David Marshall: Black athletes are Black men and women first

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—During a recent Fox Sports pregame show appearance, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson was asked about his return to Birmingham, Alabama’s Rickwood Field, where he played 114 games in the minor leagues. His powerful response was a stark reminder of how sports, as a social institution, is not immune to the darkest side of bigotry. To appreciate Jackson’s response, we must remind ourselves of the simplicity of sports in general and the complexity of sports when it is intertwined with a community’s prevailing social order, defined as the tendency of a social institution to resist or regulate change.Sports plays a significant role in shaping an individual’s personal growth. In addition to the benefits of physical fitness, sports are instrumental in building a person’s character, developing strategic and analytical thinking, leadership skills, risk-taking, becoming self-disciplined, and making personal sacrifices. With sports comes the type of social interaction where the concepts of teamwork, unity, brotherhood, and camaraderie are molded, shaped, and refined. It was the brotherhood and camaraderie from teammates that made it possible for Jackson, as a Black professional athlete, to endure the onslaught of racism in the Deep South. Jackson said, “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.At...