It is not slavery, but it is exploitation. Many of these kids have been sold the idea that they are going to make it big in the NFL or the NBA. I have even worked with community college bench warmers who think they are one step, one shot, one game away from a first division NCAA basketball program and then the NBA. Meanwhile, the big universities rake in the millions and these kids fall away to the side and are forgotten. Many of them never graduate, and those who do often have worthless degrees that lead nowhere. I live in a state that is consumed with athletics, and whose legislature doesn’t give a damn about common education of the majority of kids. Once a big fan of all things sports in my state, I now hate every facet of college sports and refuse to watch it. Society would be much better off without collegiate sports. Maybe it is more akin to prostitution than slavery.
I do agree that there needs to be reform in the classes that these athletes take. I would mandate they have to major in something useful, instead of stuff like “African-American Studies”. But of course that will never happen, because that would be racist, or something.
Basketball takes awful advantage of players, as it gives them false hope of making the pros.
An acquaintance of mine is a teacher in California (major, major progressive liberal, of course). She related to me a couple of times that a high percentage ("all of them" in her words) of middle and high school African American boys are somehow convinced that they do not need to study or learn, as they will be professional basketball players.
She continued that these are kids that can't even make J.V. reserves.
The NCAA and NBA must know of this massively shared pipe dream. Yet they do nothing.
Oh, and alleged black leaders? Where are they on this topic?
.