How Black Athletes are Exploited

[@lily-hazy8823]

I grew up with a dad as my coach and the pressure to get a sports scholarship to college so I could afford to go was put on me when I was 6. You know how autistic kids are known for their incredible feats of strength? I went undiagnosed for 26 years but as a kid I was so insanely strong, I looked like a body builder by kindergarten, and I was stronger and faster than any boy my age in my school. My dad was a swimmer so he put me into swimming and became my coach. I was great - like ridiculously fucking great - but the pressure from everything ended up causing me so much stress, my brain broke and I ended up developing fibromyalgia at around age 13. Now I'm disabled. The stress of perfection, the absence of being able to enjoy my childhood, and the irreversible damage it's done to me and my family, especially my relationship with my father - that shit cannot be understated. It ruins lives. But I'm white from a lower middle-class family. I can't even begin to imagine how much more traumatic and painful that experience would have been if I were a black boy from a low income family facing pressure from my community and my father to thrive and profit from a contact sport that contributes to long-term health problems. The amount of inner strength you have to have to be able to get through that experience is so immense, and it's a strength nobody should feel pressured to develop at the expense of their health and wellbeing. And then to heal from those experiences, you also have to battle the shame men have been taught to associate with expressing their feelings, a shame that lies, telling you that coping with your trauma is really just you being ungrateful for those who've supported your athletic endeavors. To any black men that read this who've been objectified for their bodies and pressured into this position, my heart goes out to you. My own experience was just the tip of the iceberg of what your lived experience with this has been, and it was still enough to break me. Y'all are so fucking strong when you shouldn't have to be, and I hope we can keep fighting for a future together where nobody feels this kind of pressure. Much love to you and I hope you can find a place filled with comfort and compassion to heal this hurt.

[@kolpeshtheyardstick]

And my dad wonders why I didn't live up to his dreams of me becoming a track star! Thank you for sharing your story.

[@PlusUltraAdrian]

I'm so sorry that happened to you. You didn't have to mention race in your comment. What happened to you was awful and I hope things in your life will get better for you.

[@Stret173]

daaaamn, man, all my sympathies just wanted to say if it counts for anything -- i had a pretty depressing day and mood and this sentence "You know how autistic kids are known for their incredible feats of strength? I" made me laugh and helped break a bit from that dire mood

[@heatherlee2967]

+++

[@FoxyFemBoi]

Oh hey I'm autistic too and didn't know until my 20s either, and also got fibromyalgia in college from academic pressure to be perfect WHILST in engineering classes. Stress will fuck you up. T_T Now I'm not sure I'll be able to hold a full-time job when I get done w/ college (currently been eeking my way through painfully slowly at part-time) (I got a bunch of other health issues from the same virus after my health had been going downhill when I already had migraines due to academic stress and when I got whatever virus that was it decided to fuck with multiple systems in my body)

[@jerriandfriends]

Another banger. As a tall Black girl that was siloed into sports growing up as the only girl in the house with all boys, this was everything. After finally quitting sports after feeling like I *had* to play for years (with a family of all athletes, some playing collegiate, pro, overseas, etc), I wrote a paper my freshman year of college about the NCAA being a form of neo-slavery. And your/Arian's point about the way coaches SPEAK to you. I remember being kicked out of gyms for 'having an attitude' or being told to 'smile' by coaches. At one point, a coach realized I played better when upset and would actively make a point to provoke me before a game. Everyone knew but took his side and I was left stuck looking crazy in the middle, not even wanting to play. This was excellent, thank you.

[@andrewsmith8715]

"At one point, a coach realized I played better when upset and would actively make a point to provoke me before a game." That is really messed up jesus...

[@heresene]

Relatable + fatphobia + bullying

[@domii3067]

🖤

[@dntthe88]

I'm sorry you went through that. Our society exploits the shit out of so many people.

[@Jalanadon]

That was literal abuse. Ugh. Another commenter called it hate farming.

[@challiray]

As someone who used to box, it was the overt racism, body shaming, and manipulation of negative emotions and trauma that did it for me... not to mention knowing literal world champions who were pushing carts.

[@jameso6106]

Would you be willing to share a bit more about that? Rather young I noticed moments in sports that felt like manipulating negative emotions into making someone believe that their own validation could come through sports performance, and I’m wondering if that’s the sort of experience you’ve had.

[@challiray]

@@jameso6106 that. And, the “farming” of hate and negativity for motivational purposes. And the emotional manipulation of constantly being made angry, or generating of actual ill will toward people based on their race, nationality, or a level of success. All for the purposes of competition. Manipulating your emotions to get you to train harder, longer, etc.

[@Jalanadon]

Hate farming is a good way to put it. Hope you're getting the healing you need ❤

[@62cky4powerthirst]

I just got into boxing, but I dont think I would ever do it professionally even if I had the chance to start over from childhood. You hear about all the horrifying things that plague a boxer's life, from concussions to permanent brain damage as a result of the brain being rattled from all the head trauma a boxer gets. I find it interesting and very sad that much of the repercussions from, well technically any combat sport are never explored upon in games or movies. You cant just get punched hard enough to be concussed and think you'll stay the same for the rest of your life. That shit fucks with your cognitive abilities big time.

[@Virjunior01]

@@62cky4powerthirst bro, as someone who was a martial artist, I know you know what's up. Bruce Lee and Mohammad Ali. It's not about the money in the end, cuz you aren't takin any of that shit with you. A graceful fighter fights for respect, not that he or she thinks they need validation, but to find other like-minded individuals and speak in a way that transcends words. It really is beautiful. In middle school, some kid fucked with me and pushed me down the stairs, but I handled it well. Kept my balance well enough. So a circle formed, and he shoved me into the crowd after I dropped my backpack. I roundhouse punched him in the face, to which he leaned back (didn't roll with it, by the way), and it's like reality warped. I saw enough room to do damned near a 20-meter run and throw a flying roundhouse kick, which couldn't have been possible. He took it in the ribs. And then he laughed and held out his hand for a shake. I was fucking livid and crying, but it completely disarmed me. I shook his hand. We never had a problem before or after, and it's my sincere belief that he was looking to blow off some steam, and hadn't run across someone even willing to fight back. While he was a dick, maybe he just needed a different way to communicate. Thanks for reminding me. It's been maybe... 26 years.

[@onlyone23km]

As a former high school athlete, it’s frustrating to see how high schools constantly spend more money in sports above anything else leaving other departments in danger of disbanding.

[@RoundFrogRobin]

I was in the girls athletics program. Unfortunately our school was poor, and so the funding for the girls program was cut to give to the boys. It was illegal, but it happened. It happens a lot. They tell you you're worth less because you're a woman, or they tell you only your body has worth as a black man. We need to take a step back and look at sustainability and equity. Let everyone meet their potential as best they can.

[@johndavidmerritt8437]

As a young white guy that grew up in the most conservative congressional district in the United States and was surrounded by mainly just white people growing up, I really appreciate this channel. I never realized just how under analyzed the African-American perspective is within main stream American life. Thank you for providing me with the ability to learn.

[@VenomTNT]

What congressional district is that btw? just curious

[@raydavison4288]

I also grew up in a county that was 99% white. I need to hear what JDS is saying.

[@joelman1989]

W

[@markphelt6395]

Hyland Park?

[@mhxybeats653]

Yeah the moment when I realized that we separate "black history" from "history" for some reason blew me

[@rockhardsausage]

I'm a white man so certainty off topic. But I'm 6'6, 300 pounds and have been this size since a very young age. The experience of social pressure described in the first part of this video is very real and certainty something I've experienced. I would be on vacation with my family in Myrtle beach and strange adult men would approach me at 12 or 13 and hand me business cards telling them I should be playing football for them. Thankfully my mother did not push me into playing any sports I had no interest in and at 30 years old I still have no idea what the rules of football are. I have never regretted this decision, even when my uncle or sports following friends make fun of me for missing out on free schooling and the possibility of being able to play in the NFL. I've always found college sports significantly more gross and I'm thankful I was privileged enough to be in a position where I didn't see that as my only option form a young age.

[@hurricanerae]

My entire family is quite tall and yes, some of us play sports. (One even played basketball for a European team a little while.) But there are many of us who don't and were often pressured. My father was approached as a teen to play football, but he never had interest in it. Only now that I am older have people stopped asking me if I play basketball or volleyball. Both are sports I greatly dislike playing. I can only imagine the the pressure and stereotyping black men face throughout there lives.

[@KEESWAY]

6’6..?! Hey Brian 😏 Lol Jkjk 😅

[@the2ndsaint]

I'm just shy of 7' and around 300 lbs. I am also incredibly uncoordinated and had no real interest in team sports, or any sports for that matter. Didn't stop the constant bombardment of suggestions that I should play basketball. Thankfully, at 37, the inquiries have largely stopped, but I still get the occasional snide remark that I somehow "wasted" my "gift." :-S

[@ayanomar1408]

your mom is amazing for doing that. I hope to do the same for my kids

[@cadetcyuzuzo7729]

You don't regret it because you'll never know how far you could have gone.

[@leirarekceb3043]

im only a couple minutes in and the point you made about how black boys are objectified in the same way that girls are as they get older really struck me. I had never realized how objectified black boys are even before they become men. As a girl, that type of objectification alienates you from your own body in a subtle way.

[@deforestshell3037]

It's because we tend to whether it be biologically or society focus on women's issues more frequently despite what mainstream feminists will tell you. Feel very stupid all boys of all colors are expected to be the 1950s variant after grandfather's work which means they're not allowed to have any type of trauma or feelings and if they express them then they usually get made fun of excluded and get rejected. I have literally known some women who have also had sexual traumas reject their boyfriends because their boyfriends mistakenly told them that they had been molested And those woman's eyes. He's no longer a man to them because of what happened and even though it's not right,, we cannot change thousands of years of our biology even though our minds have advanced. I am a big black man but I was an artist and ever since I was a kid I was objectified and made to feel like I had to be an athlete. I literally had an abusive girlfriend who fetishizes black men. She doesn't like black men per se but she likes to thug archetype and if a man isn't acting like that that he's not a real man. there are so many layers to this type of conversation but I feel like it is a real tragedy because I feel like the last bastions of progressive stuff is that we really need to try to see men as human beings instead of human doings.

[@rellie_90]

Absolutely! I hid my body under clothes for years. The looks and being approached made me self conscious as if I could control what I looked like. By age 11, I had a body that my brain just didn’t compute and shouldn’t have had to because I was still an 11yr old.

[@sleepyccs]

@@deforestshell3037 Women had a movement that forced the issue on the table against the wishes of society. Black men have only just started doing that work.

