Roy S. Johnson, AOL Black Voices columnist,
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that America's minorities have grown past the 100 million mark and make up one-third of the nation's population. This isn't much of a shocker in the sports world where minorities such as Mets GM Omar Minaya and NBA star LeBron James are calling shots on and off the field of play.
One hundred million. Now, that’s a number. It’s not quite the value of Kevin Garnett’s contract, but still, it’s a number. That’s how many people of color there are in the United States; one in three Americans are black, brown, yellow or red. We are indeed the world; we found that out this week. The U.S. Census Bureau report made national headlines, though it wasn’t exactly news.
Not to us.
We’ve seen it coming for at least a decade. We’ve also known for a while that we’d soon no longer be the ethnic clan in America. The rise of the Latino population in the U.S. hit like a tsunami, and now African Americans, leaders in the civil rights struggle, are outnumbered. Last week’s report noted that there are 44.3 million Latinos in the U.S., representing 14.8 percent of the population. Blacks stand at 40.3 million.
Our America has shifted seismically in less than a generation, and it has impacted practically every corner of society—political scheming, advertising spending, housing and neighborhoods, the local Stop & Shop. Almost everywhere, except sports. The evolution in this arena has largely played out as our parents—many of whom cried when Jackie Robinson donned a Los Angeles Dodger uniform—hoped it might.
Oh, it’s far from nirvana. Anyone who’s read my columns through the years knows I don’t shy from noting racial injustices and disparities in sports, many of which still need of rectifying. Every game has issues—on the field, in the owners’ suites and every office in between. I’m still for an African American to be elected commissioner of a major sport.
Yet we excel in every major sport, and are represented in practically every sport, no matter how niche. We’ve made uproads off the field, rising to the owner’s suite. (Well, at least one of them.) Our coaches have now won every major title, with only time served standing between them and the men recognized as the greatest coaches of their era. And black men have led teams to championships as general managers and team presidents.
The milestones left to check off are dwindling down to a precious few.
This is my last column for AOL Black Voices. Last week, I was hired as the new editor-in-chief of Men’s Fitness, a 700,000 circulation magazine that offers men the tools to achieve peak performance in every aspect of their lives, including exercise, nutrition, sports (the kind you play, not watch), health, grooming and even in the workplace. Although I’ve worked in every journalistic medium, the bulk of my years were with magazines— Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Money and especially Savoy, which I conceived and launched during my entrepreneurial tenure with Vanguarde Media. So I’m excited about the opportunity and the challenge of guiding MF. (Guess that means I’ll be in the gym more often myself!)
Don’t think I won’t be watching, though. Of course, I’ll still have opinions on the things that make us feel all we do about sports. Check out my blog, Ballers, Gamers and Scoundrels from time to time to see my rants and musings on our games.
Last week’s report was not cause for alarm. I’m not one of those folks wringing my hands at our diminishing status on America’s Ethnic List. The numbers are just numbers, and while they indeed signal a shift worth noting and watching (to ensure gains made are not lost), we should fret most over the issues and challenges we can control and resolve to overcome them. In sports that means our athletes should continue to share their blessings with those less fortunate, then better figure how to share their largess for a greater collective gains.
I’ve written about a few current and former players who are embarking on new ventures, like real estate development. Forget starting a restaurant with their name slapped above the door, these cats—Emmitt Smith, LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal among them—are building major apartment, condominium and commercial developments. Imagine what they (and others) could build together.
They should also not only speak out more in support of more post-career opportunities—if not for themselves then for those among them who want to pursue careers as coaches or in the front office—but black athletes should also be as vocal as their Latino brethren about their desire to play for black leaders. If Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez and many of the other Latino Mets can be unabashed about the impact general manager Omar Minaya’s Hispanic heritage had on their desire to come to New York, why can’t our athletes do the same?
Why is it that we are so afraid to support our own in such a manner when other groups do so freely? (Never mind. Now that’s another column.)
Finally, we should nurture the next generation of African American athletes, general managers, coaches, journalists, broadcasters, umpires, refs, pubic relations directors, marketing and sales executives. … I think you get the picture. How do we do that? Collectively and individually.
We do it collectively by pursuing excellence in whatever our field. Most of our mothers told us to remember that we were representing our family whenever we stepped out the door. We still are.
Individually, we must each find a young person or community program that attempts to fill the gaps in education and self-esteem that too often stifle our children. Listen to them. Share with them. Play with them. We all can do more than we know.
One hundred million. It’s nothing but a number. Today’s number. We should focus our time and energies on affecting tomorrow’s numbers, one at a time. The ones we can control.
