Student Athlete (2018)
Student Athlete, an HBO documentary produced by Lebron James, follows the lives of four male student athletes who dream of playing professional basketball. It complicates the narrative of what it takes for student athletes to reach the NBA. People argue that student athletes should be compensated because they are abused by a system that parallels slavery. The labor of student athletes, primarily people of color, is performed for the financial gain of largely white organizations and coaches.
The logic of those who oppose paying student athletes parallels that of the slavery/capitalism pillar or white supremacy. The exploitation and commodification of black bodies is justified because student athletes are compensated in non-monetary means. A racial hierarchy is reinforced since black bodies and labor is owned by white coaches and organizations. Student athletes are then stigmatized as ungrateful and essentially told to “shut up and dribble” as Laura Ingraham once told Lebron James.
The logic of those who oppose paying student athletes parallels that of the slavery/capitalism pillar or white supremacy. The exploitation and commodification of black bodies is justified because student athletes are compensated in non-monetary means. A racial hierarchy is reinforced since black bodies and labor is owned by white coaches and organizations. Student athletes are then stigmatized as ungrateful and essentially told to “shut up and dribble” as Laura Ingraham once told Lebron James.
I really enjoy this post and not just because I am a student athlete. I think it is important to acknowledge the sacrifice that goes into the labor a playing a sport while maintaining a full course load. While it is true there are plenty of people that are not athletes that have a job and write for the school paper and go to all their classes and maintain a decent GPA at the same time. What is important to understand is that student athletes are doing all of this for a few pairs of sneakers and a meal plan that they don't get to use because they are in practice or traveling or in class or in study hall during the hours the cafeteria is open. All of this while millions of dollars are being paid to coaches and athletic directors and advertisers and any other way for the NCAA to capitalize on the bodies of the student athlete.
ReplyDeleteI also am interested to see this and I really don't think corporations behind the NBA, NFL or even college athletics really acknowledge how similar these practices student athletes go through are to labor trafficking. This has pretty deadly medical consequences too, especially when UMD football player Jordan McNair passed away from overexhaustion at a summer practice and UMD covered it under the rug until ESPN found out about it.
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