This article was originally published in Atlanta Magazine.

Growing up in Atlanta as a young baseball player, I naturally idolized Hank Aaron. But over the years, I have identified with his journey and been inspired by his character in ways far deeper than simple admiration for a remarkable athlete.

Hank Aaron grew up in a loving home in Mobile, Alabama. His family—like most of our families in L.E.A.D. and like my own family—was poor, and they faced the social-economic struggles that always come with poverty, as well as the challenges of Jim Crow racism. I know from experience that for Black Americans, education has always been viewed as a powerful tool not only for edification, but also for assimilation. Throughout my life, I’ve heard elders and ancestors express, If we can just show white people that we are as smart as they are, it will open doors. Understanding the weight that education holds in the Black community, I can imagine how difficult it must have been for Mr. Aaron to leave school for professional baseball. I faced the same decision when I decided to pursue the Chicago Cubs over going to college. I know Mr. Aaron must have met with a lot of opposition because of his decision, and I thank God that whatever was convicting his heart to follow his dream had his mind so stayed on it that he didn’t allow himself to be deterred.

Now, I know Moses Fleetwood Walker and Jackie Robinson blazed significant trails for Blacks in baseball, but what makes me identify so closely with Mr. Aaron is the impact of his presence in the Jim Crow South. The Braves organization, with its star slugger, moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee just two years after the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. They were the first major league professional sports team in the South, and Mr. Aaron’s very presence helped give leaders here the audacity and permission to call Atlanta “The City Too Busy To Hate.”

Only Atlanta was not too busy to hate. As Mr. Aaron closed in on Babe Ruth’s homerun record, he faced unprecedented harassment and danger. On the road, he couldn’t stay with the rest of the team, and he faced a barrage of death threats. I can’t imagine the anxiety of stepping on the field not knowing if anyone was going to harm you while you were playing.

Uncertainty haunted Black Americans during this time, making many wonder constantly, Did I do anything to piss off a racist white person enough for them to visit my home? I can imagine there were many sleepless nights in the Aaron household. One thing most people know about me is that I love my wife and daughters with a fierce, protective love. I cannot imagine leaving home, knowing that my family faced FBI-level threats, and still going to work and hitting bombs daily. I always say that talent is what you do well, but skills are what you do well even when you’re under stress.

Mr. Aaron’s story speaks volumes to me. My life parallels his in a lot of ways, and I will continue to follow his example and use the platform that baseball has given me to raise up poor, Black boys in this city who can walk in my shoes and, maybe, even Mr. Aaron’s.

(This blog was written after an experience I had on one day prior to the 2020 Presidential Election.)

I make it my business to sit in places where I’m not expected to be or “supposed” to be. One such place is bible study groups made up of predominantly White men. I am a follower of Christ. I was raised that way. In my adult life, I got the blessed opportunity to unknow the Christ that White Supremacy built, and connect with the true Christ of the Scriptures. The Christ from Genesis to Revelations; a privilege that my early ancestors didn’t have as their enslavers didn’t want them reading about nobody’s Exodus.
I’ve had a lot of emotions and reflections during this current presidential campaign. During a conversation with my wife, we started talking about the differences between appreciation and allegiance.

Appreciation is the recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something.

Allegiance is loyalty or commitment to a group or cause.

As a Black man having citizenship in a country that’s been trying to kill and disenfranchise Black people since the days our ancestors were stolen from Africa and enslaved on this soil, it should be relatively clear why pledging allegiance to my country is difficult for me. I’m not going to burden myself with an exhaustive history lesson on the disenfranchisement of enslaved Africans and their descendants in America; there are far too many resources out there that already do this in a more systematic and thorough way than I ever could. I recommend the following: Equal Justice Initiative, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture & We Are Push Black.

Getting back to these spaces…

I’m a part of a bible study that’s made up of White men. From what I can tell from the Zoom calls I’ve been on, I’m the only Black man. During the opening prayer this morning, a gentleman that I respect prayed the following in part (and I paraphrase), “…God please bless and strengthen Donald Trump as he seeks to lead this nation from Muslim rule and saves the unborn from abortion…”

I was stunned. Now praying for leaders isn’t something that’s foreign to me. I feel the Bible tells us to do this and I attend Elizabeth Baptist Church under the leadership of Dr. Craig L. Oliver, Sr. where we always pray for our leaders. In my household and in my church family, however, we pray a little differently for our leaders. We pray that God’s will be done relative to their leadership. We pray that our leaders will yield their hearts and minds to the will of God. After all, the Word of God does tell us that he sets up kings/kingdoms and he takes them down as well.