[@deforestshell3037]

@@sleepyccs actually that work has most likely been done for much longer but we have to remember the same Society that that tells women they should be emotional to the point where women are seen as weak the same Society literally ignores men's and men's issues all together because that double bias is already in place. What you wrote out is an example of that and I'm not saying that you are at fault nor am I blamed you but there have been tons of men who have tried to fight for the rights of men and by that I do mean things that do uniquely affect men. But a man cannot really go out and stay his grievances because they'll either be looked at as a weakling or a pushover at best or have his problems dusted under the rug at worse.

[@deforestshell3037]

@@MaejorArray let's see this is the time. The feminist movement only work because Society already has a bias that women were wonderful and women need to protecting and whether that's good or not isn't really the point Men's issues have not come to the mainstream not because men have not worked hard for it but because society's bias against men even complaining or stating their opinions or feelings is still considered taboo especially if it comes into conflict with any other feminist narrative. I see way too many times when a man States something he just gets shut down because it either doesn't lie with a feminist belief or a contradicts a feminist statement. A lot of early feminist suffragists were horribly racist. It was all about power because those early feminist white women did not want to compete with black men once they got the right to vote. We still there much of you men as utility or something to be used or at worst a threat. I'm a big black guy and believe me I have had to check some of my white friends when I catch them not being so progressive. Just because a guy is big and this around you does not mean that he is threatening.I get that whatever happens in someone's past is valid but almost every man has just as many crazy things that has happened to him by men or women that I could easily use as an excuse.

[@Yharazayd]

just dropped everything because i can’t wait to get into this

[@StephanieKrespach]

There's my other fave essayist! I love seeing everyone here.

[@dklee.01]

omg yhara😍 love seeing my faves supporting each other

[@niceasf7038]

Word

[@FDSignifire]

Always happy to see you. Hope ur energy is A1 and that the video doesn't disappoint.

[@StephanieKrespach]

@@FDSignifire dude. I'm scared now cause my game is insightful in a gender way. Im not straight, I'm non-binary and a former gymnast who trained on an Olympic prep team in the early 00's. Which means Dr.Nassar was part of why I quit! So...I can talk about racism and plantation mentality from what I witnessed in aau sports that weren't basketball or baseball - and what I witnessed but I don't have interviews, and I don't have much other than my very white looking butt (though, I have to be frank and say I grew up Catholic which... there's plenty to talk about there but it's different issues. Catholics often don't get subsumed into whiteness the same way others do and mostly we are never considered in with the OTHER white people. I'm not sure how much of that is fantasy and me trying to distance myself from issues but my parents had crosses burned on their lawn in some of the demonstrations in Chicago land in the early 80s but we were on the Indiana side so it's a whole other ball game with Nazis). I do however make a few points that I'm sure come from being raised female and trying like hell in my youth to embody that so I wouldn't get made fun of. That's a pov you kinda only get if you are forced to have it. Blunting the edges to fit an approximate example of what others want you to be. I've heard EVERYONE who isn't a white man talk about masking or code switching in some way. I am going to re-film tomorrow bc I can do better and I'm going to keep going. Thank you as always bc this is amazing.

[@underdarkness7692]

TBH, this is a minor part of the video, but I think the "issue" with athletes not doing well in non-football classes is partially just due to all the demands of practice, as well as sort of not believing they're good at academics because "football players can't do academics." One term in undergrad, my physics lab partner was a football player and I had to cover for him a lot, I let him copy my notes and sometimes he'd lose our lab notes or be close to passing out during lab, or just miss days, because of the demands of practice and games. I was sympathetic because in marching band in high school the practice schedule we had was grueling and fucked with my academic performance a lot, but he had the added stress on top that this was his coin flip on escaping poverty. Add onto this still living as a poor college student and like yeah no kidding some of them aren't leaning into their course work harder as a backup to become an engineer. My lab partner was legitimately good at physics, to be honest he was better at setting up and collecting data on lab work than I was, but he just didn't have the time or mental bandwidth to commit to analyzing it or thinking about it at the level he'd need to to excel, which is in no way his fault. The fact that they're basically forced to treat this shitty unpaying college sport as a lifestyle, maybe even more than a job, honestly just keeps them locked in the box. They often don't have time for much else.

[@strafer8764]

So how much did you charge him?

[@Quickmf56]

And thank goodness for NIL

[@projectc.j.j3310]

College athletes are spoiled asf😂 and oh yeah they don’t have to do it

[@kaytrasicedtea]

thanks for telling us your pov! do you know if he ever found any success outside of college as a baller or did he end up going an alternative route?

[@chevvy427]

If they think it's their ticket up in the world and it's what they've aimed towards since a young age, they're certainly heavily incentivized to. Especially if it's the reason they can afford school period. ​@@projectc.j.j3310

[@kasia3582]

Maybe this is a stretch but I can't help thinking about the Jackson family and Beyoncé and Mathew Knowles. The commodification of Black bodies and talent starting from childhood extends to the arts industry as well

[@DFJ-qq3uf]

Parents want that bag n make the kid go get it!!

[@bluebraun2979]

Good point!

[@miss_chelles1338]

Oh god, your right.

[@MickeyMouse-lm6zj]

it's the industry in general stop making it about black

[@deadmansquestions]

@@MickeyMouse-lm6zjwhy are you so obsessed w this channel

[@EZOnTheEyes]

Growing up in a mostly white school, it was always unnerving when coaches would single out my teammates from minority groups. From Passive agressive comments and statements about physique, to forcing them to carry more of the equipment and set it up more often, to straight up racist comments disguised behind the veil of "Humor". I used to love sports, but the blatant racial inequality of my teams coaches was one of the biggest factors in me leaving them.

[@BeastNationXIV]

If i really wanted to play, i could have gotten sucked into that too. In my first week of jr high school, I had been a spot on the football team because of my size. I turned him down flat because I just wasn't interested. At the same time, maybe I should have been a football player. Despite the mental and physical issues that come, maybe I'd have gotten all the necessary lessons of how to truly compete in this fucked up world where everybody's gotta be the best. The mental problems I was already dealing with as a growing child would have been amplified. At the end of the day, I guess I'm still glad to have a functioning mind I already use too much, which allows me to think for my self more often than not. 🤷‍♂️

[@EZOnTheEyes]

@@BeastNationXIV adversity can be a good teaching moment, but voluntarily joining a team led by someone who's biggotted towards you isn't always the best idea. My highschool's sports programs had a thousand issues, from Biggotry, Nepotism, Physical Abuse on players, a new Sexual Assault scandal from the coaches every year, the racism was just one of the many factors that culminated in my decision to leave (an important part of it). After the coach shamed me for working a job during the season, threw homophobic epithets at me, and told me he would bench me my entire Senior season just because he didn't like me, I quit on the spot. The racism got worse the season I left, with him starting to make fun of English secondary learners to their face, and when he heard police sirens in the distance he'd repeatedly tell the black kids to run faster. Sometimes, the expierience isn't worth the hassle.

[@kimeikoraevision5446]

Ugh. Just. Ugh. Sorry that you had to deal with that ish.🙄

[@mizzmolly7649]

@@BeastNationXIV - I have to applaud you for your decision and recognizing that a potentially multi-million-dollar contract is not worth suffering from CTE for the second half of your life.

[@BeastNationXIV]

@Learn2Gramrs hell, technically, i did that...when I joined the military. (Because it worked so well for my dad and he thought it would work for me) in that experience, which was not good, I learned why I dodged a major bullet in not playing football or not trying to be a star football player. So yeah, definitely.

[@johncabey3616]

As a high school CPS SPED teacher, I watch the double exploitation of students who are both cognitively and economically disadvantaged, who are manipulated into believing that there is no way out except sports. Beautiful artists, actors, and possible researchers are denied access to any other extracurricular or even just academics by coaches and even other teachers. Thank you for addressing this and speaking for the children

[@celeritas2-810]

Denial of access to where they actually care about, ugh

[@truth884]

I’ve subbed at CPS and was in a SPED class(I salute you). I have seen what you are talking about not necessarily as a teacher, but as a kid growing up and playing sports as well in the south suburbs of Chicago. I’ve also seen it as a parent, uncle, and cousin to young men that are into sports. It’s tough to see it.

[@truth884]

I’ve subbed at CPS and was in a SPED class(I salute you). I have seen what you are talking about not necessarily as a teacher, but as a kid growing up and playing sports as well in the south suburbs of Chicago. I’ve also seen it as a parent, uncle, and cousin to young men that are into sports. It’s tough to see it.

[@venuslove-i1v]

I remember one of the black male students at my school back in the 2000s had to fight for our High School to open up an art club. The school said the club had to be of "use" to the school (as if sports was useful in any way). They managed to get it to be "useful" by painting banners for sports teams and decorating the hall ways. I hated that we had to do that but thanks to him the art club still exists at the school and has helped so many black boys find a new outlet. Years later I ended up working in a school with students that were predominately black and I started seeing art classes and clubs lose funding. It's sad that we can only see a sports future for these students.

[@HarkertheStoryteller]

I think there's something really interesting and worrying about the way that young black men being sexually pursued by white women, need to cede their agency and bodily autonomy to avoid escalation to police violence. Not to diminish women's stories of violence and abuse; it's a complex issue.

[@camdavis9362]

this is frequently depicted in pornography. The most popular porn pages feature at least a few videos where the whole premise is a white woman "falling into darkness" by embracing a black man or "submitting to the black beast." I never put much thought into this until about a year ago. White men are not objectified or shrouded in mythos because that's fucking stupid and ridiculous. I can see how from a black perspective these videos are approached with mixed feelings about being objectified and, harsher in my opinion, being expected to be a sexual deviant and household wrecker.

[@camdavis9362]

@Brett M I don't think we have enough honest analysis of this to say most black men enjoy being objectified in this way. A black man could both enjoy the ego rush of being sought after and being considered "superior" in some aspect while also feeling uncomfortable about the popular depiction of black men in pornography.

