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

I thought Eddie Johnson was from rural northern Florida.

 

Lolz this is why I never responded to his comment. I don't know and I don't think he knows. So why argue or refute.



I never said black people can't, my point is that it's not common, in the inner city. This is all I'm gonna say, this kid keeps finding the most obscure exceptions.
Anyhow I don't think he understands the big picture, black athletes are a huge part of most sports with the exception of hockey, it's a culture that produces top athletes atleast relative to their 15 percent share of the total population.

P.S. I also noticed that he said there was one person who said they actually read through all 1400 posts, Let me guess he must also know a drug addict that can be trusted with money, a old person who can run like the hills, a billionaire from the hood etc.

 

Ice-hockey is what black people really don't play. Isn't it?

 

I would say Black people don't like ice-hockey the most.

They are all about basketball and american-football. Aren't they?

 

Which is why I said this site, is horrid for new people. You can't start new topic because they were already started back in the 90's and since we don't know what's been said ten years ago were not aloud to speak.

 

I donno I really ain't a stickler for content side tracking but this side is a bit beyond anything I've seen before. I like the high level of content, but it's extremely hard to navigate. Sorry but it's bloody frustrating. And for the record It was implied by someone else that I should of been reading the whole thread before commenting.

 

Yes. Imagine that. Reading. See Above
It's a nickel's worth of free advise for anyone new to this site. Someone like you.

Wait, what?
I got Tyrone Biggums on spead dial! SHAZAM!

M-kay

You mean like Jay-Z.


About Eddie Johnson, when he broke into the leauge years ago and his time with the U-17's, he was discussed about in depth on bigsoccer. So wherever he is from, born/raised in Florida, and I was thinking near Miami for some reason pardon me for being perhaps in error, however it was the place he himself spoke of that he was raised in a less than advantageous environment and with a single mom. Iirc, he mentioned it was the side of town where pro soccer players didn't grow on trees untill he worked hard at becoming one. Which is the megatheme here of black males from the U.S. blazing new paths in the pro combative arena of the beautiful game that ignorant people claim is dominated by suburban white boys.

 

Lol you acknowledge that it's a huge deal that he's broken the barrier, and then you pretend there's no barrier

 

Como say what?
GAM is an example of a guy born in'84, the '90's classes might have even more success stories around the corner. The youth that look to Freddy Adu as some older player.
The bright spot is all this with soccer's organic growth is happening in our sporting culture and we witness the successful black players like Rico who work hard to give back to the community. They will activate more and more Soccer N the Streets. The scouts/coaches can have a wider pool of urban talent, and move them quickly up the developmental ranks hopefully free of charge as revenues grow in our domestic leagues.

 

Blacks in America who play soccer learn it either in the suburbs, or from their immigrant parents/neighborhoods (suburbs or the inner-city.) Inner-city high school teams are made up almost completely of immigrants and their kids. That could be Caribbean, African, Latin American, and sometimes European.

Again, why the obsession with 7th generation African-Americans with no connection to any other country? Is it to pacify the soccer-bashers and xenophobes? Not many African-Americans care that Freddy Adu (or even Patrick Ewing and the Notorious B.I.G. for example) were immigrants or had immigrant backrounds, they excelled at what they did. The only household names among African-Americans are Pele and Adu, because the style of soccer they played. Eddie Pope and co. aren't on anyone's radar.

 

My two inner city high school teams in SW Houston were as you speak of, mostly mexicanos and guanacos with other immigrant cultures like I had a kid from Croatia, Angola, Jamaica and Dominica sprinkled in there over the years.
However I had the quarterback, two running backs, a receiver and a linebacker that were all U.S. brothas from the Hiram Clarke. The had played soccer as kids at the local Y and as well at the Jr. High. In Houston the inner city Jr. Highs have soccer but the suburban Jr. Highs do not.

 

Because it's a major issue, when they are claimed as signs of things are improving when they really are not.
Notorious BIG, Lenny kravitz, and Wclef Jean, are all prime examples of this.

 

The Angolan kid, I got him on TV, I pushed him to NCAA ball and he played a bit in MLS. Bagged a goal for Chicago iirc.
Another urban immigrant success story with MLS.

 

Just about the funniest thing I've read in a while... heard this a lot growing up. Just demonstrates that there are certain universal truisms among the varied peoples of the African diaspora, despite what we may think. Or maybe white people say that as well

This is just silly... the larger point is that you shouldn't try and extrapolate your own subjective experience onto everyone else. Put another way, just because you were able to identify with someone else outside your race doesn't mean that black American kids should automatically do, or be able to do the same. Me personally, Kenny Dalglish was my hero... which is why I became a Liverpool fan... him and dudes like Ian Rush. Then John Barnes came along, at a time when there were few black stars at English clubs... and a whole 'nother world was opened for me... say nothing of my love for 'Pool being cemented.