The prayer I heard this morning was one of trying to get God to bend to the will of the man who was praying and the cause he represents. As a follower of Christ, I have lots of experience with trying to make God do what I want Him to do – it never works. It never works, that is, if I’m not in alignment with Him. As I listened to the verbal affirmations from the other White men on the call, I wondered to myself, did they stop to think about their Black brother in Christ on the phone and how what was being said would affect me? Did it even occur to them that I may feel that Donald Trump and everything he stands for is a threat to me and everyone who looks like me? Obviously not, because after everyone (except me) uttered a collective ‘Amen’ they moved to the first item on the agenda like everything was cool.

After their amens, I immediately hung up. I didn’t hang up at the moment I was offended because I wanted to stay on to listen to all that would be said in his prayer. I try my best to live by the philosophy that I learned from one of Dr. Covey’s books – seek first to understand, then to be understood. I must admit, I’m still at a loss here. I don’t understand how so many White people can’t see the threat that Donald Trump poses to Black people and basically anyone who isn’t White, male, and straight. I don’t understand why the White men on that call this morning didn’t think about my feelings relative to that prayer.

I’m not sure whether I’ll log into that Bible study group again. I’m trying to figure out if I have enough self-control and sanity to subject myself to that hostile space; trying to figure out if my being present to learn and to teach others is worth me losing my cool or my mind. Pray for me on that one.

What I will continue to do is lead and protect my family and the Black boys I serve in L.E.A.D. I will continue to enlighten, correct, and educate my White friends on the Black experience and what I expect them to do to make it what it should be in America.

I will also continue to be an unapologetic Black man. That’s who God made me and that’s who I’m committed to being wherever He has me showing up.

(Photo by Steve West)

 

 

As a child, the rhetoric around me was that sports were for the dumb boys, that the smart boys focused solely on academics. Being an athlete was likened to a four-letter curse word.

Despite this, I fell in love with baseball around the age of eight years old. My grandfather would watch the Chicago Cubs on WGN. Summers were hot in Atlanta, so we would sit in the room and watch the games with the air conditioning roaring. My mother said that at just six years old, I was already saying I wanted to be a professional baseball player.

When I was eight, my parents signed me up to play baseball at the Cascade Youth Organization, which was less than five miles from my grandparents’ house.

When the Cubs games would end, I would go outside and practice my swing by throwing rocks in the air and perfectly timing them to hit as far as I could like Gary Matthews. I improved my pitching by throwing rocks at trees.

As my life became centered and reliant on athletics, I began to shed these misconceptions. I learned that being an athlete grants a high level of critical thinking skills. To be an “athlete” is to get things done even when you lack the knowledge or experience to get it done.

Athletics is even biblical.

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, ESV)

Ultimately, athletics taught me how to be committed, disciplined, and gritty.

Learning core values such as these can lead to future success in life and beyond athletics. That is why athletics hold so much value for young Black boys.

Had I not shed the misconceptions about athletics presented to me, my life would not be what it is today. So when people discourage other Black boys from pursuing athletics in favor of academics, I wonder if they are ignorant or stupid.

To be ignorant is to not know something.

Perhaps they are ignorant about the distinction between sports being extra-curricular versus co-curricular.

Perhaps they do not know that sports at the high school level bring the community together in large numbers and offer a sense of pride, belonging, and camaraderie.

Perhaps they do not know that college student-athletes are a driving force of student enrollment.

To be stupid is to know the right thing to do and to choose not to do it to the demise of others.

Stupid people who discourage Black boys from pursuing athletics in favor of academics could be a result of jealousy. The Black Intelligentsia often finds themselves envious of athletes because they do not receive the fame or financial benefits that athletes receive.

I believe this jealousy may have roots that grow even deeper than that.

According to Howard Bryant’s book “The Last Hero,” there are several classes of people in America. Of these, three of them show up at sports venues.

The Labor Class – The Athletes (mostly Black, except in baseball)

The Leisure Class – The Fans (mostly White)

The Ruling Class – The Owners (mostly White)

I believe the Black intelligentsia would like to be a part of the ruling class but are not allowed to due to systemic racism. I also believe that the Black intelligentsia feels embarrassed that Black people are willing participants of the Labor Class.

So instead of recognizing their jealousy and its roots, they decry the participation of Black people, especially young Black boys, in roles within the labor class such as athletes or musicians.

But why should they?

As a follower of Christ, I believe that we all have a calling to fulfill. Both athletics and music were integral parts of society, even when Jesus was on this earth.

19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, (Ephesians 5:10, ESV)

Reflecting on God’s call, John Ortberg wrote “A calling is very different than a request for fulfillment. A calling, though we glamorize it, is not glamorous. It is a response to a summons. It is a kind of surrender. It is a willingness to die to the past and move to the future.”

Men and women that have the gift of athletics and music mattered then, and they matter now.

Antagonists who discourage Black boys from the pursuit of athletics blatantly and willfully encourage these boys to ignore their calling and insist that the calling of athletics detracts from the pursuit of academia.

However, I absolutely believe there is room for both.

Athletics and academics are separated when we look at sports as extracurricular. This separation often happens when it is dealing with children living in poverty. In middle-class and private school settings, sports are often looked upon as co-curricular.

