MLB To Study Decline of Blacks In Game

Also, a few weeks ago a friend and I, while I visiting him in Durham, happened upon a doubleheader between two HBCUs, North Carolina Central and Bethune-Cookman. At least half the players were white.

 

Schoolyard basketball is dead too, certainly compared to 20-30 years ago.

You never ever see grade-school age kids just playing on a playground -- even in the inner cities.

They're in some gym listening to some clipboard waver scream at them for taking a 12-foot jump shot.

 

Communities also have grown more hostile to fields and courts that attract kids in unorganized play. They get frightened easily. It was pointed out to me by a neighbor, in the most racist way possible, that the reason my neighborhood basketball court has four backboards, but only two rims, none positioned to make a full court, because it would attract, um, many persons of the Negro persuasion.

 

I've noticed many of the old schoolyards where I used to play as a kid have been similarly screwed up -- one rim taken down so there are no more full courts, etc etc.

I assumed it was probably due to budget cuts or simple apathy but your explanation makes more sense.

My going-into-9th grade nephew says he has never played a game of fullcourt basketball on an outdoor court -- in his life.

 

In my very suburban town, the recreation complex has an outdoor court that is always occupied unless it's snowing. It is, however, more often occupied by young adults (postal employees especially) than by kids.

 

Does the Lapchick study provide a percentage of blacks in NASCAR?

 

A lot of this isn't about sports. It's about playing video games and other indoor activities.

And, yes, the NES and Sega Genesis existed 20-plus years ago, but they were out of the price reach for many people I knew. Now a kid can go home, turn on a relatively inexpensive computer and play scores of games without purchasing them.

I wonder how much of that is driven by the parents feeling their kid is "safer" playing video games, as opposed to being outside and not keeping an eye on them. That's a pretty misguided view, IMO, because that kind of thinking sets the stage for obesity and all other sorts of issues.

The other end of that are these traveling teams. Maybe the parents feel "safer" having the kid under the supervision of 20 adults chaperoning. Again, overkill and setting the stage for a bad trend.

 

As much as toddlers and small kids need $1,000 birthday parties. But some parents think it's necessary. Whatever.

 

I'm not sure that the video games thing is a safety thing. At least not in large part. My guess is that it has a lot to do with the fact that parents nowadays - us - grew up playing video games, as well. So it doesn't seem odd to us for our kids to be playing them. A lot of us play them, too. Or used to.

Another reason kids stay in and play them is because, well, video games nowadays - and I'm not a participant, but I can still recognize this - are fucking awesome.

 

Also, with online play, you can get your friends together, say, at age 10, without having to go to a friend's house. I know my son will be on with five or six different from friends from school.

But in the end I think video games is a pretty minor player here. The issue is much more the economics and other demands of elite ball. If you, as a parent, don't have the money, time and other means to get your kid involved, it's not going to happen. And that is true regardless of race or ethnicity.

 

Most city ball diamonds are fenced and locked when not used for organized play.

Most paved courts aren't.

 

This is a very good point. I do know some parents, though, who think their kids are safer inside. (It's short-sighted.)