Not saying Barnes spurred my interest in soccer... I use it as an example to show how profound the experience can be when black kids have role models who look as they do. Your experience as a member of the "majority" group likely makes it impossible for you to relate. I dunno.

This is all well and good... but what you "find" is quite immaterial to the reality of what actually plays out in the real world.

Good point... I was very pleasantly surprised to see the Chelsea/United game on tap following football last weekend. Then I see another game scheduled. My guess is that a majority of AA's who don't have the NFL Sunday Ticket will simply tune into CBS and catch whatever game is on opposite FOX's soccer. But to the extent that it helps bring exposure to "non-traditional" markets... I'm all for it. I'll say this much, I'm a prosecutor and last summer, between cases I was running out to the lobby to catch some of the world cup games that were on. The city has a large black population and many of the victims and families of defendants, say nothing of the courthouse staff were black. A good majority were riveted to the screens... and if an African team was playing, most, from what I could tell, supported the African team by default. Not Algeria vs. the US though... and I don't remember being in court during the Ghana game, so I can't tell what that reaction was like.

 

I tend to agree with this... maybe not 100%, but up there in the 90s.

There you go... brilliantly explained.

That's okay if you haven't read every single post Chico, you still make a very valid point... it has been covered before, for sure... but still, a welcomed contribution as it supports valid points already made.

Yeah that was me. You really don't see substantive discussions like this on BS... which is why I just drop in from time to time. Easier to get my soccer fix over on the Trini site where the game is discussed in a manner that is more inherently relative to my experience... and where you can talk about aspects of the sport in a manner and to a degree that is not... embraced... here on BS.

This thread went in... so I decided to take the time and read what everyone had to say before I jumped in. It was important for me to understand not only what was said, but where people were coming from. Extreme perhaps... but not impossible. As you suggest, one can still scan each page and get a very good sense for the pulse of the discussion.

btw... that vid is very painful for me on several levels. Thanks a lot hero

Really all it takes is an inquisitive mind... some folks are happy to just breeze in and start being dismissive of legitimate concerns without fully appreciating what's being discussed... apparently.

Ridiculous... the fact that it's being offered somewhat tongue-in-cheek notwithstanding.

Exactly... but you know how some people are. Never mind the fact that our ancestors bled at the hands of the slavemasters elsewhere... if it wasn't American slavemasters then we don't fully count... lol

 

I see your point but these aren't the best examples. Robert Johnson, Chuck Berry, and Hendrix (all African-Americans) paved the way for Kravitz and every other rocker, along with most forms of contemporary music. Kool Herc (from Jamaica) was credited with starting Hip-Hop, and it's viewed the world over as an African-American art form. The majority of rappers outside New York and Florida have no Caribbean backround.

Even stranger considering this is a nation of immigrants.

I agree, partially. Tiger excels at Golf, but there still aren't many kids in the inner-city picking up gulf clubs. Michael Jordan's been mentioned several times here, and I'm sure for a reason. He brought an attractive element to the game that wasn't there before, and everyone wanted to emulate him.

 

Dang those are some old people, how they do it?

 

That soccer is played in every part of the world should be reason enough that race should not be an issue, but people keep trying to make it an issue. For what reason? With the internet, the world is just a click away, this kind of isolationist thinking, being unable to accommodate other cultures, is making us stagnant in this new world age.

 

There may not have been a deluge of black kids since Tiger Woods, but his impact has been palpable in spreading interest and increasing participation among black kids. I don't think we should focus on just black kids in the inner city, since there aren't that many inner city courses on which for them to play.

Hey, I'm with you... that race/national origin/ethnicity is even an issue at all today is lamentable. The fact remains though, that particularly as it relates to the US, we still have a very long way to go. People seem to forget that just 50 years ago blacks in certain parts of the US were treated as second-class citizens... that's one generation ago. 100 years before that and slavery was still legal in many states. We've come a long way, but still have a very long way to go. Would that we could just snap our fingers and make the vestiges of race/racism/racialism go away... but that's not the case.

 

soccer is the only sport they play in Africa

 

Rugby


But yes, your point is that soccer is by far the biggest team sport in Africa, and that is correct.

 

Black people play soccer. They play soccer like crazy in Africa.
However they don't play ice-hockey(yea yea maybe there are rare exceptions).
I bet they don't play ice-hockey in Africa.
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black americans, not africans, is the subject