Book Reviews: Book Review of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete , by William C. Rhoden -- Blue Rectangle

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Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete

William C. Rhoden

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Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete William C. Rhoden "I wanted to read Forty Million Dollar Slaves because I totally got caught up in the hype of the title. William Rhoden, who's the author, had been doing lots of interviews, radio, I was reading stuff in the newspaper about him, I'd heard him actually on Tavis Smiley talk about it and thought I've gotta read this book, I've gotta read this book. Forty Million Dollar Slaves, the subtitle is The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete. So it actually talks to the position of African-American, primarily males, in athletics. He really sees athletics and sports as sort of the last plantation system. He used that analogy because he talked about the ownership of your sports teams are primarily white male. Those bringing the money in are primarily African-American men and some women. So his premise is that there's an imbalance of power. He speaks to the point that while African-American sports figures get a lot of celebrity, they still control nothing. I understood his foundation and his premise. I certainly saw parallels with plantation slavery; that was very clear. I thought that some of it was a little too generalized. I didn't think he did a very good job of pointing out those athletes who have not been disconnected. My star rating for Forty Million Dollar Slaves would probably be maybe a 3½ to a 4, and I even wondered when I read it, it was like did some athlete really tick him off somewhere, and is this kind of his attack at that? Because some of it felt a little personal."