[@IcanSeeMyselfOutThanks]

I think it's because young white women are in that rebellious phase and they want to try it out. The novelty dies after a bit. You don't see gaggles of women in their late 20's pursuing black men

[@optricks2469]

Lol you don’t think there are white men who are objectified… especially in the PORN industry! 💀😭

[@ates423]

My dad forced me to play tennis and rigorously exercise on the track and in the weight room at a young age. I was in crazy shape and hit 6’3 by the age of 13. I didn’t hate being forced to be in shape but I definitely burnt out. Coaches eyeballing me up and down and being pressured by my peers to join basketball made me want to quit. I remember joining the track team in 7th grade and having everyone expect me to do big things. My family and other adults, the other kids in my school, sometimes seemed to forget that I was just a child. At some point the expectations and being singled out wherever I went destroyed me. In 8th grade I shut myself in my room and spent the majority of the rest of my youth years in bed, demotivated, depressed, even sick. I did a complete 180. neglected my health, didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, and decided to focus on computer related things and even pursue a technological field, completely trying to get rid of that athlete past. I was severely underweight and developed certain health problems. I had constant problems with my family and was constantly talked down to due to not being successful. Looking back at it, it felt like my childhood was taken from me. It wasn’t until my junior year in high school till when I managed to crawl out of that dark hole. By college, I found out I was severely autistic, and then the world began to make more sense to me. I began working with therapists to fix my mental and physical state. As of this moment I’ve been getting back into the gym and on the field for a year and I’ve been loving every moment of it. I’m in the best physical and mental state I’ve ever been. I have friends, a steady career path, a loving girlfriend, and great support system all around. I don’t regret what my dad did, I’ve even come to appreciate the discipline he taught me. I don’t regret abandoning sports, because I’ve found a new passion and love the new, nerdy side of me. Lastly, I’m grateful I was able to get a support system that helped me recover from the state I was in and help me adapt with my newly discovered autism. Now this leads to my next point. I may not be the richest person as I am a US citizen that has come from a lower-middle class family from Turkey, but I just can’t fathom how tough you have to be to be able to deal with a situation that’s even worse then mine without a support system or having readily available resources. I seriously respect those who were able to overcome their situation, and my heart goes out to those who are in the thick of it.

[@jeremiahfromjupiter2539]

I’m so so sorry that happened to you, I hope you find peace

[@MagicMan69171]

❤

[@s.c.7776]

My brother and I are Chinese-American. When my brother was in high school, he tried joining the basketball team - which was majority black athletes and a white coach, despite us living in a white-majority area. This coach made the boys run until one of them threw up, and my brother stopped going. This coach never got in trouble for the way he worked the athletes...

[@YOSSARIAN313]

As a former teacher thankfully that style of coaching is dying especially at the middle/high school level due to it just not being an effective style for kids and its being recognized. Its pretty much dead at the nfl level because the players who are millionaire adults dont tolerate it anymore. Its still a massive problem at the college level where the coach has immense power over the team. The authoritarian style is why college coaches tend to fail in the nfl.

[@davewestly307]

Maybe some aren’t in shape ever think of that ?

[@dozergames2395]

​​@@davewestly307pushing till you drop wont help you get in shape It can strengthen your fortitude and ability to push yourself but it doesnt help physically

[@TravisSgyatt]

⁠@@davewestly307tell us you’ve never left your basement, without saying you’ve never left your basement 💀. Join a sport bud get out there!!

[@Davenorcal707]

He made them run? So what were the consequences if they refused?

[@mv9653]

The further I get into to the video, the more deeply I’m thinking about the Williams sisters and especially how Serena Williams has been mistreated over the years. There’s so much overlap between Serena’s history and what you’re talking about-with the additional aspect of misogyny. There’s the fetishization you described, but there’s also the distinctly misogynistic aspect of the body-shaming she experiences. Any time she speaks out about being mistreated, she’s demonized as much as the athletes you described, but as an “angry black woman” a “shrill diva,” and other similarly gendered insults. It would be really enlightening to see a video similar to this one that discusses the specific issues faced by Black women athletes, ideally made by a Black woman creator.

[@bmwjourdandunngoddess6024]

Misogynoir!

[@Feliciations]

Yes!!

[@nightskingoth9887]

100% agree. For far too long this has happened with so many athletic black women. And people want to shrug it off as "criticism" and try to justify their blatant sexism and racism.

[@madamluis2537]

Lol how was she treated? She’s spoilt.

[@jgray2718]

Couldn't agree more. And the Williams sisters have done more to inspire American girls to play tennis than maybe anyone ever, at least since Billie Jean King or Chris Evert. I'm old enough to remember when they came up through the junior ranks and got into the pros. I don't know how many black American professional tennis players (male or female) there were at the time, but it was not many. James Blake and...I can't think of anyone else. And they got an incredible amount of "skepticism" about their "skill". "Oh sure, they're great athletes and they're super strong, but will they be able to hang with _(petite, pretty, white)_ Martina Hingis?" 20 years later and Serena retires as probably the greatest of all time _(shoutout to Graf and Navratilova)_ and, while everyone acknowledges her greatness _(and sometimes forgets Venus', who is probably top 10 all time)_ she still gets the misogynistic, thinly veiled racist shit. I always wonder if Sloane Stephens, Coco Gauff, and other future greats would play tennis if not for the Williams sisters. I don't want to discount their own drive or ability, but I'm not sure they would. Shoutout to Venus and Serena. And now that you bring them up, I struggle to think of any athlete, any skin color, any generation, any gender who has been objectified more. The only one I can come up with from my lifetime is the Williams sisters' contemporary Anna Kournikova, but she was objectified very differently _(it was purely lascivious with her; honestly I think she got more crap for not living up to her insane junior record, but being very pretty made her a lot of money and came with a lot of crap to deal with)._ Maybe Jack Johnson or Jim Brown or Muhammad Ali? I couldn't say. But one more shoutout to Venus and Serena for handling it gracefully.

[@sivuyilemtsi9840]

I watched a John Oliver episode talking about college football and I was just disgusted at the open and flagrant exploitation of these young boys. The worst is when people tell them to "be grateful for the opportunity, meanwhile the big guys are making billions off of the bodies of these young black men. I really enjoyed this episode.

[@tfh5575]

i remember being literally harassed in high school to play football every time i walked the hallways. i was 6’1” 280 lbs. i gave in and tried conditioning for two days and i just couldn’t handle it. i was gonna throw up and they said the goal was for me to get pushed so hard that i do throw up. i was like what nah i’m not doing this. people were so disappointed in me lol

[@christopherconard2831]

From the 5th grade on I was either the largest, or second largest person in my school. Every coach wanted me to play. I'm an extreme introvert and they couldn't understand that their dream of being the center of attention on a field, even under uniform, pads, and helmet was a nightmare for me.

[@ivystuart1736]

I’m glad you stood your ground and said no

[@lukaj679]

@Espartajo Desastroso nah he listened to his body rather than push it to the point of sickness.

[@ChristopherSadlowski]

​@@espartajodesastroso7892 no, he didn't want to do what OTHER people wanted of him. He chose to listen to himself and his body. You need therapy.

[@OscarSotoJr]

Sorry you went through that. That is such BS that they treated you that way. If someone isn't interested, they're not interested.

[@softwaifu]

Even though I am Polynesian, I really related to this video and share these fears for my own son. Polynesian boys are specifically targeted by the NFL - recruiters will go to territorial Samoa, Guam, etc and sell pro football as their way out of poverty. Jr Seau, hometown San Diego hero, played for the NFL for so many years and died because of all the compounded head trauma. I saw that when I was fairly young and also promised myself that I would never push my son into athletics or allow him to be exploited in that way. Thank you for this video.

[@dipthongthathongthongthong9691]

This would make for an interesting follow up video. How those distinct and proud cultures negotiate the allure of professional sports as a possible ladder out of poverty. Polynesian players are a known commodity in the NFL at this point but I suspect the avg fan has no idea about or interest in the cultural context in which they ascend to the pros.

[@theoriginaltaurus]

I didn't know one pacific islander that didn't play football at my school

[@blahblah4874]

Oh no they exploited me into millions of dollars and made a dumbass into a person who could lift their family out of poverty.

[@onlyone23km]

Do you think the professional wrestling industry does this same exact practice, given that Dwayne Johnson, Peter Maiva, Samoa Joe, Rikishi, the Usos, and Roman Reigns have all been successful with it since football didn’t work out for most of these men?

[@hapasiuhengalu7586]

When all the Tua concussions happened last year, my heart sank cuz I immediately thought about Jr Seau I’m always conflicted, because I LOVE football, and as a kid having Polynesian heroes to look up to on tv was extremely important; Polamalu, Ngata, the Kemoeatu bros (all of ‘em got rings), and now guys like Vita Vea, and Talanoa Hufanga (I’m Tongan lol, so I’m naming all my tokos + Polamalu cuz he was THAT GUY) At the same time, in a way, it’s like I’ve been socially programmed to be invested in football, despite all it’s flaws, and my dad definitely believed that was the only way I could have gone to college Because of our average size, we are typically placed in some of the most dangerous positions, either on offense as meat shields, or on defense trying to crash through the line The only Polynesian NFL QB we have was put in the fencing position multiple times in the same week

[@emersonmanning1124]

There was a meme floating around a few years ago that during the draft, commentators would say that white players had "High IQ, a real smart player" and that black players were "physical beasts, a real freak of nature". The sad truth, is it has to do with the fetishization of the black body. This video opened my eyes to many things about youth and collegiate sports. Thank you for posting this

[@burnteffigy87]

I mean IQ testing/standardized testing, itself is based in White Supremacy and Eugenics.

[@ForeignManinaForeignLand]

Foreign from the future reporting (not really, just watched it on Patreon first lol). FD starting this year strong with a video that'll make y'all think of the Super bowl far differently lol. I focused on the fetishization of the Black Athlete and the homoeroticism of overtly masculine spaces like MMA in my case but this video brings some insights that I hadn't even begun to think of.

[@hiwrenhere]

To anyone reading, Foreign's video on this was really excellent! While you're waiting for the video to drop or after you watch this one I would highly recommend checking it out! It was still rather insightful and a great peek into what we as black men experience in sports and sports culture.

[@ForeignManinaForeignLand]

@@hiwrenhere weh ya say, family! I appreciate yuh dread 🙏🏾

[@righteouslioncomedian1069]

@@ForeignManinaForeignLand You from Jam? 🤝🏽🔥

[@violetchristophe]

@@hiwrenhere I'd be interested in watching it. Can you link to it? I tried a couple different searches using Foreign's channel name, but didn't recognize anything that seemed to relate to athletes.

[@wastedinspiration]

I was trying to find the video (found the _Foreign Man In a Foreign Land_ channel recently, thanks KZbin), but I didn't see it, what was the title? Does anyone in the replies happen to know?

[@EddieintheLoop]

The story I always go back to is Reggie Bush. The dude was at the top of his game in College making the NCAA tons of money and USC tons of money, but because he accepted cars and Houses for his impoverished family, he got punished and stripped of his Heisman. These clowns at the top really expect a man like him playing a position that is notorious for destroying your body and leading to a short career, not take every opportunity he can to better his family's situation? Those at the top never had to go through what he went throughout, homelessness, not having that security of knowing there'll be food on a plate for him when he got home or a roof over his head even and they wanna demonize him? For not playing by their bullshit rules? That was a pretty big radicalizing moment for me seeing how you can be cast aside for pursuing security. Luckily he still got his bag in the NFL, but if he didn't and somehow hurt himself before he could and didn't accept those gifts, his family very well could be in complete poverty as we speak. All it is about is control, and as a sports fan myself it makes it very hard to watch sometimes knowing how much is on the line

[@t_ylr]

I love college football, but I hate the way some "fans" criticize these young men. Like I just turned 30. How crazy is it for me as a grown man to complain about 17/18 year olds for going the "easy route" or "going after the money". They're just using the little bit of agency they have in the whole process.

