by El S. Palmer

Created on: July 31, 2007

Often times the best way to respond to articles that spring from a black hole of ignorance shamelessly covered by a blanket of backwoods intellect is to be just as general and clueless and throw in my own generalizations to explain something that helps to keep racism and prejudice alive. The question "Why black athletes dominate sports (and why people are afraid to talk about it) is a debate that is fruitless because it illustrates a lack of compassion and the boldness responsible for making a difference in people's lives, rather than judging people's lives.

Why does it matter what race dominates sports? People may not be afraid to talk about it, maybe they just don't care because they are "growing up and beyond" the same racial issues that continue to bounce back and forth in this country I am a sports fan and I tend to associate with all kinds of people who love a variety of sports. They are not concerned about the skin color of the players. They are more concerned with who can run the ball and win the game, whether the players are black, white, red, purple, or orange.

In response to the comment that blacks play sports because they can't get degrees in anything else, I challenge you to take the effort you use to come up with this theory and apply it to helping young black males study in junior high and high school so they can major in something other than physical education.

Also, the next time you want to generalize the impoverished and low-income of this country, please keep this in mind: If your school has textbooks that are ten years old, if you have teachers who are severely underpaid compared to the pay rates of other teachers in the state, if the majority of the students in your class suffer from behavioral problems brought on by missing fathers, drug addicted mothers, or gang-banging siblings, if the ceiling in your classroom is collapsing, if there are 20 students to each computer, it you go to sleep with gunshots ringing, and if the police constantly ride your block, then there is a great possibility that you will work your self to death on that basketball court or football field in order to give yourself the opportunity to disassociate yourself from this life. A life where people feel as though you made the choice to be uneducated and violent and would rather live and exist as you are instead of taking the opportunity to live the life of those who can so judgmentally get on the Internet and make you seem as though you are a degenerate waste of space...

Now, go out there and help somebody.

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