Black sports stars have collectively achieved what they have because society presents them with few other options
Not to toot my own horn, but growing up I was quite the athlete. When the time came to select teams for dodgeball or relay races, I was often among those picked first – myself, and many of my other Black friends. In most of the schools I attended throughout my childhood, my classmates tended to be a healthy mix of all races – but at every stop, I found that Black students consistently dominated the playground.
It didn’t take long for our young, naïve minds to hypothesize – it must be in the genes, right? There were clear patterns, and the most obvious explanation for our athletic success, at least to our adolescent reasoning, was that the Black kids were simply built for it. The white kids believed it, the Black kids believed it, hell I even bought it for a while. I was young and dumb – fortunately, I have since matured.
Related: How the ‘natural talent’ myth is used as a weapon against black athletes
Related: ‘It’s only working for the white kids’: American soccer’s diversity problem