[@theanimerapper6351]

Luckily college athletes can make money now

[@Head_Turnah]

Faaaacts, that and Michigan's Fab Five getting their Final Four banner vacated after the Chris Webber investigation. They love to infantilize athletes too.

[@t_ylr]

@@theanimerapper6351 i agree. A lot of people complain about kids going to schools where they get NIL money, but I'm like good for them lol

[@EddieintheLoop]

@@Head_Turnah It's really funny too because it means nothing, all the fans still recognize that championship and that Reggie Bush won the Heisman so really their efforts to villanize them didn't even work

[@nathanxxvii]

As the only black kid in a school full of white kids I was always expected to play sports, so I went the other way and avoided sports at all costs. My young life was constantly marked with white people trying to get me to play some sort of sport or another. Even now, 6'5" 328lbs I still get asked if I played sports as a kid, I constantly have people asking me about "the game" and I look them dead in the eye and tell them I don't do sports. They look hurt.

[@painter-midge]

@Blue Plumbob yeah I agree, Nathan tell us what you do now! How'd you escape the sports pipeline, what are your passions? I'm quite curious /gen

[@robertcunningham1695]

@@holabola9064 right

[@radicalbarrel2729]

Damn, what a waste

[@4dhumaninstrumentality789]

You can’t coach size. Oh well.

[@Mezelenja]

FR BRUH. I didn’t go to an all white school, but I’ve had similar experiences. When will people learn that being tall and black doesn’t mean I give af about playing sports. “You’re wasting your height.” 🙄 I can be interested in other things that’s not playing sports.

[@ziro93]

As a Mexican man, I really appreciate your confidence to stand firmly on your perspective and present these harsh truths in a respective manner. As I grew up, I held a lot of anger about the numerous things that happened to our people and had a chip on my shoulder because of the prejudices that some people held against us. I wouldn't have been able to express myself the same way that you are now, and even at 29 years old, I'm still figuring out my full perspective of who I truly am, in terms of expressing my own perspective. There's a lot of common ground between the Black and Latino community, and a lot of shared emotions. Your videos help me filter through some of these thoughts and you've given me a few points I haven't thought of myself as well. My point is, your videos are super appreciated and I hope you keep standing on your beliefs while also presenting your truth respectfully, it's helps a lot more of us too. Even though you may never see this, thank you very much. You are very much appreciated sir.

[@BurnerBoy-mw7tx]

Moreno y Mexicano together mi hermano 💪🏿💪🏿💪🏼💪🏼

[@Vespasiaan]

I'm a white dude from Kentucky, and the main thing your channel has taught me is that I can never stop learning. I truly appreciate that you put these issues in such an easy to understand manner, especially for an outsider to black culture.

[@keepsit100atalltime9]

What do you plan to do with the information?

[@coachcarroll963]

@@keepsit100atalltime9let his white guilt grow

[@keepsit100atalltime9]

@@coachcarroll963 His silence speaks volumes

[@BurnerBoy-mw7tx]

@@keepsit100atalltime9stop tryna come at white folks dawg you don’t get no cool points

[@maxteeth]

it never really occurred to me that kids were getting recruited into this system so young. the thing you said about Black children’s bodies being objectified, and realizing an adult is perceiving your body according to their own narrative really reminded me of what you said on stream yesterday about solidarity among Black and trans people. i think many trans kids also have this uncomfortable experience of an adult telling them what kind of body they have and then pushing them in that direction. i don’t think a lot of people realize how deeply that kind of thing impacts a child’s sense of self.

[@daniellove162]

In England they are recruiting and putting elementary age kids in soccer farm systems. The US is waaaay let gross compared to Europe in putting athletes in a pipeline.

[@TheHighestOrderHO]

I’ll always remember how it felt when a female classmate told me in 7th grade “Wow Brian, when I first met you I thought you’d be really into basketball and football.” She said this after I joyously played with some Golden Retriever puppies that were visiting the school. I felt simultaneously seen for who I was and judged for who I was expected to be. I said rather bluntly “Why because I’m part black? I can’t enjoy playing with puppies because I’m black?” I could see by her reaction she didn’t intend to make me uncomfortable but I couldn’t help but lash out at her for perpetuating such dehumanizing standards on my blackness.

[@seraphinduvolzairo5938]

You have the same name as musician Brian Wilson. That's cool

[@TheHighestOrderHO]

@@seraphinduvolzairo5938 Being named Brian Wilson is basically like being a John Doe, so many of us but the Beach Boy and the baseball player with the crazy beard are definitely the most noted amongst us.

[@ma1ist]

Chalk it up to both of you two just being kids. She didn't understand she was being harmful and you misinterpreted her intention too. We live and learn and being a kid is the greatest time in our lives to learn.

[@TheHighestOrderHO]

@@ma1ist any bitterness that came off in my comment is regrettable, that was forever ago and I’m definitely over it haha. It’s honestly a hilarious story to recount however it’s entirely possible she meant to be a jerk, who knows, thankfully we became rather friendly and shared many jokes throughout middle school and high school.

[@IceQueenSW]

@@ma1ist yeah how about you don’t come on here and tell a Black man how to feel about a racial experience that obviously impacted him. Kids need to learn and she learned a lesson that day from his honest reaction. No need to try to mediate his sharing dude.

[@MarieVibbert]

"If you can't fight for both then you're really not fighting for anybody." YES. A thousand times yes. I feel this so much with my own struggles advocating for the economically disadvantaged - not everyone is a perfect saint of a victim and the injustice needs to be addressed no matter how 'deserving' the target. I really appreciate how you always address the complexity of issues, co-occuring problems and disorders, etc.

[@JaimeareRainey]

can u explain a little bit more what fighting for both means are you saying as in fight for the victim and oppressor since the reason they become an oppressor since they was a victim first

[@thejasminediaz]

I was one of the tallest girls in my high school, and everyone asked if I played ball. I was coerced into trying out after telling people I couldn't play, and when they saw how bad I was, they finally left me alone 😂

[@williamelliott186]

I'm here to add, as a gay black man, the fetishization is real as hell, its a harrowing reality I see too many black men accept as I'm just "attractive" or "appealing". not understanding why, or worse, actively disregarding questioning why you're appealing.

[@sailingoiesauvage5484]

@@Willis-nd3us imagine still using sodomite, what’s next you gonna say avast

[@biancaboricua13]

Coming from an area of the world here fútbol is a major draw, I stopped caring for sports watching how footballers from African nations or countries/islands with more Afro descendants were treated in predominantly European/white countries. The teams recruit these players but until recently nothing was really done to protect Afro/black players from being accosted or demeaned verbally by audiences or other players. Seeing this as a child, then teenager told me to stay far away from any sportsball because of the commodification and exploitations of Afro/black players.

[@JulianSteve]

Thank you for sharing this. I heard about how athletes from other countries are treated like crap compared to their European/non-black POC counterparts😒💯

[@dhj-i8g]

The Serie A in particular (of the "big" leagues) stands out as a problematic one...

[@jadeharley7190]

Bouncing off this, even UK/England players and fans getting upset and hurling slurs at black players. I’m not really into football and only kinda heard of the situation where I think an English (in a big game against like Welsh players maybe?) player who was black missed a goal and their team ended up losing, and people were literally shouting the n word at him. Like how terrible do you have to be to do that jfc

[@Cruelty-Torture]

Yeah, the premier league in UK has its issues still as can be seen by english fans treatment of our players during the world cup.

[@larissasantosdefreitas5881]

the same happens with Black brazillian soccer players, also the white brazillians practice racism against those soccer players.

[@alisdraws]

ok I'm a woman who is really used to having my body objectified in a very public way (well, by used to I mean it happens a lot so I just dress to avoid that) and I had a visceral reaction to FD talking about his experience growing up. I never knew how close our experiences were in that way. This felt so close to home

[@DezmondBroadway]

I was so use to being treated as an adult. I hadn’t even stopped to consider that it was weird or wrong until now. I was nearly 5’10” before middle school.

[@hurricanerae]

@@DezmondBroadway I hadn't made the comparison before reading your comment, between me (a white woman) being tall and black women in general being sexualized at a younger age. But now that I think of it, there is some similarity of experience I suspect. Makes me feel even more for women of color who were sexualized at an even younger age as I was. I would often be singled out for supposedly dressing inappropriate in a way my peers were not throughout middle and high school. I'd be told to cover up when wearing a spaghetti strap tank when another girl wouldn't or for "showing my stomach" when my shirt naturally pulled up whenever my arms reached so high (this was the 90s when all jeans were low-cut and shirts were typically shorter too. What the hell was I suppose to do about that?). I had a very upsetting experience where I was forced to wear a shirt over a dress I was wearing for a choir performance out of town. I was one of only 2 kids whose parents where not there because they couldn't afford to also go on the trip, so there was no one there to defend me (this was also before cell phones were wide spread). The dress I wore was tight, but long and completely covered me. Meanwhile, the daughter of the mother who made such a big deal about what I was wearing wore a short dress that showed cleavage. I was 13 and had to pull myself together after crying in a hotel room alone to go sing at Carnegie Hall. Just thinking about all the other girls who must have been and still are being singled out for "looking more adult" because they are tall or black or developed breast at a young age makes me ache inside. This shit needs to stop.

[@jospinner1183]

I had a pretty visceral response too. I'm a woman who, despite being white, looked pretty adult from a young age. I remember being 11 and getting cat-called by highway workers. It's a horrifying, sickening realization that my body was being viewed as a _thing_ by other people (mostly men). I was also tall and strong, so there was a bit of pressure for me to get into sports at a very young age, but it was mostly the sexualization that sticks in my mind. Hearing about the athletic objectification of black children's bodies makes me feel sick in that same way, and I'm a bit upset that it never occurred to me before.

[@caitieeeee]

Yeah, that was extremely relatable, and also VERY much not, as a white woman. My body has been objectified, but not really commodified in this way beyond the standard exploitation of being a laborer.

[@alisdraws]

@@caitieeeee I mean, obviously having a sports industry built around your body is almost exclusive to black men but the porn industry/sex work exploitation is right there just as bad... there's lots more similarity there than I originally thought between the two experiences and this came a surprise to me personally

[@MM-714m]

The beginning made me think of how I've been shamed when I didn't succeed of learning certain choreography by my dance teacher a white blond woman who told me "why do you have difficulties. It should be easy for you. You should be able to succeed better than everyone else in this room since you're black. " I was not the worst in my class but since I was not the best and I was a black girl dancing, it was somehow shameful.

