The debate rages on!

[Mosiah]

[Bold]Why are there so many black athletes?[/bold]

The short answer: There aren’t!

http://www.theroot.com/articles/hist..._athletes.html

[Don1]

excellent article

[Mosiah]

I have often said it was easier to become a doctor than a pro athlete, repeating something I heard somewhere. Now, I have the proof!

Yet, we still want to justify the shameless trading and recruiting that goes on between schools for athletes who can help us win a coveted trophy or two. It would be bad and not so bad if such recruiting took place for students who could help the school win SCQ or a robotics competition, but have we ever heard of that? Hell no!

[Islandman]

He is right of course, but the problem is the engineers and dentists are not on ESPN Sports Center highlights every night.

Same reason people would ask "Why are so many black people arrested?"

That said, is there an over-representation of blacks in both of those scenarios compared to the general population?

For the major US pro sports, NFL,NBA,MLB the answer is yes but if you include surfing, skateboarding, golf, tennis and all those other sports the numbers would be quite different.

[Don1]

lol

Trading athletes is clearly a pet peeve of yours and MAY be a problem for a few schools.... those exporting or importing. However in the scheme of things it's a minuscule issue taking up wayyyyyyyyy too much oxygen in the education debate.

My preference is to focus on the 50% illiteracy among primary level "graduates" or the 70% of secondary schools which are poor to abysmal. The sport (non)issue has zero bearing on these fundamental problems and serves as a smelly red herring in the debate

In that environment the sports issue is an absolute sideshow
mi si yuh can't afford to pass it by..it's guaranteed to make you cry... woooiiieee mi True Blue Magic!!

[Mosiah]

He is right of course, but the problem is the engineers and dentists are not on ESPN Sports Center highlights every night.

Same reason people would ask "Why are so many black people arrested?"

That said, is there an over-representation of blacks in both of those scenarios compared to the general population?

For the major US pro sports, NFL,NBA,MLB the answer is yes but if you include surfing, skateboarding, golf, tennis and all those other sports the numbers would be quite different.

Who cares if you take up curling?! He could have included a whole slew of other jobs in his analysis as well.

So it doesn't matter if you included other sports, the point is, it is much easier to get a normal job than to become a pro athlete.

[Islandman]

It is much easier to get a normal job than to become a pro athlete.

Was that ever in doubt? I am sure even the young black kids trying desperately to go pro are aware of this. However they don't WANT a normal career because to most of them it is not "cool". Then talk to a group of young Asians or even young Asian-Americans, and far more young people will think being a young IT or engineering entrepreneur is cool and they will turn up in droves to see Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

Hence my point is, we have to address the factor of anti-intellectualism in todays young black culture and try to change that. Merely quoting figures such as Henry Gates has done is useful information but largely preaching to the choir.

[Gamma]

big pay day immediately....