that s it. new ball. shots are 2-2. got by him. comes back with it! you try to put your entire being mentally and physically on automatic pilot while you re playing tennis. everything is concentrated on the razor s edge and you forget the score. you forget where you are. you forget what your name is. i feel like my body s floating within myself. the game of tennis is a symphony in white. players in white suits hitting a white ball back and fort. in all white country clubs but a new, young player has come along and he is one of the greatest we have ever produced and he is not white. i sense confusion in what an athlete should be, especially an african american context. does still persist in the world about black athletes because we tend to do disproportionately well in athletes. i like to fight the myth. there are lots of us who can think as well as run, jump, hit tennis balls, dunk basketballs. and the challenge now is to convince young black athletes that the
What most people fail to realize is athletics is no different than any other corporation where they may have some of the same racist attitudes about hiring blacks at this or that level. they re products of the american ideal. that ideal is sometimes twisted, most of the time it isarthur wo would make statements that when you brushed away the gentility, the niceness, the intelligence, the calmness, his statement would be more militant than mine. i could say good morning and be would take it like it was a death threat. in the last two years we had more movement in athletics away from the status quo than in any other time. this growing militancy among athletes is not going to stop. it s gaining momentum. all quite proud of the guys who are standing up today and being counted. i wonder what the feeling is here. how do you feel about the south