Black People Don't Play Soccer? -- the book

I can't speak for everyone, but certainly for me having guys like Cobi Jones and Earnie Stewart playing when I was a kid made it easier for me. Not because I couldn't relate to white or Latino players or didn't like them, but because their presence disproved claims I heard constantly that blacks don't play soccer (and you get it from both sides--or at least I did).

In urban black communities when I was young, choosing to play soccer usually meant isolating yourself from your friends who played basketball or other sports. It meant venturing out of your community. That takes a lot of courage when you're young--it's easier just to want to fit in. Having black stars that have made it makes it easier for the next kid and so on to take that step. This may be tough for whites to understand because it's hard for me to think of fields that haven't been either presently or formerly dominated by whites (maybe rap?). It's not often that a white kid will be "the first white kid to do X" or "the only white kid in the school who does Y".

 

Exactly.

It's very hard for the privileged to imagine a world where they aren't the "norm" and the standard by which everything and everyone else is judged by.

And this doesn't just apply to race, by the way. It also applies to gender, class, nationality, etc.

 

I tried to do the same after receiving racial abuse in basketball, but then I realized that playing a game to prove people wrong was no reason to keep playing. Now, I can't even stand watching basketball and regret not dedicating myself solely to soccer. Not that it will ever happen, but I can't say that having a player from El Salvador on the Lakers back then, would not have changed my views, but I can certainly say that it would not even affect me in the slightest now.

 

There are a few keys thing to realize about this thread. Soccer is a game in america, and is not a competitive sport. There's no money behind it, which means a whole lot. Sure children don't care about money, but children don't drive themselves to games. The parents see it as a waste of time as they know for a fact that there kids will never get signed. When they get to high school, there's a lack of leverage within school for the sports so the girls don't dig the players. When they become adults there's no reason to play since there's no chance of getting signed.

As far as black kids it's simple. The sport is seen as a suburban sports, soccer moms have ruined the game imho. There's no high school pushing black kids, there are very few fields for inner city kids to play on, and they have zero change of knowing someone from there community who has gotten signed.

The best thing mls could do, is get a black player from brazil, a colourful person, and get him signed in black cities, like DC, or houston.
I mean the kind of guy that could get in a kanye west music video you know and be remember.

I hope the mls realizes the need for this, because the mls needs to break out of it's suburban/immigrant demographic that it currently has.

Furthermore on races in america, the need to expose black youth to over blacks around the world is key to really get their cultural rut fixed.

 

I totally disagree. That is exactly the kind of thinking that is best left in the 90's where it belonged. Kayne West? Keep that in the NBA. Not every black male is a hip-hopper.. and if you really insisted, why couldn't Donvan be in a rap video?

 

"Thug Life!"

 

@ Mik, Can you say Ricardo Clark in Toronto dialect.

Soccer viewed as a suburban white boy sport is a myth that needs to be eliminated. It's like saying blacks in the U.S. don't/can't swim. A myth that eventualy has to be erased from ignorance.

Again, our USSF is epic fail of getting the word out on just what association football is on this planet compared to the preconceived myths of what most urban and rural folks are confident in with what they think when someone says sawker.

 

Next thing your gonna tell me is that black people love hockey.

Seriously unless you grew up somewhere different than I did, soccer is dominated by either, suburban white kids, or people who's parents weren't born in america.

 

I grew up on planet Earth, where the most dominant goal scorer in soccer history is a black man.
What fuc{ing planet are you from???

 

We're talking about in america. There's a massive difference, from people that are seventh generation blacks, in contrast to people like Jozy Altidore, who isn't of the same ethnic group. Black in america, isn't about skin color and has far more to do with culture shared history etc.





To bigredfutbal. Pretty much everything I said was true in contrast to other american sports. The dream of becoming a professional athlete is simply not there in soccer when you compare to hockey football basketball and baseball. You can't even begin to compare it. I'm not saying it's gonna stay that way but that is what it is currently, it's more or less a fact.


I also think there's nothing wrong with immigrants playing soccer, nor with suburban white kids, but there's an obvious need to make a breakthrough with urban youth. There's an obvious devide, name just one seventh generation black kid who grew up in the hood. Guess what there isn't any, atleast relative to the number of football players/basketball players. There still isn't a 7th gen black in hockey as well.

 

I think also you have to be Honest soccermight not be s entertaining as the other sports here in America. Folks can talk about the lack of this and lack of that, or you can have everything and still not make a mark with some folks. America is a Big country very Big on sports. American people have pride in the Core sports and its embedded in our heritage. Soccer is on the outside looking in, even when it is make some strides in youth, and its still more benficial to foreign expats and spanish speaking immigrants. Soccer people just sometimes have to realize that you can please everybody.

 

Actually this thread is about black men and soccer and who plays the sport.
Nowhere has this discussion been limited to black men from the U.S. as the OP's book is suggesting that blacks in the U.S. need a better perspective on the reality of soccer's place in the grand scheme of things for people of color. It's a global discussion here so be specific when saying blacks. Perhaps use blacks from the U.S.
And with that said, America is in soccer terms a club team in many nations, our continent if anything. From a Spanish speaker or Portuguese speaker pov saying to them when discussing futbol, "Soy de America" will get the response from our neighbors of "So are we". But since many folks want to use it as a name for what our military and FIFA just like to call the United States, I hear ya.
Saying that suburban kids dominate soccer ought to be rethought as well. Perhaps in a bubble world but in the grand scheme of things suburban youth in the U.S. aren't owning FIFA tournaments one bit lately.
And if you want just one name, I'll give you two easy names of urban black men from our nation that have made it with pro soccer. I will again ask you if you have heard of Ricardo Clark. Or even Eddie Johnson???
There are not many let's not kid ourselves I will admit but there are men that have done it.

