The Fourteenth Amendment (Section 1): "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside.
"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any persons within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
|
Why African Americans no longer play baseball
by Coach Dennis Butler
Several articles have been published that present various theories about the decline of the African American presence in baseball. These articles expound some very profound points but have repeatedly failed to broach the important fact that the decline of African American participation in baseball is a result of the decay of the African American community.
The degradation is multifaceted. The increased crime rate; increased number of families in which fathers do not fulfill their paternal obligations; lower standards of education achievement; and decreased standards of health all contribute to the lower number of African Americans on baseball teams of all levels.
Sound fundamental baseball skills are not created overnight. They require years of training and in most instances, an individual must be instructed from an early age. Often times, a boy’s father is his first coach. I would wager that fathers who are remiss in their paternal roles often ignore the pedagogical opportunity of being coach-dad. The absent fathers are "absent" because they are in prison; have died; simply ignore their paternal duties; are less educated so they work longer hours or multiple jobs, which robs them of their family time; or they are of poor health and are not fit enough to instruct their sons. This list is by no means exhaustive.
African Americans who do attain sufficient skills to play at the college level and beyond are sometimes deprived the opportunity to do so. At many mainstream colleges and universities with baseball programs African Americans are not given comparable opportunities. In his article, Blackout: The African American baseball player is vanishing. Does he have a future? Tom Verducci stated that a disproportionate amount of African Americans are given scholarships and the chance to play on major collegiate programs. To further his analysis, studies should be conducted to determine whether discrimination is truly at work. How many African Americans are qualified for collegiate scholarships but denied them? Are qualified African Americans willing to attend such programs but are simply denied the opportunity to take part, and if so for what reason(s)?
Also troubling is that while the major baseball programs are giving fewer opportunities to African Americans, many of the viable alternative means of receiving instruction are also leaving their doors not more but ajar. Not all Historically Black Colleges and Universities or Community Colleges (HBCUs) have baseball programs. Such schools were designed to offer African Americans the higher educational opportunities that were once broadly denied them. Whether the HBCUs without baseball programs lack such programs for political, financial, or other reasons, the common result is that more African Americans are denied collegiate level coaching.
The ramifications of this problem are not isolated to the African American community. Rather, the African American community is but a numerical term, of a considerable magnitude, in the socio-political-economical equation that is the American society. And just as litmus is a reliably accurate indicator of acidity, so too is the presence of African Americans in baseball. |
