After reading that headline you might wonder what this has to do with sports. On the surface, and when it comes down to the deeper sociopolitical issues, you would be correct to say that sports as little bearing on this story. However, I found something that does tie in to the world of sports.
The tiniest bit of background; Gates is a professor of African-American studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. He is one of the most renowned in his field in the entire country. Gates was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police. The full account of what happened can be read in the links I provide below.
In 1991, around the time he first became a professor at Harvard, Gates wrote a piece for Sports Illustrated. The piece was titled, “Delusions Of Grandeur: Young blacks must be taught that sports are not the only avenues of opportunity”.
In the piece, first, Gates gives us some statistics that argue that a young African American has a much better chance of becoming a lawyer or doctor than a sports star. He wrote, “..the blind pursuit of attainment in sports is having a devastating effect on our people. Imbued with a belief that our principal avenue to fame and profit is through sport, and seduced by a win-at-any-cost system that corrupts even elementary school students, far too many black kids treat basketball courts and football fields as if they were classrooms in an alternative school system. “O.K., I flunked English,” a young athlete will say. “But I got an A plus in slam-dunking.”
Gates was arrested at his Cambridge home after becoming 'disorderly'
I feel as though this was very much forward thinking in 1991. Of course, I was all of 6 or so when Gates penned this so I am not sure on what scale this was being discussed. Unfortunately though, I think the piece is just as relevant today as it was back then. Maybe more.
The worship of the American athlete is a syndrome that goes beyond the African-American point of view which Professor Gates shows us. It’s nothing new as Gates points out and it is something that is never going away. In fact in this day of the omniscient media that is everywhere, it is only going to get worse.
In the words of Charles Barkley: “I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.” In the perfect world Barkley is correct. Of course kids will want to emulate what pro athletes do on the court. That is where these athletes can often can do no wrong. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean these same pro athletes should be a model as a person, friend or father. It is drawing this distinction that has become ever so hard with the unimagined access that we have into the lives of athletes in the limelight.
Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home [Boston Globe]
Henry Louis Gates arrest: it’s never a good idea to get angry with the police [Guardian]
Delusions Of Grandeur [SI Vault]
We have three observations about the Harvard professor incident:
1. We find it interesting that the fact that this was the professor’s home was evidently not established early on way before the dispute escalated;
2. We find it fascinating that the versions of two members of society, who most would ordinarily view as responsible and honest citizens (this obviously does not include politicians), would vary so dramatically from a factual point of view.
3. Finally, considering that the reading and viewing public were not present at the scene (and thus have no first hand knowledge), and that there is no video tape to our knowledge of the sequence of events and what was said, how so many have formed conclusions, and made assumptions, about who did what and who was wrong.
There are some things which Professor Gates might have considered upon the arrival of the police, no matter how incensed he may have been.
This professor, from what I have seen, has always had a chip on his shoulder towards white people. He would love to make the slavery issue TOTALLY the white peoples’ burden; and ignor the historical fact, that it was, and is, the black African culture that initially and PRIMARILY cultivated the racially organized slavery era. The blacks basically did it to themselves (just look at how they’re into ‘personality’ and ‘idol’ worship). But “the good professor” could never admit to that; otherwise how could he continue his ‘upperly mobile’ lifestyle… The proud ancestor of a house bleep-er.