A common theme in sports is the friction between team owners and players in regards to salary and race. Just recently in this past year, the NBA commissioner ordered LA Clippers Donald Sterling out of his team’s business and urging him to sell due to racist remarks. (Greg Botelho, 2014) Still in 2014, there is racial discrimination just as in the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s, even though Abe Saperstein was known as the person who had forced integration of African Americans into basketball. Abe Saperstein started the Harlem Globetrotters. The Globetrotters were an all-black team that had amazing talent. The team toured the county and many whites that came to see the Globetrotters had never had interaction with blacks. So Abe began “laying the
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The Harlem Globetrotters were a symbol of the racial discriminations and infusion going on in that time period. Hotels would not rent rooms out to blacks so they had to sleep in busses. So the Globetrotters would not beat other teams by too wide of a score, Saperstein had them clown around and introduce flashy fun antics of street basketball into the game. The crowd loved the antics and the Globetrotters began getting more of an audience because the whites loved the comedy. Some thought that all of the clowning around made blacks seem stupid and they received a lot of negative feedback during the Civil Rights era. “The players were accused of “Tomming for Abe” which was a reference to Uncle Tom and Jewish owner Abe Saperstein.” (Wikimedia Foundation, 2014) Civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson came to the defense of the Globetrotter’s and stated, “I think they’ve been a positive influence…They did not show blacks as stupid. On the contrary, they were shown as superior”. (Wikimedia Foundation, …show more content…
But the NBA did not think at the time that that was a wise move. Until the all black team, the Harlem Globetrotters beat the all-white team, The Lakers. This had NBA owners thinking that they needed to integrate black players into their white teams which would begin social change within the black community. People say that Abe Saperstein played an “instrumental role in the beginning of the civil rights movement.” (Abraham Saperstein | Online references | cyclopaedia.net). The story of the Globetrotters portrays the truths about race in America that still do happen in this day. Although, I would say it is much less today and to me it seems to be more about discriminating against those that our country illegally, but there is still some today. Without the acceptance of blacks into sports, there would still be many black men having a hard time fitting into place and would probably have gone on welfare or have lower paying jobs. It seems that blacks excel in sports and the sport industry pays very well. But there still is a division in race in basketball just like the situation with Donald Sterling and the players of the LA Clippers. Almost all major American sports teams in 2013 – with the exception of Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats – are run by white owners and in the NBA, “around 80 percent of players are African American” (Hutchinson,
The Harlem Globetrotters were a symbol of the racial discriminations and infusion going on in that time period. Hotels would not rent rooms out to blacks so they had to sleep in busses. So the Globetrotters would not beat other teams by too wide of a score, Saperstein had them clown around and introduce flashy fun antics of street basketball into the game. The crowd loved the antics and the Globetrotters began getting more of an audience because the whites loved the comedy. Some thought that all of the clowning around made blacks seem stupid and they received a lot of negative feedback during the Civil Rights era. “The players were accused of “Tomming for Abe” which was a reference to Uncle Tom and Jewish owner Abe Saperstein.” (Wikimedia Foundation, 2014) Civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson came to the defense of the Globetrotter’s and stated, “I think they’ve been a positive influence…They did not show blacks as stupid. On the contrary, they were shown as superior”. (Wikimedia Foundation, …show more content…
But the NBA did not think at the time that that was a wise move. Until the all black team, the Harlem Globetrotters beat the all-white team, The Lakers. This had NBA owners thinking that they needed to integrate black players into their white teams which would begin social change within the black community. People say that Abe Saperstein played an “instrumental role in the beginning of the civil rights movement.” (Abraham Saperstein | Online references | cyclopaedia.net). The story of the Globetrotters portrays the truths about race in America that still do happen in this day. Although, I would say it is much less today and to me it seems to be more about discriminating against those that our country illegally, but there is still some today. Without the acceptance of blacks into sports, there would still be many black men having a hard time fitting into place and would probably have gone on welfare or have lower paying jobs. It seems that blacks excel in sports and the sport industry pays very well. But there still is a division in race in basketball just like the situation with Donald Sterling and the players of the LA Clippers. Almost all major American sports teams in 2013 – with the exception of Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats – are run by white owners and in the NBA, “around 80 percent of players are African American” (Hutchinson,