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| Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete | 
 enlarge | Author: William C. Rhoden
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $7.71
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 69524
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0307353141
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.08996073
EAN: 9780307353146
ASIN: 0307353141
Publication Date: July 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement, says New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built.
Provocative and controversial, Rhoden’s $40 Million Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of black athletes in the United States, from the plantation to their beginnings in nineteenth-century boxing rings and at the first Kentucky Derby to the history-making accomplishments of notable figures such as Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson, and Willie Mays. Rhoden makes the cogent argument that black athletes’ “evolution” has merely been a journey from literal plantations—where sports were introduced as diversions to quell revolutionary stirrings—to today’s figurative ones, in the form of collegiate and professional sports programs. Weaving in his own experiences growing up on Chicago’s South Side, playing college football for an all-black university, and his decades as a sportswriter, Rhoden contends that black athletes’ exercise of true power is as limited today as when masters forced their slaves to race and fight. The primary difference is, today’s shackles are often of their own making.
Every advance made by black athletes, Rhoden explains, has been met with a knee-jerk backlash—one example being Major League Baseball’s integration of the sport, which stripped the black-controlled Negro League of its talent and left it to founder. He details the “conveyor belt” that brings kids from inner cities and small towns to big-time programs, where they’re cut off from their roots and exploited by team owners, sports agents, and the media. He also sets his sights on athletes like Michael Jordan, who he says have abdicated their responsibility to the community with an apathy that borders on treason.
Sweeping and meticulously detailed, $40 Million Slaves is an eye-opening exploration of a metaphor we only thought we knew.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 The Paradox of the "Slave Athletic Celebrity" July 17, 2006
53 out of 58 found this review helpful
Rhoden's aim in this finely written and very readable screed is to explore the African American star athlete's paradoxical dilemma: On one hand, he is worshipped for his athletic prowess and is lavished with millions of dollars. On the other hand, he is beholden to white team owners, white league administrators, and as such is limited to the role of a super-paid lackey.
Some reviewers object to the slavery analogy and the exodus from the plantation to the Promised Land that is heavily used in Rhoden's argument. But Rhoden is correct to point out that the slavery is both spiritual and power-based. Spiritual because too many African American athletes, Rhoden charges, are so busy micromanaging their careers that they have no sense of the broader context, of African American history (one star athlete was shocked with disbelief when he discovered that blacks were once banned from Major League Baseball). Power-based because too many blacks are relegated to "black" roles and forget the larger mission of making more opportunities for blacks in positions of privilege.
Whether or not you agree with Rhoden's analogy, I would argue that the book is nevertheless very readable and entertaining, giving us powerful narratives of how black men, starting with the emancipated slave fighter Tom Molineaux, left America to fight the English champion Tom Cribb and showed whites that blacks' athletic performance defied stereotypes about being dense, ignorant, maladroit, etc. By studying Molineaux, Ali, and other African American greats, Rhoden shows how black athletes who see themselves as symbols of black power help forge the way for other black athletes.
On a personal note, Rhoden, an African American, explains in his own life growing up in Chigaco in the 1950s and 1960s, that sports are a great avenue for learning about race and American history. I am no exception. As a child, I loved Hank Aaron and one day as I read about the way he was bullied and denied white restaurants and hotels, I got a bitter taste of what this country was like for people of color and contemplated the hideous color divide.
Sports is a powerful metaphorical arena for talking about race and Rhoden has done an exemplary job of developing that metaphor in a book that is always engaging and provocative.
 Degrading to those who actually endured slavery. July 16, 2006
44 out of 76 found this review helpful
Although I am somewhat of a sports fan, and certainly an avid reader, $40 MILLION DOLLAR SLAVES: THE RISE, FALL AND REDEMPTION OF THE BLACK ATHELETE by William Rhoden, is not the kind of book I would ordinarily read, but after hearing about the last 3 minutes worth of debate centered around the book on a sports talk show, it caught my attention. The book is fairly well written, and does accurately credit the advent of black athletes in professional sports, ala Jackie Robinson, with having an enormous impact on civil rights evolution. Rhoden also gives an accurate accounting of the difficulties early black athletes endured making the transition into predominately white professional sports.
That's all well and good and has earned the author two stars in my book. This would have scored higher had it been a rendering of the history of black athletes in America, but the author's liberty in comparing professional athletes to slavery is beyond absurd and is demeaning to generations of blacks who endured the callous, degrading and insufferable institution of slavery. Let's look at the facts here, shall we? Most professional black athletes are privilege to four years of free college education, because of their God given talent. This is an opportunity few people of any race are afforded, and certainly no slaves were ever afforded this luxury. They are then given the utmost in medical attention. Only a miniscule handful of actual slaves ever had the benefit of actually seeing a real doctor just one time in their lives. They retire to labor union pensions amounting to more money annually than most Americans will make in their lifetimes. Sorry, but the Cotton Picker's Union of America never existed!
This whole thing just rubs me the wrong way. Athletes are spoiled rotten. If they don't appreciate the opportunities they are given, and many of them don't, then they are welcome to walk away from it and try earning a living and supporting their families like the rest of the world. Rhoden attempted to show his great compassion for black America by making a politically correct analogy and failed miserably. In the end, his insulting comparison will do far more harm to black athletes than it will do them good by portraying them as being self absorbed and filled with self pity for their `exploitation' in life. Sit down and shut up! There are thousands more black athletes, perhaps not quite as gifted, who would gladly take your place and be treated like slaves.
