Here is something I came across the other day.
On January 7, 1927, the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team came into being. The team traveled 48 miles west from Chicago to play their first game in Hinckley, Illinois.
So here is the thing. The Globetrotters were the creation of Abe Saperstein of Chicago. The deal was, this guy took over coaching duties for a team of African American players originally known as the Savoy Big Five.
At this time in history, only whites were allowed to play on professional basketball teams. So Saperstein decided to promote his new team’s racial makeup by naming them after Harlem, the famous African American neighborhood of New York City.
Saperstein was definitely wanting to promote this team. He was the son of a tailor and, all by himself, sewed their red, white, and blue uniforms (emblazoned with the words “New York”).
The lineup in that first game, for which the Globetrotters were paid $75, was Walter “Toots” Wright, Byron “Fat” Long, Willis “Kid” Oliver, Andy Washington and Al “Runt” Pullins.
The Globetrotters won 101 out of 117 games that first season. They brought a “new” aspect to the game.
By 1936, they had played more than 1,000 games and appeared in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Washington, and North and South Dakota. (The Globetrotters didn’t actually play a game in Harlem until the late 1960s.)
At any rate, it got me to thinking. The Harlem Globetrotters are still alive and well today. And this was their beginning in 1927. Yet, the team was emerging along with other “black” entities, like the Negro Leagues in baseball, actors playing “blackface” on stage, and other Vaudeville acts that focused on black actors being portrayed as “stereotypical” black.
Many of these practices have rightfully come to be widely recognized as deeply offensive and racially insensitive. These practices are now widely condemned as a symbol of racism and bigotry. Most have been disbanded.
So my question is, how come the Harlem Globetrotters have thrived when we no longer see Uncle Ben or Aunt Jemima’s pictures on our grocery shelves? Why are The Harlem Globetrotters not seen as a racist entity? (They are owned by Herschend Family Entertainment. A white family, I should add.)
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“Racism springs from the lie that certain human beings are less than fully human. It’s a self-centered falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing we are right to treat others as we would not want to be treated.”
– Alveda King
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“Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out.”
– Pierre Berton
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“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
– Nelson Mandela
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Harlem Globetrotters. But why for, I wonder.
