For as long as I can remember the need to focus on school and the cultivation of a positive attitude has been proclaimed from the hill tops but has sadly only been embraced by a few in the trenches.

Today, it’s all about being “cool” or “hip.” It’s about presenting the right “image”, about being able to impress the girls or one’s peers. It’s about making the team, about being the coolest looking player on the basketball court or football field, the dude with the snazzy haircut or braids, or gangster style tattoo, or Fubu outfit, or pricey Nike trainers, or gold chains, or rings, or saggy pants, or sports car.

Of course girls aren’t immune, they too are enticed with “bribes” of good times and pregnancy! But it is mostly our boys – the next generation of Black men – that are in real and in some cases mortal danger. It might be an overstatement to say that sports can be seen as a new form of mental and physical slavery. But is it? It’s probably true to say that because it is attractive and associated with stardom, that sports exerts a powerful influence on our youth and that in some respects its influence is insidious.

Okay you say, let’s keep things in proper perspective. No point scare mongering right? After all it’s only a game. And can we really offload this sports thing onto the media moguls, sports magnates or fashion houses? Accepted, they do have the power and the influence but aren’t we the ones who willingly purchase their products, their services and who allow ourselves to be used?

As powerful as the media is; as seductive as the lure of instant success through Nike trainers or an NBA or NFL contract might appear, the reality is that most parents and children are not caught up by the hype or fooled by the lies. In other words, the choice is ours. And many of us have taken a stand against the enticements of sport realizing that one Michael Jordan, or Venus or Serena Williams, or Tiger Woods does not an entire generation make. Read the rest of this entry »