[@domii3067]

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤💔

[@R_AM02]

the part about "panty droppers" hit me hard. being a black trans woman, before I was on hormones, before I was out at all, before I was even going through puberty I was fetishized a lot online, and now being on HRT, I get that in person a lot to. people looked at me, 5', quiet, dealing with a lot mentally and at home, trying to figure myself out, and they saw that as something to exploit and manipulate. I wasn't in the healthiest places but they'd just ask me to do overtly sexual stuff to the, and if I mentioned that I was gay, or a bottom, or even underage, it didn't stop, they'd just keep saying things they wanted to do to me. I knew what was happening was wrong to some extent, I just thought so little of myself I didn't care, I didn't think I'd still be here to deal with the mental ramifications of it later on and so I didn't care. I'm not a fetish, and I hate that so many people look at me as one, and I feel awful for anyone that has to deal with that

[@RoseInTheWeeds]

Everything you shared here; same. Pre being out; The few times I sought out sexual activity and my partner expected me to put on a very pornographic and honestly offensive "aggressive black man" drag was extremely othering and doubly dysphoric. It happened everytime. As someone who percieved herself so differently it was mentally debilattating to feel like it was the only role placed and allowed for me. They won't just not see me as a woman, but not even a person. Also, the prevaling comments on black male genetalia spoken or joked about so casually, we need to cut that shit out. Anyway, nice to see you living sister. We out here just doing our best honestly.

[@crusty2o662]

That's so fucked, I hope you will heal from that ❤

[@R_AM02]

@@crusty2o662 thanks, I'm healing

[@hjjjjk8399]

The world is sick.

[@dilificus]

I'm a white teacher at a Title I school, and a lot of my students see athletics (particularly football) as their only way out of poverty. I am deeply grateful for the video because it's lent me an insight into what my students go through that I couldn't understand through my own experience, and it's inspired me to look deeper into the topic so I can become a better resource for them. Thank you.

[@pranavpillai7778]

@dilificus It is a product of their culture.

[@davewestly307]

They could use football to get a college education because they gotta play college before pro anyways .

[@Ladyknightthebrave]

Let Kirkwood purr on camera!! Also I haven't finished the video yet but I'm fascinated so far 😁

[@jaysea5939]

He just wants to help!

[@ambermurray2496]

I was just about to comment this.

[@oooohyagottahavefaith6723]

LET HIM SPEAK! 😂 Kirkwood was just trying to offer some insight. Lol

[@realtalk13]

a ladyknightthebrave sighting in the wild!! love when really good video essayists watch other really good video essayist's work!

[@chaps_2543]

he’s a great co-host!

[@BrandonPilcher]

I've seen people argue that the predominance of Black athletes in certain sports is because Black dudes are "physically superior" by nature to dudes of other races, and it very often comes packaged with an insinuation that Black people are innately less intelligent as some sort of "brains versus brawn" tradeoff. I can buy that physical differences between human populations can affect sports performance (e.g. African and Australasian people having proportionately longer legs and arms than others, while originally related to heat dissipation, might affect their performance in sports requiring speed), but I bet that this whole racist commodification of Black male athletes that F.D. describes in this video probably has a lot to do with all the Black athletes you see in football, basketball, etc. too. P.S. F.D.'s son is an adorable little boy.

[@locdogg86]

The physically superior thing has been under contention for quite a while now. It's not that black people are physically superior, it's that there's more genetic variance with in that group. So if i took 100 white athletes there would be more uniformity between the frames and muscle fibers etc. The 100 black athletes would likely have more outliers on average. It shows how we tend to look at people at the peak of the physical spectrum and equate that to the majority or norm.

[@clawsoon]

@@locdogg86 The greater-genetic-variation argument should mean that black people are at the top of every field, from chess and software development to management and art; to explain why they're only at the top of athletics requires bringing in racism, slavery, and history.

[@locdogg86]

@@clawsoon No, u just extrapolated. Brain development is a an evolutionary process that takes much longer than any of the tiny differences between humans currently. Theres more genetic variation between a siberian and bengal tiger than any 2 human "races".

[@Aranock]

As a former athlete and a coach whos seen the college system chew up and spit out former teammates, I really value seeing work like this. I love athletics but there are deeply harmful ways that it affects and commodifies people. On a note of being sexualized as an athlete, I was deeply in closet at the time and being fetishized as what women viewed as a male athlete was a deeply disphoric experience and I experienced sexual misconduct and assault because of it. That behaviour and view is much worse for black athletes and women. My teammates who were women's treatment by the university system were particularly horrid.

[@charmillehare8967]

Wow!!! I am a sport mom of 3 boys…I am already seeing this happening… thank you so much for this information. Gonna really focus on what my kids want and not the pressure in the sport community itself. Enlightening!!!

[@CodyCole80]

Read 2 MACCABEES 4. Our children should be more focused on Math, Science, Music, Language Arts, Etc. You’re their mom, and they’re not my sons, but if I were you, I’d try to steer them in those directions. Shalawam.

[@PinkNintendoDuo87]

Good on you for giving your sons alternative paths. Far too often, parents who pressure their kids to fit a certain “mold” (especially to please their respective communities) can cause more harm than good.

[@Tron08]

That's great! A common theme I'm noticing is that the system as it is so brutal and all-encompassing, that the only way to actually succeed in it is for the kids themselves to actually want to do it. Purely intrinsically motivated, and even then it's STILL a long shot and could leave them chewed-up and spit out with not much to show for it.

[@angryfirefly]

I was just about to attribute all the evils presented to greedy capitalists. I stopped when you mentioned the fans. I've never had a servant, like a maid or a butler. But I have been a customer, and I can't help but feel like getting used to being the benefactor in an unequal relationship has corrupted me, in a way. I think we're ok with football players killing themselves for a game for the same reason we're ok with a cashier being forced to stand. It's how our culture treats it's Servant Class, which we definitely have. And despite even socioeconomic status we feel entitled to dictate everything our servants do. Publicists exist because we, the masters, cannot tolerate a servant that isn't obeying at all times in all aspects of their lives. These abusive industries are just trying to meet OUR demands. We're the ones that don't take the humanity of the players into account. Because players are entertainers, which is part of the servant class, which means they're not even supposed to appear human, let alone be treated as such.

[@tylergriffin3667]

As a white guy, I know it is very different for you. But as the kid who had somehow acheived his full adult height of 5'10" and broad shouldered/solid framed body in 7th grade; I can vividly remember how the coaches at my high school got genuinely pissed when I joined band instead of football, so I get it well enough. Well said, to all of it.

[@coletrain546]

I grew to around the same size by 7th grade and a coach told me I should be playing football and then ironically 3 years later in high school he was telling me I sucked and I stopped playing that year lmao

[@d3l3tes00n]

I remember hearing coaches telling specific students to not worry about their grades because they'd be "taken care of" to make sure they could play in the next game or whatever. Coaches were always so sus.

[@rexjohnson233]

Another white guy here. I remember in Cincy at a mostly black school I was also objectified by coaches and recruited to play football and wrestle because I grew way faster and larger than the other guys.

[@dogblessamerica]

More white, male content creators need to take this sort of subject on.

[@DefaultName-du3kr]

Had a similar experience. I was 6 foot by the time I hit 15 and everyone tried to push me into basketball. I suck at it and had no interest in sports, and stayed at 6 foot all my life.

[@PeeyJeey]

In regards to being a kid and an adult looking at your body, pinning your capabilities like a horse or dog 🙃 I remember as young as 7/8 I would be a model or basketball player because I was so much taller than my peers. I stopped growing at 5’3” my family still talks about how they used to discuss and how they’re surprised I’m so short with a 5’11” mom. My mother went through the same thing for modeling (she also ran track) and warned me always about how dehumanizing these paths can be.

[@RomoFett_]

CW: Racism When I was young, I remember my grandfather watching football and pointing to a black player saying "Boy, look at that monkey run!" Even at the time of being a kid, I knew something deeper was going on besides love for a sport...

[@JeromeProductions]

oh wow... its sad when even family members hold old, negative views

[@drews.6274]

I'm a 7'0 white male who has always been the tallest in the room. I was taller than my first grade teacher and ended up hitting my peak height as a junior in high school. I grew up in sports and enjoyed it at first as a kid, but as I got older I started enjoying it less and less. I wasn't very good because I was incredibly uncoordinated but I kept at it because that's what was expected of me. I didn't want to let my family down. I even joined an AAU team which I very much so regret. It took so much time out of my childhood and I didn't even enjoy it at all. I felt like I was forced into it. It took me until I was in my 20s to really start getting comfortable with my body. There were many times throughout my time playing that I wanted to quit and I often think about how my life would be different if I did. I stuck with it and ended up playing ball at a D3 school. I met some of my lifelong friends at that school so I guess it all worked out. I travel a lot for work nowadays and every single day I get multiple people asking me if I play ball. Often times they even tell me that I should have tried to go pro. Fuuuuuck that.

[@newscoulomb3705]

35:06 When I was playing football at a D3 NCAA college (no scholarships), we calculated that just meeting the basic team requirements had a minimum 30 hour-a-week time commitment. Many of us also had to work just to get by. Anyone who says that college athletics isn't a job in and of itself is either ignorant of how the system works or benefiting from the exploitation of young men and women.

[@segara04]

Speaking of Tamir Rice, he would have been 20 this year in June.

[@grmpEqweer]

💔😢

[@JulianSteve]

Wow, this is a sad fact. May he Rest In Peace😞🙏🏾

[@USSAnimeNCC-]

RIP gone to soon thank to the mess up system 😢

[@niceasf7038]

🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[@segara04]

This is also the age Timothy Loehmann assumed Tamir Rice was when he shot him after 2 seconds.

[@nicholasjordan7334]

This was the real "Buck Breaking" movie. I always appreciate your takes and you didn't fail on this one either. As the parent of a D1 Football athlete, who was an all state player and nationally ranked wrestler, I can tell endless stories of how the predators start coming out in elementary school. My son is my oldest and also my last athlete, he loves the game but I didn't even give my others the chance. Thank you for your insightful take, so many things I want to say but you already did.

[@wineoneone]

I was an NCAA employee in college (statistics tutor) and the whole "protect the org over the students" mindset was HORRIFYING

[@dougthedonkey1805]

White teen male here. Thank you for this channel; you and T1J are some of the most philosophical and thoughtful channels I’ve seen, on par with Contrapoints and Shaun. Growing up in Arizona, I’ve had basically no interaction whatsoever with black American culture, and it’s extremely helpful and interesting to learn aspects of it which it seems the general public, even many of those near and within the culture, seem to dismiss or be unaware of.

