Shuckin’ and Jivin’

This last week in both my grad classes we have had a discussion over what the Colorado Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry had said about "Afro American kids." In case you missed the controversy, DeBerry had responded to their lost to TCU by saying that they "had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did." "It just seems to me to be that way, Afro-American kids can run very well. That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me that they run extremely well." You can read the full story here. The usual responses were made, "I don't see what the big deal is" or "We are to sensitive these days." The conversations took different turns such as team mascots and crime loving Colombians but those could be for another blog, another time. The following is a collection of my responses and some of things I didn't get to say.

First, this issue brings up a larger question, "Are African-Americans better at sports, music, and dancing?" Which I asked in both my classes to both push the point and to confuse people - I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I leave that to Skybalon, "I wasn't trying to be a jerk", "sometimes people think I'm a jerk ", and " I kinda felt like a jerk" - love you man. So we explore the question, about the Ushers, Stevie Wonders, Alicia Keys, Michael Jordans, Magic Johnsons, Jim Browns, Dion Sanders (sorry if I'm dating myself, I really don't like sports), and Gregory Hines. A couple of people tried to explain that they heard of a physiological study that found that African Americans' muscles reacted faster and had a quicker recovery time than other ethnicities. I thought that this was absurd. In one class, I responded, "I heard a study that said Mexicans have stronger wrist muscles, so that is why they are so good at picking fruit." Everyone kind of starred at me. The girl next to me couldn't stand it any longer and told them I was kidding. In my other class I asked, "If this is true then why is it that African Americans make up 40% of the prison system and Latinos make up 30%? Are we simply better at committing crime?" My professor kind of went on a tangent about Columbia. I also mentioned that there are plenty of white folks who are good at sports. I also mentioned that it is popular music that African Americans are overrepresented in, and that every ethnicity has it's musical tradition.

Essentially I have come to understand that the reason why there is an overrepresentation of African Americans in sports and entertainment goes back to slavery. While African Americans were brought to this country it is arguable to say that many of the weak slaves died. In order to survive illness, cramped quarters, beatings, and familial separation was not easy. A few of the things that helped African-Americans to survive was faith in God and music/storytelling. According to a recent study of ethnicities that believe in God African-Americans outnumber other ethnicities at 94%. This is not say that this was a result because they were natural entertainers and extra religious but because of desperate times these became strong strands in African-American culture. Post slavery/Harlem renaissance most folks enjoyed watching black folks sing and dance for them but did not give them a seat next them. This can be read about in a portion of Langston Hughes's writing on "when Harlem was in vogue." Continuing to the early rock n roll and sports, it was the same deal but at this point African-Americans could sit in the back of the bus but not in the front. In early movies we have black face, where white actors would where molten cork on there face and act buffoonishly. Then, would have African Americans play these stereotypical roles which I think this still carries on until today. We like to watch African-Americans play a funny or dumb role and there seems to be a lot of the same typecasts. So, if we have a physically and socially limited group of people why is it a surprise that we see the statistics that we do? Does this also carry into other facets of society such as education and economics-you bet!

When we look at early sports and entertainment and how African Americans were able to use these things as outlets, this is away to explain why there would be a disproportionate number black folks singing, dancing, and playing sports. It's not that "they're a musical people" but the efforts to survive slavery and get ahead in society has been taken by larger white America and been labeled, sold, and welcomed it into our homes.

Some films and books to check out that cover these topic:
The Fifties by David Halberstam
Bamboozled
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
Birth of a Nation