Forty Million Dollar Slaves

See this post on a new book by William Rhoden called "Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete".

I haven't read the book. But, because I'm blogging, I feel free to rebut the author's thesis based on a third-hand review of his work. (Ain't life grand?)

In reality professional and semi-professional (college) sports is less about slavery than it is about money.

I wish professional sports was an exception to the rule. But your average corporate CEO (and team owners are just a variant of that breed) makes something like 200 times what the average line worker makes. And it's the line worker that's getting injured on the job and suffering from the slow erosion of their health, whether you're looking at the NFL, General Motors or Toll Brothers construction.

So, it's true that sports owners make a lot more money than their players. It's true that they leverage a dream factory to stay on top. But it's disingenuous to claim that this is in some way unique to the sporting world, or to say that it's more about race than it is money.

Tell me that George Steinbrenner is any different than Don King, under the skin.