Literature Review

The Theoretical Framework adopted for the research study is Derick Bell’s Critical Race Theory. Racism simple put is a system of ignorance, exploitation, and power used to oppress African-Americans, Latino/as, Asians (South, East, and the Middle East), Pacific Americans, American Indians, and other people on the basis of ethnicity, culture, mannerisms, and color (Marable, 1996). Racism is a ubiquitous, highly structured socioeconomic dynamic shaped largely by a property’s cultural and material economy. Material resources are inequitably distributed through the reigning dominion of rights racism. Participation in an ideological system of rights maintains the dominance of whiteness across all facets of the socioeconomic order (Vaught, 2011).

In an educational sense, CRT can be viewed as the manifestation of Hossler and Gallagher’s college choice model. Predisposition is the first step a person uses when selecting a college. What goes into someone’s predisposition on HBCU’s is a direct correlation of CRT in the educational school system, which is why the author has intertwined the two frameworks. CRT recognizes that racism is engrained in the fabric and system of American society. The individual racist need not exist to note that institutional racism is pervasive in the dominant culture. This is the analytical lens that CRT uses in examining existing power structures. CRT identifies that these power structures are based on white privilege and white supremacy, which perpetuates the marginalization of people of color. CRT also rejects the traditions of liberalism and meritocracy. Legal discourse says that the law is neutral and colorblind; however, CRT challenges this legal “truth” by examining liberalism and meritocracy as a vehicle for self-interest, power, and privilege.  CRT also recognizes that liberalism and meritocracy are often stories heard from those with wealth, power, and privilege. These stories paint a false picture of meritocracy; everyone who works hard can attain wealth, power, and privilege while ignoring the systemic inequalities institutional racism provides ( UCLA School of Public Affairs, 2009). Derrick Bell was a lawyer and a law professor at Harvard. Bell argued that the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision, in which the Supreme Court de jure segregation of public schools, was not the result of a moral breakthrough of the high court but rather a decision that was necessary:

(1) to advance American Cold War objectives in which the United States was competing with the Soviet Union for loyalties in the third world; (2) to quell the threat of domestic disruption that was a legitimate concern with Black veterans, who now saw continued discrimination as a direct affront to their service during WWII; and (3) to facilitate desegregation in the South, which was now viewed as a barrier to the economic development of the region. In other words, the interests of Black civil rights coincided for a brief time with the interests of white elites, thus enabling a decision that benefited the interests of Black people. In Bell’s (1980) words, “the interests of Blacks in achieving racial equality will be accommodated only when it converges with the interests of whites” (Milner, McGee, & Pearman, 2013).

Intersectionality within CRT points to the multidimensionality of oppressions and recognizes that race alone cannot account for disempowerment. Intersectionality means the examination of race, sex, class, national origin, and sexual orientation and how their combination plays out in various settings (Stefancic & Delgado, 2007). Out of the CRT theory, we get interest convergence, which stipulates that Black people achieve civil rights victories only when white and Black interests converge (Shih, 2017).

Desegregation and the Impact on Black Athletics

When integration or desegregation is viewed in retrospect, it is usually one-sided. Jackie Robinson is praised for breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball (MLB) (Bowen, 2019) yet, and the other perspective is not even considered. While Jackie Robinson is revered for breaking the color barrier, he also helped disseminate an entire economy for Black people with the Negro Baseball League (Gaunt & University of Michigan, 2015). How many Black bus drivers, chefs, hotels, owners, managers, players, groundsmen, stadium staff, restaurants, etc all suffered due to Robison and other talented players leaving the Negro Baseball League for the MLB?

This side is never considered due to interest convergence. It is more palatable to talk about how Robinson helped the MLB grow than how integration destroyed some Black economies. The integration of MLB is a microcosm of what happened in other large-scale Black-owned businesses such as banks, newspapers, and insurance companies (Weems, 1996). Like integration, the MLB took the best and brightest of the Black community and improved their community and business. Of the 73 players who would jump from the Negro Leagues to MLB, eight would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Between 1947 and 1959, former Negro Leaguers would supply six Rookies of the Year and nine Most Valuable Player winners, so you can imagine how many more seats and merchandise were sold due to the new talent acquired (Knopp, 2016).

The manner in which integration in baseball—and American businesses—occurred is not the only possible model. It is likely not even the best approach available, but rather served the needs of those in already privileged positions who were able to control not only the manner in which desegregation occurred but the public perception of it as well in order to exploit the situation for financial gain (Thompson & Howard University, 2017). Indeed, the very word integration may not be the most applicable in this context because what actually transpired is not so much the fair and equitable combination of two subcultures into one equal and more homogenous group, but rather the reluctant allowance—under certain preconditions—for African Americans to be assimilated into white society (Knopp, 2016). White owners had no interest in cooperating with their Black counterparts, and instead of engaging in a business enterprise which would have most likely proved beneficial for all parties, the major leagues made a deliberate choice to put the Negro Leagues out of business after obtaining their best players and wooing away much of their fan base (Knopp, 2016). As the saying goes, the basis for community improvement is self-improvement. When examining the celebrated choices of Black athletes to leave the Negro league or attend an HWI over an HBCU with