The misconceptions and discouragement surrounding Black boys in athletics do not stop there. Once they commit to the pursuit of athletics, Black boys have a new responsibility thrust upon them.

The responsibility of activism.

Activism is vigorous campaigning to bring about social change.

I do not recall Black athletes being activists in my childhood. I know they existed, but their efforts were “whitewashed” to make them appear non-threatening and docile to White people. Looking back, they were humble to a fault.

I recently read Howard Bryant’s “The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism.” In it, Bryant states that “Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero-worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined.”

Just as Jackie Robinson showed America that Black and White men can work together and Nelson Mandela used soccer to rid South Africa of apartheid, today the WNBA, NBA, and MLB are coming together under #BlackLivesMatter to take a stand against systemic racism.

I was born in 1976 and as a Black teen, I was taught not to “cause trouble” with regards to race relations. I was simultaneously taught that I could be whatever I wanted to be, but that racism would limit me from being anything that I wanted to be.

As a child, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Hank Aaron were positioned to me to be more of peace-loving figureheads. (It wasn’t until I was much older that I learned about these men in spirit and truth and who they really were to The Movement.)

As a teen, everybody wanted to “Be Like Mike”, but he never took a stance against systemic racism.

Today it is different. Colin Kaepernick and Lebron James are unapologetically leading the way and setting the standard for how to fight systemic racism that specifically oppresses Black people. All Lives Matter, but Black people are and always have been at the back of the race with regards to living the American Dream.

This burden of activism is not one equally carried. Some athletes say nothing when it comes to systemic racism in society, others speak from a place of the passivity of political correctness, and those remaining bear the brunt of the burden.

Some athletes choose to say nothing or are politically correct because they do not want to lose opportunities. To contrast this, you have athletes like Lebron James, who is arguably the greatest basketball player on the planet. I think about King James when I think about Jay-Z’s quote, “I”m not a businessman, I’m a business, man!”

Too often, these stances are met with opposition such as “Shut up and Dribble.”

In 2018, Fox News host Laura Ingraham told Lebron James to “shut up and dribble.”

Ingraham called it “unwise” for children, although I’m not sure what children are watching late-night cable news, to seek political advice from someone who “gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball.” By saying this, she completely disregards her own company’s long-documented history of putting athletes and other nonpolitical “experts” on its air.
https://theundefeated.com/features/what-laura-ingrahams-attack-of-lebron-james-really-means/

The “shut up and dribble” argument is the White Leisure Class of fans wanting the Black Labor Class of athletes not to bring politics to the playing field.

I do not believe that you can be a thriving community without athletics. The women and men that are trained in sports can also become the educational, business, and political leaders to make America great. They just need to be committed to training in how to represent their community as well.

The value and skills athletics have brought into my life are immeasurable.

After falling in love with baseball as a child, I met my mentor at age 14. T.J. Wilson was a veteran Atlanta Police Department Officer known for discovering hidden gems in Atlanta’s baseball community.

Within weeks of getting to know Coach T.J., I was receiving professional baseball training at an indoor baseball facility in Forsyth County with Denny Pritchett. I had my first professional workout with the Cubs that year, inching toward my dream of being a “Cubbie.”

I signed a baseball scholarship with Georgia State University during my senior year of high school and was eventually drafted by the Cubs.

My life is an example of how great things happen when your talent is an asset combined with advocacy and access.

I have achieved a lot of success in life and now, I am committed to using my success to serve others. The desire to recreate my achievements and stand against the antagonists who say that athletes cannot be intelligent and stand up for what they believe in, is what led me to establish L.E.A.D.

L.E.A.D. (Launch, Expose, Advise, Direct), bridges the gap between athletics and activism.

It is our Human Ambassador Project. The Human Ambassador Project was birthed from a life-changing experience I had during my 2015 Leadership Atlanta Cohort. From this experience and the revelation received from it, I wanted a way to share game-changing information about race and racism with youth.

Our L.E.A.D. Human Ambassador Project mission is to foster understanding and community between the youth of different races. Our vision is that the participants will grow up to become strategic community partners who will ensure that all of Atlanta’s citizens have access to opportunities that lead to sustainable lives of significance.

L.E.A.D. works to connect the body and the brain through Habitudes®: Leadership Curriculum & Lesson Plans. Habitudes by Tim Elmore combines images, relatable stories, and experiences into leadership development curriculum and lesson plans that resonate with today’s young adults, equipping them to navigate through life’s challenges and opportunities.

We’ve used Habitudes with our L.E.A.D. Ambassadors for over five years.

This fall, we are planning to use ExQ to connect the body and brains of our Ambassadors through executive function training. ExQ is an exclusive, research-informed system designed to enhance the brain’s executive function through game-based personalized training.

In short, L.E.A.D combats all the misconceptions discussed in this blog.

We support and encourage athletics as a route to improved academics and activism.