FORTY MILLION DOLLAR SLAVES: The Rise,
Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete, by William C. Rhoden
(Crown Publishers, New York:2006), pp. 204-205
“I don't think people look at Michael
Jordan anymore and say he's a black superstar. They say he's a
superstar. They totally accepted him into the mainstream. Before he
got there he might have been African American, but once he arrived,
he had such a high level of acceptance that I think the description
goes away.
“[David] Falk understood the mixed
blessing of so-called racial transcendence. It's good because people
accept an individual for accomplishments, independent of ethnicity.
“It's bad because if you are 'of
color' you want that person to be a role model. It's like you finally
got a great role model and people take away his leadership by
assimilating him into the general culture.
“Depending on whom you speak with,
Jordan's life mirrors the vision Dr. King laid out in his 1963
speech, his success determined by the content of his character.
Rather than the color of his skin. But Jordan was also a dream come
true for the NBA. The challenge for the NBA as it went from a
majority white players to mostly black players was how to make a
majority-black league palatable. How to take black style and
showmanship, but somehow leave behind all of the more 'inconvenient'
features of blackness in America. How to make race visible and
invisible simultaneously.
“The answer was to have blacks act
neutral, but perform spectacularly.
“Like Mike.”