 

You do realize this about soccer in the usa right. Obviously there are just as many darked skinned people in the world cup compared to any other kind. From everything I said, and what most people are saying this is only about black people from the united states that have been here since before 1776. There's a massive cultural difference between them and any other people you might call black. Again this is in the soccer in a america sub form

As far as about the concept of america, in english america means the usa, the continent is north and south america, or "the america's" together. That's a pretty consistent theme in english, and we lack a grammitcal form of united statesion that other languages enjoy.

And as far as the suburban white kids owning fifa, it's taking for granted that anyone on this boards knows we don't even rank. I'm just going by the 2010 world cup team, where the majority fall into 1 of 2 groups.

 

You do realise there are 1,400 other posts on this thread before you jumped in, perhaps you can review them. It has been discussed that the OP's book is about soccer for blacks in the U.S.A. but its been understood that its rounded out with comparing our black men playing soccer compared with other nations. That's been the main theme here.

You think U.S. when someone sez America in English, right on, us on bigsoccer being soccer junkies, America is known as many things so to each their own. Just sayin' cuz my club's first ever international victory was over America sabes.

Did you look up Ricardo Clark and Eddie Johnson by chance cuz you specifically asked for them and you have preceded to avoid talking about their success stories. Both are tatted up brothas from urban U.S. cities in the Southern U.S. no less that pull a paycheck in Europe.

 

Mike Grier is the only one I can think of. It's definitely a short list.

 

first of all u must of misunderstood what i said, and what im meaning. alot of Black americans just dont think soccer is as entertaining as a sport to stick with compared to other more popular american sports, not because of the club fees, or lack of knowledge. MLS and USSF has invested more into the already soccer fans but not really exploredthe domestic consumer of the american especially black american

 

Anyone who thinks "play to play" is the only thing stopping blacks from playing soccer has their head in the sand. Football and basketball are massively popular in the black community. I predict more blacks will play if MLS passes a tipping point. Gimmicks are not going to work, it has to be a cultural shift.

 

look above your head , Black people dont play soccer?? hello. like i said they probably dont think its very entertaining compared to other sports.

 

Atleast you get that, When someone makes a general statement stating the exceptions is totally missing the point. When someone's states that it's hot in texas, please don't mention it snowed back in january

As far as breaking into the black demographic with gimmicks. I think we need to be clear that I do agree it is a gimmick but you gotta realize the intention of the gimmick. It's not to make soccer popular with urban kids. It's to break the barrier between what is perceived as black hobbies and interests and what is not. For all intents and purposes black cultural in general has a severe problem with doing anything outside of what is perceived as traditional.

P.S. yeah I only read the last 100 posts of this thread, you guys are nuts if you think most people are gonna read through 800 posts(whoops it appears there are over 1400) to make a comment, talk about turning off new people

 

Great post agreed. I personally never played soccer because I couldn't get transit to games so I understand the concept quite well. My parents never had the time for that kind of stuff, and I have to laugh when certain coaches demand the parents show up to pratices

My best guess is to press for the 5 on 5 games. It's more in tune with people that are already use to basketball. Also being able to play a game on small strips of pavement or grass, or whatever would be a great advantage.


I think also a skills exhibitions for inner cities kids would help .Getting mls stars to show off the basics to kids that can teach themselves would help alot. This again goes back to my theory you need someone who grew up in the poor parts of say brazil to really get the message to translate.

 

In one of your first posts you asked for examples and when someone delivered two prime examples of the can do type of urban male you want to tag them as exceptions. C'mon man. Yeah, exceptionaly passionate about getting paid to play soccer.
These men have earned a livelyhood for their families via pro men's soccer. It wasn't handed to them. They came up the ranks and have given a good account of themselves at both club and country levels. Blowing the myth outta the water that our nation's urban black males don't play soccer one bit or even if they do they aren't good enough to make a difference. Or some generation hard cap to qualify an individual's efforts in the sport.
Eddie Johnson began scoring goals in MLS when Dallas still played at the Cotton Bowl. He was 17 iirc. He aslo went on to bag a hat trick for the U.S. in WQC when he was like 20. His time in Euroland has been a disapointment for those of us that follow club and country results but he is exactly the case study of some urban male from Dade County getting a soccer ball dropped in his lap by some YMCA coach when he is 7 or the like and then years later he is scoring goals for the U.S. and buying his moms a new house.
With Ricardo Clark you will find another club and country veteran that has won domestic trophies and notched game winning goals on the road in WCQ.
Considering how far behind the curve our USSF is at growing the game in our urban areas, the fact that a soccer ball did indeed find its way into their lives as American black youths in the 1980's when these two gentlemen were kiddos from major U.S. cities shows where the game was apparently already establishing organic growth.
Rico is also a product of the Soccer N the Streets type of project. Which he has invested back into here in Houston and Atlanta.

Let's celebrate our nation's mythbusters for who they are. Enjoy amigo.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcGuQ6TN1gQ"]US Soccer - Yakety Series...Panama - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKEzE1R_i-c"]Ricardo Clark goal for USA 9-9-2009 - YouTube[/ame]

I donna, there was a dude that came on here and said he read the whole thread. Bake iirc. Bold character to read it all, which is a task I will admit. So perhaps you taking the time to skim over the thread is not asking a whole lot. Interesting, long threads with solid contributions from many folks are the threads that bigsoccer can brag about so it is what it is when reading is required. It's not like I asked you to cure cancer.