[@coachcarroll963]

Young man, believe me, it’s not worth your time to learn the victim narrative they spew. Next in the docket- the reparations debate!

[@coach_dylandacosta]

I played football my entire childhood through high school. There is a phenomenon I noticed long after I stopped. The moment of crossing the threshold of the end zone is the safest moment I’ve ever experienced. It was never about the joy of scoring. Scoring a touchdown meant psychological safety. Getting mine, meant I wasn’t going to be screamed at for playing like shit. It was never about joy. It was always about chasing safety which my young mind associated with high performance on the field. I noticed it because that same feeling was pronounced when scoring a touchdown in coed recreational flag football at the age of 27. I don’t know the plight of the professional or recruited athlete, but damn, I can only imagine.

[@dontbeafool]

I played professionally. Loved every second of the process. So did most of the hindreads of teammates I had throughout my career. Past highschool, you don't get screamed at for playing badly, that's for when there is still hope for you. At the higher levels you just don't play anymore. The stress is normal, it comes with the level of competition. Some hate it and quit. Some love it and thrive.

[@Joshuaraymalan]

I hate the idea that its either "pay the players" or "get an education." Why not both? I worked in college. I'd wager most people work in college. Nothing about earning money prevents a person from getting an education. Hell, earning some money prior to starting a long term career is a great way to set a person up for future financial success. And if education is not what someone is principally there for, so what? There are plenty of reasons to attend a specific school that have nothing to do with a degree path.

[@upside93]

Exactly. All of this. Nothing wrong with the athletes being paid to play and go to school and if the athletes are exclusively there for sports, nothing wrong with them being paid for that. At the end of the day the NCAA is raking in billions and I can't fathom how they got away with free labor to make those billions for over a whole damn century .

[@halfwaydeaf]

It's so freaking cool you got to interview Arian Foster. I have always loved how outspoken he has been, especially after he left the NFL. As always, thanks for a very entertaining and informative video!

[@MrRitchan]

Im a teacher myself and most of my students being involved in sports this just hit a nerve. Especially how these kids are robbed of their childhoods. Thank you for your videos, you always come from a place of compassion and competence.

[@elleofhearts8471]

as a teacher, how are you showing up and advocating for the wellbeing and future of your students?

[@MrRitchan]

@@elleofhearts8471 as a teacher in a country you know nothing of, my only option is to try and reason with their parents, and oftentimes it gets us nowhere. education system here doesn't value its workers as well as its students so you have to rely on the ppl most responsible for these kids' well-being, the family.

[@Jess1013]

I remember driving home from an NFL game at the beginning of the kneeling protest era. White fans were especially at their most racist and entitled, but they were invested enough to still want to be entertained. It was when I was in the car going home, listening to after-game sports radio on when one of the white commentators said “so-and-so Black player is a STUD!”, that it clicked for me. This was nothing but a slave auction to this big white audience, and the Black players were sharecropping. I’ve divested from football in every form since.

[@Hartsele]

That quote from Eddie was heartbreaking. I was pushed pretty hard into my highschool football program because I showed some talent. At 17, I suffered several injuries playing and was doing physical therapy... For a game. I was a literal child. 😅 I just wanted to play music with my friends and try to hang with girls... It took a lot of courage to tell my dad and my coaches I just wanted to quit. I can only imagine the pressures on these young men with the promises of cycle-breaking wealth in the balance. Its easy to say "well they are lucky" or "they're talented" but in reality, the costs of that talent and luck are very real. These systems often take these boys in, chew them up and spit them out.

[@sebg1224]

You can be poor and blessed with a physique that will make you millions of dollars. Or You can be poor with a normal sized physique that will grant you 0 opportunity. I’m not saying that peer pressuring children to do things against their will is justified. Honestly ask yourself why the majority of America would feel bad at all for athletes. Go work at autozone if it’s so bad playing ball. We’re all struggling dude 😂😂

[@Boahemaa]

I feel the need to keep children as children. I got dragged to all the try outs because I had the "form". My sports mistresses had to give up but I definitely felt the pressure to perform just because I looked the part. This was great.

[@IncogM]

Amazing video. as a black man myself, I literally stopped playing football and basketball once I got my second major injury to avoid more trauma and just hospital bills on my parents end. I was "supposed" to be the athletic child but I turned out to be the "expensive child" bc of them bills 💀 I think your video does a wonderful job and I cannot wait for the next one :]

[@raifaustino]

Having a "black cat" coming into frame a couple minutes after you talked about Jordan felt almost poetic

[@raifaustino]

@Blue Plumbob Black cat is one of Jordan's nicknames, Reggie Miller used to call him that all the time

[@StonedHunter]

Honestly that comparison to Kpop is a really good one. It's a similar system of taking these young kids/adults and putting them through grueling schedules while having complete control of not just their public image but even personal lives. Overall this was a great breakdown especially for those of us who don't know a lot about the sports world even if we're aware of some of the horrors that take place. Like, I always knew it wasn't good, but seeing all the details and nuance is just heart wrenching in a way I can't find words for.

[@reddare2386]

In Australia we don’t have quite the same kind of exploitative system of sports, but I remember being a youth worker and one of my colleagues started talking about an Aboriginal teenager like he was a horse or a working dog. Talking about his “powerful frame” and “broad flank” or whatever and when I say I blew my top…it was the first time I’d heard someone so actively dehumanise another person. This was just a kid maybe 14 years old playing footy with his friends and this white dude thought he could analyse his body? It gave me flashbacks to the comments adults started making to me from age 9 or 10 but with the added layer of racial subjugation that First Nations peoples still experience here.

[@ChuckNorris924]

I played D3 Football having come from a very sheltered white suburban background. This really hit me when I started playing in college, as it became a yearly occurrence that they would pull top tier talent from predominantly black communities, work around the “no scholarship in D3” rule, and just as sneakily retract it when they’d give no real academic support to these athletes after the season. They would become academically ineligible with no support, and would often have to drop-out with over $50k in student debt from a single year. Rinse, repeat.

[@kendrapetrick649]

My God. That’s diabolical

[@YOSSARIAN313]

Its a problem in basically all non scholarship sports at d2 and d3. The schools are tiny and use athletic programs to attract students. Some d3 schools have half their population in sports

[@ChuckNorris924]

@@YOSSARIAN313 exactly

[@ariw9405]

My husband was always weary of pushing sports on our son. He was a phenomenal basketball player best in state played division one etc. he didn’t want his son have to play in his shadow. The worst thing for me was when we started visiting high schools to attend the first question everyone asked him was “do you play basketball” by the 3rd school I lost it! I asked them why because he’s a tall black boy? No he doesn’t but he has 4.0 GPA and a perfect academic record. I was so disgusted and hurt.

[@ayanomar1408]

oh my god!

[@coleworld2429]

pretty sure its just cause he’s tall… do you know how many tall white people i ask if they play basketball l?? too many to count… not everything has to do with race

[@BeastnHarlotDFO]

@@coleworld2429 imagine limiting your sons opportunities because you interpret everything through a racial lense. Kind of sad, kid probably could have had a full scholarship.

[@coleworld2429]

@@BeastnHarlotDFO right… in today’s society everyone is quick to pull the race card. i can understand in blatant situations but based on what the original post described it doesn’t sound blatant and it sounds like they were reaching… i could be dead wrong but it just seems that way

[@owenkile6042]

Can you blame them for asking when his father was such a successful athlete?

[@gaillewis5472]

Your cat thinks you're talking to him. He's thrilled to have you speak that much. While having a conversation about childhood athleticism, we observed that non-athletes celebrate their first 5K run at age 40. Athletes, on the other hand run their last 5K at age 40.

[@GypsyxDarling]

Rewatching this, and I was thinking; sometimes I forget it’s a “media breakdown” video, and get surprised when you bring up a cool, underrated sports movie or something. The education i’m getting from these is so far beyond that. I know that educating through the lens of a piece of media isn’t a super original essay style, but you truly do elevate it to something unique to you.

[@chelscara]

If we can understand that child stars have innumerable issues due to their stardom, we can absolutely understand it translates to athletes. From life altering mental health problems to the absolute terror of injuries like CTE that can have a waterfall of consequences. Edit: 55:50 yup, was waiting for you to bring it up. Explanations aren’t excuses, but they are ways to attempt to change things for others. Would never expect you to be defending the actions, just understanding how head trauma and mental trauma works

[@kimutai1162]

Ndtu

[@StephanieKrespach]

As weird as it is, this was my first video (I'm a nobody editing my first run but this is how I ended up leading.) I'm a white girl former International level competition in a sport with zero Olympic representation. I grew up in white ish habitus but I was lower middle class and even for me, I had to beat my body to death just to get a chance of someone paying for my college. I was smart, really smart but no one remembers that, they remember that I had a double full on my own at 7. I was a circus act essentially. I had zero awareness of the racial aspect to this until about 10 years ago when I had my breakdown and it was black men who I had the most in common with as far as how I was pushed, why, and what it actually did for me. I was in the gym 3 hrs before school every day. I'm also from Chicago land. I grew up on the outskirts of the Indiana part of that monster (think outside Gary. Grew up with the crown point gestapo - if you have been you know). It's white but it isn't wealthy. The same people radicalized for Trump). This video is amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Seriously. This speaks to the experience of my best friend, my brother in law (same reason my nephews never played "normal" sports. They are bi-racial). No one let me just play with my trains either. I'm not black but this happens and is so true. Thank you. And I had to edit bc we both talk about Bobby Bowden. Those are some crazy stories that MOST people don't talk about

[@InventorZahran]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a "double full", and why was it significant that you had one on your own at 7?

[@StephanieKrespach]

@@InventorZahran it's a move in gymnastics and tumbling where you wait until your feet are pointed at the ceiling in a backflip, you tuck your arms in and do two 360 rotations in spin before you land real fast. It's something you can only teach a child to do bc it's crazy and if you think about it, it slows your rotation and you fall

[@heatherlee2967]

+++

[@mizzmolly7649]

When scientists say that the chances of a professional football player getting CTE is anywhere from 10 percent to 90 percent, and they're still bashing heads on the field, then you know that the owners and even the coaches really don't care about the players' health once their playing days are over.

[@saloonboone]

CTE is only diagnosable post-mortem so a majority of cases aren’t even recorded

[@ayanomar1408]

agree, once this became a common knowledge I really thought people wouldnt want to play.. but here we are

[@mizzmolly7649]

@@saloonboone Yeah, but when a person starts showing symptoms, there's a good chance they have it. The violent behavior that convicted killer and NFL player Aaron Hernandez displayed told me early on that his brain was mush. And retired NFL player Rodney Peete has been told by his doctors that he displays CTE symptoms.

[@optricks2469]

That’s a very broad range showing that still not much is known. Secondly that’s an assumption to assume they don’t.

