Leonard Moore, the director of African and African American Studies at LSU and an expert on the intersections of race and sport, makes some provocative points about representations of black men on TV in an interview with Brendan O’Keefe of The Ithacan after he delivered a speech entitled “ESPN and the Miseducation of Black Males”:

I believe that ESPN has contributed to the culture of anti-intellectualism in the African-American community. ESPN has six stations. It’s 24-hour, non-stop sports. And so, I really believe ESPN is the reason why there are so many African-American males who believe they can make it to the field, who believe that athletics is their only way out. We have nothing to counter that. White kids who watch ESPN are OK because they can go to these other stations and watch white attorneys, white engineers, white judges. But black folk, we have nothing to counter that. I believe ESPN is a one-way freight train. I believe we will keep losing sharp young men to athletics because that’s all they see.

O’Keefe then asks, “Besides ESPN, what is the biggest issue facing the black athlete today?”:

It’s really understanding that they can do something other than play. The problem is they don’t see any models of that. Popular culture doesn’t have a show about a black professor, doesn’t have a show about a black business owner. They think sports, and that’s it. The thing we’re trying to do is let them know, hey, sports is basically temporary employment for five years at best. They can do some other things. But when that’s all our society shows and that’s all our society tells us, that this is your purpose right here to run this ball or whatever it is, then thatâ??s what it comes down to.

A worthwhile reminder as we anticipate the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — which has never really been the celebration of the student-athlete it should be.

Need confirmation? Check this year’s installment from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport of “Keeping Score When It Counts” (pdf), their annual study of graduation rates among the tournament-bound teams. It puts Moore’s comments in context:

Like 2006, there is substantial good news for the tournament teams when we examine the Graduation Success Rates. The Academic Progress Rates, although still inconclusive, also are somewhat optimistic. The lingering bad news is the continuing disparity in the academic success between African-American and white men’s basketball student-athletes …. 95 percent (57 schools) graduated 50 percent or more of their white basketball student-athletes, but only 54 percent (34 schools) graduated 50 percent or more of their African-American basketball student-athletes creating a 41 percentage point gap

It should be noted, though, that the graduation rate of African American male basketball players has risen significantly over the years, and their total graduation rate (51 percent) is better than the graduation rate for African American male students in general (36 percent).

I suspect, though, that has as much to do with the individual attention they receive as with the transformative power of the basketball spotlight.