Jalen Rose's recent comments linking sports to slavery aren't new. Historians have been drawing these comparisons for decades. Here's the truth about the undeniable parallels between the two.
Over 70% of the NBA's players are Black. Most of the owners, the people at the top who control what happens in the league, are white. Sports and slavery using the same language is a tell in an industry where players lack autonomy over their careers and are expected to accept the system as is, without questioning who really benefits. In the 1960s, baseball player Curt Flood said, "A well-paid slave is, nonetheless, a slave."
Enslaved people were kidnapped, bought, and sold at the drop of a dime. In professional sports, a similar system allows players to be bought, sold, and traded. The Black athletes are the ones toiling on the field and court, sacrificing their bodies and earning a fraction of the wealth of white "owners" who retain the vast majority of profits. Sports Illustrated once estimated that 78 percent of NFL players are either bankrupt or under financial stress within two years of retirement.
The game is different, but the model exhibits the same plantation logic. The comparison between sports and slavery doesn't diminish the brutality our enslaved ancestors forcibly endured. Instead, historians' work exposes the parallels of a white-controlled power system built on the exploitation of Black labor, which the U.S. itself mirrors.
Understanding how the systems around us operate is crucial to decolonizing and building a self-determined future for ourselves. We don’t have to accept their status quo.