[@joelpace2039]

I just watched the documentary on Netflix about the Malice at the Palace. I had completely forgotten about the "thug" narrative that surrounded NBA players after that. The 3 Pacers players involved in the altercation talk about a lot of the same topics you cover in this excellent video. It's amazing how quickly the media will remove all nuance from the human condition and paint black athletes as completely 1-dimentional, whether it's a performer that helps their team win or a villain who doesn't appreciate everything they've been "given" (completely overlooking the years of sacrificing their bodies within a system built to grind them down). PS, I watch a lot of video essays and commentary and, dude! Arian Foster? Never seen someone land a major star on their platform before. If there was any question left about you being legit, you've definitely answered it.

[@painter-midge]

I think there's also something to be said about the specific pressures on women, especially in very aesthetic-based activities like figure skating, cheerleading, and dance (to some of y'all, don't come at me acting like these aren't athletic activities because they most certainly are). This is definitely a branch-off topic but it's an effective addition to complement what you're saying here. For example (as a dancer) I've seen and experienced such an intense pressure to look and act a certain way that wouldn't even have a net positive effect on my ability to dance. We're expected to keep quiet, never complain, allow the teacher to touch anywhere on our bodies in order to correct our placement (often without warning or consent), and look pleasant and confident while doing it. I've noticed that these pressures are especially significant on girls who just can't make themselves look like twigs no matter how much they exercise; it's such a shame, because these are often the girls who work the hardest yet get the least recognition from instructors. In my experience, many of these girls are not white - some have to borrow required attire because the dance world is so expensive and elite. As POC are predisposed to be less economically secure, it's clear why we rarely see racialized black women in lead roles in ballets; pointe shoes are hundreds of dollars, and pre-professionals go through several pairs a month in training (just as one example out of many). Like you said about football or basketball, most of these dancers are paid little or nothing. Though there is no one authority preventing dancers from being paid for their labor, the main factor is who is chosen in auditions or competitions - in my experience, it's usually the 11-year-old skinny white girl whose parents could afford to pay for 9 years of rigorous dance training. I could go on and on about the racism in the ballet world specifically but (one) I'm skinny and white and don't have the personal lived experience that I feel should be required of someone talking about this, (two) this topic is only tangentially related to this video's topic, and (three) my thoughts are so scattered that I fear this comment will come off as nothing more than a jumbled mess if I don't stop now. Anyways, this was a very insightful video and I feel like I learned a lot from you today, even if I still know basically nothing about the sports themselves. Thank you!

[@margicates553]

My mom used to refer to football as “Slow motion murder ballet” It’s heartbreaking to watch then slowly get smashed to pieces. Mind, body and spirit. 💔

[@buffalowingschicken]

glad I'm not the only one who was weirded out by adult dudes telling me I should play football for the first 16 years of my life

[@IAmGhostProductions]

These vids have become a MASSIVE part of…breaking down all the bullshit i haven’t even begun to grasp about whats going on with me and how i interact with my own blackness, and honestly thank you for everything

[@bex8538]

This all checks out with the "shut up and stick to sports" response from conservative white people when black athletes speak up about issues

[@grmpEqweer]

Yup. OTOH, I've observed there's not ever going to be a "right way" to protest for them. The right wants all of us to shut up.

[@JulianSteve]

Exactly. I am not an athlete, but I do not want to imagine feeling like I have to censor myself for doing the right thing. We all have a right to speak out on any injustices, especially if it affects marginalize groups of people💯

[@USSAnimeNCC-]

And weeb practically white weeb in the anime community who less their shit over nothing like that Netflix cowboy bebop was woke and using go woke go broke nonsense when the original anime was already woke and it has a more diverse world with different race of people or at some mix race girl cosplaying a character these people try to talk for Japanese as a whole when they don't know what Japanese actually think of it and plenty of Japanese not all but enough of them where okay with the mix race girl cosplaying and have no problem with it and found it odd why would any gatekeep it

[@ma1ist]

Tbf though we only see these headlines when athletes take an L and say something kinda dumb. But otherwise it should be encouraged that someone with money and influence should champion for change.

[@sto1238]

And then they simp for the black athletes that agree w them

[@Cooliex1986]

Having my growth spurt in my teenage years going into high school I can remember tons of adults pestering me and my parents about how I'm "built for football". I wasnt into sports though, I liked drawing, video games, and music. But that never stopped them from throwing it in my face for years. I thank my pops from not giving in to all the societal nonsense and would happily tell people, "he's not into that and no I'm not gonna force him to play, sorry". But then you have your peers who have also drank the Kool Aid and then they start calling you "Big for Nothing" because you're "wasting talent" by not playing. It was so frustrating to be called that all the time and I feel bad for the millions of other black kids who have to go through that. News flash, just because you're black and have the body of an athlete doesn't mean you have to be one. Thank you for making this video essay, much love and respect!

[@ClockFink]

This was maybe your most eye-opening video to date for me (working forward from your earliest videos). I’ve been on the wrong side of this issue for most of my life for what I realize now were fairly obvious reasons that I still embarrassingly needed you to underscore for me. Thank you for the work you put in. It was perspective I desperately needed.

[@kraetyz]

Swedish-born non-sports fan here. This was a great watch, because you're illustrating truths that I've sensed or seen partially with the (particularly American) sports industry for years, being an outsider looking in. I've nothing more to add to what you outline with the NFL et al in the US, but something as simple as my memories of how Western sports commentators address athletes at the Olympics echo the same issue. The black athlete is "so strong, so physical, so powerful", the white athlete is "so focused, so ready, so coordinated". It feels like it's a parody of some more complex expression of anti-black racism, but I've overheard these exact comments and more than once too. The black body is a threat, a frightening thing, unless it can be controlled and used for good aka capital. It's... deeply unpleasant.

[@Nanook128]

52:18 this may feel like a very subtle distinction, but I felt it was important to say that Kaepernick wasn't protesting the national anthem. He was protesting police brutality during the national anthem. Saying that he was protesting the national anthem unintentionally propagates distorted right wing talking points.

[@flask223]

True

[@DouglasBurton]

Instead of cleat chasers, my friend use to call them "Tecmo Bowl", because somebody was always going to score and the winner is just whoever has the ball last. So whoever is with the person at the end of the night is gonna be the 'winner'. I ran track for one year at a private high school and I was good. It was insane to me how things change and how you really get treated like some golden goose that needs to shut up, show up and entertain. Step out of line and try to assert your individuality and they try to beat you down emotionally. I asked a coach for a break and was guilted into continuing to play, I quit the next day. I already wanted to be a computer engineer so they had the wrong one and I dropped that whole school sports system after that.

[@JohnHVet]

There are few things that will derail a child's life faster than the sports system. As someone who has worked at major institutions. For every success story I can show you nine who have been lead astray and are struggling.

[@rahburtheinz]

BANGER!! I used to play pro soccer in the league of NISA and i’ve had to defer my accomplished dreams into something new. Still figuring that out and it’s been 6 months but this dissection helps me feel better about my anxiety and instability lately! Major gratitude! Blessings to you! 🧿

[@mixedviews3536]

This was great! It’s hard to talk to black men about this issue, especially when they were athletes themselves. It’s a lot of “they know what they’re getting into” but I think it’s just a rationalization. Please keep doing this work. I love all your videos. None of the black men in my family are this open about anything. Ever. Oh, and my dad (who is black) played football growing up and in college (quit cuz he knocked my mom up)and coached semi pro football and my brothers football teams. He treated me the same as the boys on the field. Very loud. Very angry. Very violent. He’s 6’2” and 200+, I was 5’4” and about 130 when we would get into physical altercations. Growing up was a hot mess 😅✌🏽

[@jubilantsleep]

I’m so sorry you experienced that

[@JulianSteve]

I learned so much after watching this video. I used to have a more negative approach towards athletes, especially the ones who have high egos. Now, I somewhat have an idea why some Black male athletes have an “ego.” Some of them are hiding their true feelings or trauma. Lastly, the way that White man fetishized the Black men wrestling made me cringed and laugh. He thought he said something groundbreaking🤦🏾‍♂️🤣‼️

[@lefthandedsophiethepop-wit503]

Black men are hurting so much behind their famous bravado. They're literally not allowed to be fully emotional human beings from birth, there's no outlet for black men's feelings or emotions, hopefully more content creators like F.D. will help change that.

[@JulianSteve]

@@lefthandedsophiethepop-wit503 I absolutely agree with you. I try to talk about complex topics with being a Black man on my channel, but F.D’s content is on another level. Besides, my audience prefers more of the Afro-Latino content on my channel😭💯

[@drek273]

@@lefthandedsophiethepop-wit503 the only one that doesnt allow you is you. Its about educating them. Stop creating invisible barriers. This is a mental thing we're talking about. We're fully capable of having independent objective thought and not coerced to follow a path that is in mor alignment with the stereotypes of how an African American should conduct themselves. Stop with this pessimistic fatalistic mentality.

[@chewhatif4745]

that shit is stupid, why shouldn't athetes that play on the highest level have ego. They're 18 making million of dollars. micheal jordan a dick because he's fucking micheal jordan, or course he has the right to have a big ego. like your first thought was any black man who an athlete must be hurting inside because there not just famous, but they can market that fame and get oppertunity that regular joe could never dream of. they must be trumized because they think their better me. Like bro you sound hurt.

[@wrld-sq5pe]

this is very similar to what european football clubs do to young black boys in africa. these young black boys and their families see this opportunity as the only way to get out of poverty, and european football clubs take FULL advantage of this. and they’re obviously treated like crap not only by management but also the audience they’re being brought to (see: the way black players in the english football team were treated a few months ago after the team lost a game)

[@BeastNationXIV]

Now, for my comment while watching: As a young artist, and sensitive kid, I couldn't in good conscience, join a football team. I sucked at sports already, and never knew what an injury was, but suffered some already, and didn't need anymore. I surely didn't know what concussion was, but didn't need amplified mental issues given that I already had mental issues to deal with. I was 'courted' by a coach and said no quite a few times, and was a target by other male students for not becoming an athlete, but I dunno, maybe I'm better off not going that route.

[@deforestshell3037]

That's exactly what happened to me and thank God I still have the strength and willpower to still be an artist because now I'm semi-successful at it but... When I was a kid everyone from family members to the community I grew up in wanted me to play sports. Dad and grandad did and Mom did too. Also it takes a while because your mind is so young and all you think about is how you don't want to be there but in truth I was really no better or worse than the other kids when I actually came to playing sports but would hurt the most is knowing that they only wanted me to do that because I was big and tall and black. Every other interest in personality trait I had literally did not matter because you're always judged in the lens of you should be playing sports In America as a black person you're expected to have an affinity for three things. Sports crime and entertainment. Now sports and entertainment aren't bad of course as I'm technically an artist and that counts as entertainment and there's actually an overabundance of black entertainers and all Fields but a lot of these things have to do with the racism that is embedded in the American psyche And unfortunately you're playing in our community for my grandparents to our parents as well.

