Like Blacks after Slavery

In the South in the decades following slavery, everyone appreciated that blacks were denied the opportunity to fully compete in the economic marketplace and denied the full value of their labor. That system was allowed to carry on, however, because it harmed blacks, a politically disfavored race.  Racism, that is, allowed the system to stay in place.

Something very similar is occurring in college sports.  Everyone (almost everyone?) appreciates that the so-called “student athlete” is likewise denied the opportunity to fully compete in the economic marketplace and  denied the full value of their labor.  But this system is allowed to carry on because it supposedly benefits college athletes.  Paternalism towards “student athletes,” that is, allows the system to stay in place.  The South purposefully used anti-black bigotry to protect their exploitation much the same way the NCAA is purposefully using paternalism.

A lot of the tools of exploitation between the two systems is, moreover, eerily similar as my chart indicates (I can’t prove that the NCAA actually looked to the Jim Crow south for ideas but I will be investigating that for sure).

 

Blacks	College Athletes
Anti-Enticement Statutes- employers not allowed to hire another employer's workers away.  This inhibits blacks in hunting for better employment opportunities.	Other schools  can’t poach student after he/she already signs with another school.  This inhibits college athletes in hunting for better employment opportunities.
Emigrant Agent Laws- agents not allowed to recruit labor for out of state jobs or out of   local area jobs.	College athletes cannot have agents search for economic opportunities on their behalf.
Blacks are denied  due process by biased judges, unavailable courts, etc.	College athletes do not have due process rights/ can't appeal unfavorable NCAA rulings
Blacks don't have  legal tools to remedy deceit by employer (black wage workers were often not given wages,  black sharecroppers were often lied to about about how much their crops were worth, etc.)	College athletes don't have legal tools to remedy deceit by coaches.  In high school, kids are made promises about how much playing time they will get,  being able to play certain positions, etc. that often turn out to be false.
Licensing laws: can only work in certain professions if one has a license.  Licenses were often denied to blacks.	Can't sign one's   own name or sale one's own jersey, etc. That is, have skill, can't make money   off it, because they don't have the professional designation (not sure this   is convincing)
Contract   Enforcement Laws: go through w/ agricultural labor contract or face punishment (jail).  Southern states made laws to force completion of a contract.	Contract   Enforcement NCAA rules: go through w/ contract or face punishment (sit out a   year).  Can only transfer to a particular school if coach/school allows   it.  Don’t play, lose your scholarship.    NCAA rules essentially compels service.   Schools, however,   can deny students scholarship after each year. And coaches can leave whenever   they want and take whatever job they want.
Can't vote/ Can't   participate in the making of rules/ Lack of due process	Can't participate   in the making of rules/ No due process
Share cropping,   tenancy, wage earners = largely poor	Tuition,   books, room and board = largely poor
White Solidarity   & Collusion to hold down black wages --> increase their own profits   and solidify white supremacy	School solidarity   & Collusion to limit the money given to amateurs --> increase their   own profits and solidify the dominant position of their schools
One Party   Dominance --> Southern Democrats	NCAA
Both learning   marketable skill/ agricultural skills but not able to profit much from them   at the time.  Blacks - Agricultural	Sports/education
Largely denied   access to unions	Can’t unionize

Also, I think critics of the NCAA should discard the slavery analogy. So, in full,  in my new book project Like Blacks after Slavery: How the NCAA Reproduced the Economic Exploitation of the Jim Crow South (still not sure about that title) I want get rid of the slavery analogy and offer up a much better one:  NCAA = the Jim Crow South’s economic regulation of blacks.

Surprisingly, no one has made this argument before as far as I can tell. And I’ve been doing a lot of research into it.

Comments

[Confused]

Is this parody? Sometimes humor doesn't translate well on the internet. If it is parody, I must be missing the joke?

[blackprof]

Noone has made the argument before because it is likely deemed insensitive in some eyes and offensive in others. And at least the students get a true education for their "voluntary" labor.

[Joachim]

In fairness to the poster, the comparison is not between slavery and NCAA, but post-slavery Jim Crow and the NCAA. Nevertheless, I do not think it works without much more analysis. Agricultural work, 1877-1940, was about the only realistic opportunity, except moving North, which was itself legally restricted. College athletes can do a lot of other things, such as, for instance, just going to school, working somewhere else in a non-athletic capacity or joining a minor professional league. I think the comparison is more like to associates in law firms or analysts in investment banks, who are compensated enough to make them do the job voluntarily, in part for the opportunity for a larger payday in the unlikely event that their status changes, but not enough so they get the lion's share of the reward right now. But if they were paid the lion's share of the surplus right now, there would be no big time college athletics. No great loss, in my book. But it is not clear that abolition would improve things for the college athletes.

[Black Law Grad]

How is what the NCAA does to people of color different than what law schools do to people of color? Law schools use reverse robin hood scholarships to move up in us news with minorities and the poor paying higher tuition to make those scholarships possible. Law schools recruit minority students they know will never pass the bar or get jobs so that they can fill seats. Law schools fool people of color to take out loans when they know most of the students will never be able to pay them back. Law schools are exploiting minorities worse than the NCAA. At least the student athletes are not way in debt when school is over.

[Martha M.]

Today's law schools=the Jim Crow South’s economic regulation of blacks.

[Eric Muller]

Don't forget the opportunity for higher education, which is common to both systems except Jim Crow.

[Barry]

Joachim:

"College athletes can do a lot of other things, such as, for instance, just going to school, working somewhere else in a non-athletic capacity or joining a minor professional league. "

So could blacks under Jim Crow. They could move to other states (legally or illegally), live waaaaaay out in the woods, etc.

In the end, people were quite systematically screwed over, for profit, with specious and fraudulent justifications given.