Beware, we're taking over

Sports are a huge part of the entertainment world. Now, it used to be that the color of your skin limited you to the sport that you played. There used to be all types of stereotypes regarding ethnicity and athletic ability. The year is 2005, and thanks to Tiger Woods, who broke the mold for African Americans in golf, and the Williams sisters who became nationally known African American tennis players, the people of the world are starting to see that a person's race has no importance in the sport that a person plays.

Being that it is Black History month, and ironically the main sport of the month is basketball, a so-called "black" sport, African Americans are among the main targets of these stereotypical views.

It's not just all African American people who get the criticism. Hispanics are also ridiculed and stereotyped for soccer. Believe it or not, last season in the NBA, Eduardo Najera, who played for the Dallas Mavericks, set the standard for Hispanics in basketball. Also, there is an abundance of Hispanics making a name for themselves in the NFL, even in some starting positions.

Many years ago, America's favorite pastime, baseball, had a Negro League because African Americans were not allowed to play in the national league. That was until Jackie Robinson. Although Robinson played many sports, he stood out as a baseball player and became the first African American to play in major league baseball.

Even today, there are records being broken in several sports by many African American men. Did you know that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donnovan McNaab is only the second African American quarterback to start in a super bowl? Even African American women are setting positive examples in the sports world. Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoops are among the highest paid female basketball players, both African American women.

In football, many African American men are excelling in the quarterback position. Yes black men can throw a pretty nice spiral pass. Steve McNair, Michael Vick, and Quincy Carter just to name a few, are some of the men who are black quarterback pioneers of our time.

In the world we live in today, there is more that African Americans can do than play basketball and run really fast. Even African American coaches are making a name for themselves on the professional and collegiate levels. There are coaches representing
African Americans in basketball, football, track, and even a few of them are making names for themselves as baseball managers.

Is the Civil Rights movement over? Are we still judging the book by its cover? There is still and probably always will be some type of discrimination in the world, and its sad to say that it occurs even in the "wonderful world of sports", a market where people of all races are supposed to come together and represent unity among one another and let their talents be the judge not the color of their skin.