[@morgaanmcsg9873]

Hey Fiq, white subscriber here, my amazing Caribbean fiance showed me your channel and I've been hooked ever since. I'm only a bit into this video but I wanted to say something, I really identified with the story about Ed Curry getting recruited. While I did not face the systemic issues Ed faced, I grew up in a small dead town in the rust belt, my Dad's family were all football players, we were the football family in town. Ever since I was old enough to remember almost everyone I knew boiled my identity down to "That kid is going to be a hell of ball player." People always told me I was going to be the one to go pro, to put my small town on the map, matters of course didn't get any better whenever I got older and got D1 college football sized. As I got older the pressure from the people around me to perform at football caused me to hate a thing that I had always had a great passion for since I was a kid. I also found that whenever I eventually got diagnosed with major depressive disorder in my teens that my mental health was not taken as seriously as my peers because I was looked at as an athlete first, and a kid with a fragile psyche second. When I ended up getting depressed I stopped trying in football, I still played because I had to, but I was on autopilot. In High School I purposely did not sign up to let teams know I was interested in college so I wouldn't receive serious offers, and all the soft offers I had since elementary and junior high soon evaporated. I let the fact I did not go to school to play football stop me from pursuing a college degree for years, but after I got serious mental help I am now doing much better, and am on pace to graduate soon with honors. I also share your fear for your sons, my fiance and I are going to be married soon and hope to start our family shortly. I realize how much I was harassed into athletic achievement in my youth and I fear how many times worse it will be for my future black sons. Who not only having to deal with most likely being tall and athletic like I did, but also having to contend with the stereotype of athletic excellence because they are black. I also live with the fear of CTE one day rearing its head as I get older, I don't want me to behave neurotically around my wife and children because I was pressured as a child to bash my head off other boys for over a decade. I'm sorry that this comment is really long, but I am only 15 minutes in and this video has already struck a huge chord with me, keep doing what you do, and thank you, I love your content and you're one of my favorite creators.

[@janga75]

Why do you describe your fiance as Caribbean? Why not just state the country he's from.

[@CircusoftheMoon]

I remember being in college and it was a big deal when the school decided to give the student athletes a better meal plan because those meals they were provided were the only ones some of those kids were able to eat. This was decided to make their performance better not because they were hungry, meanwhile the football coach was one of the highest paid employees on campus.

[@gydorack]

Being six and half feet tall and over 200lbs when I was in middle school I did feel some pressure to join sports teams, but I never felt the idea that sports was an inevitability in my future. My dream was always to be an astronaut or a scientist and no one saw that as a silly or unrealistic idea. Now that I am older I realize that if I was not white I would not have been given that space to make my own decisions and see myself as equal to others.

[@antoniolopez-lr2si]

I always thought it was odd that it was common to hear "rags to riches" stories about athletes in the media but it is never explored how horrible the system is that got them to be in poverty and struggle in the first place. It's always the whole " Pull yourself by the bootstraps and you can be a millionaire" talk given to young people who are in poverty to succumb to an exploitative system. What a good and insightful video keep it up! 👍

[@dontbeafool]

That's the best message you can give someone. Even if you think the system is oppressive working in ways to keep people down, the best thing you can tell the individual within it is to pull themselves by the bootstrap. Seeing yourself as a victim doesn't help you get better and jave a chance at getting out. Or getting to a place where you can create change.

[@beepbop106]

I go to Coronado highschool, ( yes the one that threw tortillas at the opposition’s predominantly Mexican basketball team :/ ). Our school is predominantly white, there’s probably like four black kids in my senior class, three of which are athletes. After watching this amazing video I came to be able to verbalize something about that event that had been bugging me for a while, the three black boys are rarely seen outside of the lens of star basketball player, or soccer player, or football player, and when the incident took place I remember the way they talked about the black players on our team almost as a crutch to show that they couldn’t be racist saying that they loved them and other bs to cover their ass, but I really started to notice the way our school only values the black students that attend when they are star athletes, while other black students who don’t excel at sports are treated invisible by a majority of the school even when they have exceptional talent in other areas. One of my best friends Shalom was in AP calculus in his freshman year of highschool and was just insanely smart but the school never quite recognized his skill. You detailed the way that black boy’s body’s are viewed as a currency and I really do think that this video helped me conceptualize this idea and what was really irking me. Loved this video!!!

[@ryanbradleyrankin]

Man the beginning of this video hit odd. I'm white but i had a dad who purposely never exposed or pushed me into wrestling or football. He had done both growing up and was even pretty good at it. in his adulthood he has innumerable bodily injuries he got from a chase towards a professional sports career that just didnt work out. He didnt want me spending the "best years" of my life chasing a dream that just wasnt going to happen, crippling me for years. I give him credit for that because i too got endless compliments and "recruitment pitches" from coaches about joining teams and athletic programs. I give him extra extra credit because i DID play a lot of sports, primarily baseball. The minute i wanted out to go to weekly tek'ken meetups he let me no questions asked. The minute sports stopped being a function for fun and community i didnt want anything to do with it. When my own teammates were eventually considered my enemies, i just didnt like doing it anymore. There is a pressure for men that your interests are only valid if they are productive. That they have to be exploitable for product. Not sure where i was going with this but i identified with this video in a way i didnt expect at first. Edit: OMG LOOK AT THAT CAT I LOVE HIS LITTLE FACE. BTW please consider adopting a black cat the next time you get a pet. They outside of special needs cats have the hardest time being adopted due to stigma.

[@liyahmeridy7997]

I so wish black folks talked about the physical objectification we faced as kids. It surprised me and I never suspected that the athletic track was so wrought with its own trauma and impacts. I imagine black boys groomed for the athlete track get praised/fetishized for their physical characteristics, their aggression, their athletic ability, and how that impacts how they see themselves, and how they understand others to see them. And at the same time, possibly being sexually abused as a child, or on this track, and having that packaged as "manhood" -- how does that impact how you see yourself in the context of sex? How you see people you sexually desire? Sexual desire itself? Your comment on sexual agency blew me away. I could go on and on and on but wow. Excellent video

[@dustind4694]

The hell of it is that the desires being preyed on are so universal. People like being good at things and playing games, and it's amazing how twisted that simple thing can get by the time someone goes pro or has spent a childhood looking up to folks who did.

[@ThexDynastxQueen]

Another great one, FD! I'm a Black woman with no brothers so it was my 3 cousins who I saw get pushed into football yet all didn't "make it" cause they didn't have a support or education system who pushed more than potential profit. Describing it as objectification is perfect as tho they were loved by family, they were still treated as capital not kids nor human once they hit age 10-13 and were expected to be/act a certain way. Just as I was expected a girl to look a certain way to be desirable yet also not want to be too desired but my body rejected that by being fat, not thicc and curvy but fat lol. The 1st whose my age stopped as he became a father before college and I'm highkey glad he did as I was always scared he'd get CTE and knew playing stopped being fun as a teen. His parents weren't happy about that as they had all girls after him so he was the meal ticket even tho they weren't really poor like my family. If not pushed he would've just been another over analytical animu nerd like me. The 2nd is much older and is the large "Buck" whose anger issues were never dealt with as my aunt saw getting into the NFL as a fix to everything, he never got that far and after several stints in jail he's now is in prison for r@pe. The 3rd is the son of the 2nd who he also tried pushing into football but his young dad often berated him for being too skinny, a punk, too soft, etc and due to that plus the abusive violent outbursts he was scared of his dad and sports. His mom kept him away from his dad after I was like 9 and we rarely saw him as his mom's side just wanted nothing to do with our family...and I got why as I got older.

[@Epsomgwtfbbq]

Loved how you talked about the plantation almost as a sort of gaze, I hadn't made that connection before. It feels like a straightforward extension of the pastoral gaze to explicitly include human bodies - and the subsequent racialization that comes with that way of viewing the world.

[@Boggythefroggy]

My dad played college football in Canada at University of Toronto in the 80s and him telling me about how hard it was on you as a student and athlete made me side eye it for a while. Especially because he made it onto a CFL team only to be told when they were going to the training camp that they were all fired because the team went bankrupt. He’s white and from a poor background too so I can’t imagine how worse it would be as a black student athlete with an impoverished background. Not to mention when you talked about concussions for a second, my dad has had at least 3 major concussions with multiple smaller ones due to all the sports he played through school and when he had his last one while pitching in a fastball league - his personality completely flipped and he was the most depressed and anxious I’d ever seen him. It’s messed up how especially black players are chewed up and spit out in these college industries.

[@Varooooooom]

I feel like anyone who genuinely cares about people and cares about reducing suffering in this world needs to watch your channel, seriously.

[@Graeberwave]

Y'all check out Michael Bennett's "Things That Make White People Uncomfortable." He's an ex-NFL player. He talks about the NCAA and NFL. Crazy.

[@sourceeee]

I remember seeing a documentary about CTE in NFL (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) where your higher functioning aspects of your brain start to degenerate and die off thru repeated blows and micro hits to the head. It can happen to players of any age (including children) and cannot be reversible. A good 90% percent of players get this so its pretty unavoidable. These players push their bodies to the absolute max for the promise of a lifetime career and a shit ton of money, yet when they finally get to the age where they can enjoy that money, their bodies are beaten and bruised and battered. Yet in the end its the industry who won, because they already got their billions sucking the life out of the players when they needed them the most. Its sad and fucked up seeing some NFL players do horrible shit to others, which can to an extent definitely be connected back to CTE. Sports can be fun, but there's a horrible, exploitative and fucked up underbelly to a lot of it that's definitely pushed to the side.

[@starmorpheus]

CTE always occurs in soccer, believe it or not.

[@i_Ambrose]

@@starmorpheus head butting the balls?

[@starmorpheus]

@@i_Ambrose Yep.

[@SnakeAndTurtleQigong]

Watched this a couple of days ago, and haven’t stopped talking about it since. Thank you so much!!

[@sh4rkb4it]

your comparison of the realization for black boys that their bodies are a commodity to that of young girls experiencing sexualization as SOON as they hit puberty was one that hit home for me. as a feminine person that hit puberty early and HARD and got so many uncomfortable comments on my body from like, age ten onwards, the feeling of that loss of innocence, the sudden absence of naiveté to how some *grown adults* are consuming your body, is one that is…difficult to reckon with and it puts this video in great perspective.

[@jussehwagner3166]

the basic issue with contact sports in my opinion is that saying "if you want to become successful you need to have intercourse with me" is rape, but saying "if you want a chance at becoming successful you need to endure brain damage" is completely fine.