In Black and White: Race and Sports in America

In Black and White is both a metaphor for the racial divide between athletes and owners in professional sports and an apt description for the author's dry, statistical writing. Whites, not surprisingly, have a 95% ownership stake in the three major professional sports--baseball, basketball, and football--in which black athletes dominate. So while the industry superficially looks egalitarian, it can actually be a chattel existence. Shropshire, a professor at the Wharton School of Business and author of The Sports Franchise Game, considers the racial makeup of the front office personnel; the climate of the NCAA; and preconceptions about the power and prestige of a white sports agent. Shropshire is informative, factual and even anecdotal, but still awfully bland. Even when he is at his best (discussing racial myths while allowing for his personal experience as a practicing sports law attorney), the flow is entirely disrupted by the overabundance of footnotes (143 in the 25-page second chapter alone). Shropshire clearly believes that athletes by have a duty to be race men and to work for change in an industry that routinely rejects them when they have passed their prime. It's rather optimistic of him to end with the image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics as they ""bowed their heads, listened to the U.S. national anthem, and raised black-gloved fists to the sky."" But it's hard to imagine self-indulgent narcissists like Dennis Rodman or Deion Sanders standing up for anyone except themselves. Gestures are only so effective. The real question is whether high-priced athletes of today will use their money to buy into the front office. (July)