Challenge Your Views July 24, 2006
30 out of 43 found this review helpful
For those in the media who have written about the book, commented on its contents or have interviewed William C. Rhoden:
1. Did you read the book or the brief excerpts that are typically part of the release sent to possible reviewers?
2. To "stimulate" debate - especially on talk radio - have you simply joked about the book's title in hopes of getting a few callers before the top of the hour news, weather and traffic report?
3. Did you give Mr. Rhoden time to discuss portions of the book or did you simply attempt to debate him based on your ignorance on the contents of the book?
I stongly urge those interested in African American heritage to read Forty Million Dollar Slaves. In under 300 pages, Rhoden packages a wealth of material based on his research, interviews and - importantly - as a black man who came of age during the Black Power movement of the 1960s.
Will every reader agree with Rhoden's historical outlook on the plight of the African American athlete in the white-dominated power structure? No. But it just may be the first time for the reader to be challenged concerning the "conventional" views on race & sports.
Until America confronts the ramifications of slavery, it can never truly be free from the sordid past and the rewriting of history that plagues education today. Rhoden lays down the challenge....and the truth isn't the neat package the mainstream media loves to recite.
The NBA as a Metaphor for the Plantation? Difference is They Get Paid Millions February 28, 2007
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete
by journalist William C. Rhoden gives a no-holds barred, unadulterated low-down about highly paid black athletes and the juxtaposition of slavery. How did Rhoden come to the conclusion that most Black athletes are highly paid slaves? He starts off methodically detailing the history of African Americans sports dating back to the plantation when slaves were a commodity; property to be used for entertainment as well as labor. Plantation owners would stage fights between slaves from different plantations as weekend amusement. Slaves also became jockeys to plantation owners who owned horses. This became a lucrative business and Black jockeys earned huge payoffs for their owners as well as for themselves on into Reconstruction and into the early 1900s. Blacks dominated horse racing but they were literally squeezed out of the market by greed, jealousy and blatant racism.
Rhoden also details the rise and fall of the Negro Leagues and the tragedy of Arthur "Rube" Foster, who sacrificed everything in the 1930s to organize Black ownership of baseball teams and to give due respect to black baseball players who were unable to play in the major leagues. Ironically, integration saw the end of the Negro Leagues when prime players such as Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige went to the majors. Rhoden goes on to chronicle the early days of football and basketball. He recounts pioneers in both fields, including Paul Robeson of Rutgers and Raymond Chester of Morgan State and then the Oakland Raiders. It was not until the early 1970s that Southern colleges began recruiting Black football players; at one time the NBA was almost all-white.
Rhoden contends that our young Black athletes, high school, college and professional, lack knowledge of their history in general, and the history of African Americans in sports, in particular. He cites this disconnect for not only the negative, destructive behavior that many of them indulge in but the apathy and lack of political noninvolvement and racial pride. Where are the young Muhammad Alis? But it is the Benjamins that are the prize at the end of the day. Poor inner-city or southern rural Black kids who show exceptional athletic talent become a victim of the "Conveyor Belt." A system, by which they are prepped, coddled and many times exploited at early ages on into high school and college with the main goal to snag the million dollar contracts and lucrative endorsement deals. Who would not want this? But at what cost? Even with all the money Black athletes command, there is still a lacking in coaching, those in top management and almost nil in Black team ownership with the exception of Robert Johnson of the Charlotte Bobcats. Also notable are the few African American sports journalists working to shape and control our image and the lack of exposure to Black agents, attorneys and other specialists to these new multimillionaires.
Kellen Winslow Sr., now an attorney, was a former college football star and played pro for several years and is now in the Hall of Fame. Because he went through the Conveyor Belt, he was able to advocate for his son, Kellen Jr. when the college scouts came courting. He speaks candidly about how college scouts will try to divide the child and parents. He refused to let this happen, often butting heads with his son over where he would go to college. Winslow maintains though that most Black kids do not have a parent, most specifically a father, who will run interference in these matters.
One of the most profound chapters is "The River Jordan: The Dilemma of Neutrality."
Rhoden shows disappointment, hurt, an almost aversion to the beloved Michael Jordan. Jordan's apathy towards Black causes and his neutral stance was a topic of debate when Marcus Book Club met to discuss this book. The members however, came to the agreement that to whom much is given, much is expected and cited Magic Johnson and Dikembe Mutombo as excellent examples of those giving back to their communities. This book is a must-read, especially for young people, both young men and young women and their parents. The history is invaluable and the subject is timely. This is a keeper in one's African American library.
Dera R. Williams
Marcus Book Club (Oakland)
APOOO BookClub
 The whole premise is a joke.... November 26, 2006
20 out of 59 found this review helpful
Who exactly is forcing these people to go down the road of competitive, for pay athletics? And what exactly is stopping these multi millionaire athletes from becoming owners themselves? Starting a new league? Branching off into other enterprises that would create opportunities for others? The athlete, with rare exceptions, enters into these agreements with universities and pro sports teams of their own free will, and if they don't prepare economically for a future that doesn't include pro sports, they have no one but themselves to blame. Rhoden wishes these athletes were "slaves" so people would more buy in to his spew about racism in society...doesn't seem like the "unfairness" he laments hurt the pursuit of his dreams any...
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