Written by Angie Basiouny, Photo by AJI Media
Legendary sports journalist William C. “Bill” Rhoden was talking to middle schoolers about the history of discrimination in sports when he was stunned by a question from a girl in the audience. She wanted to know who was the first white athlete to integrate the NBA.
Her naivete made him realize that history is being lost. People are forgetting the long, hard fight for athletes of color to have the same opportunities – and the same pay – as their white counterparts. It’s a history he chronicled in his 2007 bestselling book, “Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete.”
“For a whole generation of young Black kids, young people in general, there [is] no idea of the sense of struggle,” he said. “You have no idea that you have something to fight for if you have no sense of the battle.”
Rhoden shared this revelation during his recent visit to Wharton, where he was invited to give an hourlong talk on “Race and Sports.” The conversation was hosted by the Wharton Coalition for Equity and Opportunity (CEO), the Center for Africana Studies and Wharton Sports Analytics Business Initiative (WSABI).