAY slur just when LGBT rights had hit the front pages.
The University of Washington, along with most other colleges, recruits young Black athletes for the purpose of them making money for the Athletic Department under a banner of providing them access to an education. Any such organization worthy of being called one simply cannot sustain its educational mission when so much non-academic demand is laid on low-income young men who have led to believe opportunity for success is in sports rather than academics. Statistics already show college athletes have more of a chance of being hit by lightening than making it into those few positions in the NBA and NFL.
When have you seen any popular motion picture about the Black ACADEMIC experience? Whites have films such as THE PAPER CHASE and A BEAUTIFUL MIND, and even the sexy air-head in LEGALLY BLOND dealt with the rigorous demands of university life (law school). Blacks on the other hand are mostly depicted singing and dancing in films like SCHOOL DAZE and DRUM LINE and dope-Smoking in HOW HIGH. Other movies, such as LOVE & BASKETBALL and FINDING FORRESTER still emphasize sports. Even the much hailed movie, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (and TV program) shamefully down-played the racism in the book. To add insult to injury, THE BLIND SIDE show white southerners adopting a Black who becomes football player (why not put the kid through college?) The excellent documentary, HOOP DREAMS, was co-opted by the now fading African American movie director and basketball fanatic Spike Lee with HE GOT GAME.
Too many African Americans seem to be their own worst enemy by playing up to… or rather or down to, the racist stereotype and scenario which got Rice into trouble.