What do these opposing images say about the last thirty years of black sports participation?
HE: It says that black athletes have become sufficiently integrated into the sports system. They have a stake in all of the business dimensions of that system. Thirty years ago there would not have been any issue of them covering the Reebok slogan because they would not have had the Nike contract that was in conflict with it. That would have gone to a white athlete. So what this change tells me is that black athletes are sufficiently integrated into the business matrix of sports. That there is something there, a business interest, which they feel obliged to protect. Thirty years ago that was not the case. We are talking about different times. CL: In a number of spaces you have argued that we are currently witnessing the end of the “golden age of black sports participation.” Why the “golden era” in sports for black athletic participation coming to an end? HE: By the time we finish looking at the last thirty years, through societal processes, through institutional erosion, through the de
