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
that s it. [ applause ] 2-2. 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 forth between white baselines 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 in an african american context. there does still persist in the world myths about black athletes because we tend to do disproportionately well in athletics. some people think we are all brawn and no brains. and i like to fight the myth. there are lots of us who can think as well as run, jump, hit tennis balls, dunk basketb
but i wish it would rain i can remember kareem referring to arthur ashe as arthur ash. he was our tennis hero but that s like o.j. can play football. that conjured up a whole image. internationalism. nice guy. crosses over. in the 60s i was much more impressionable. i had some friends who used to try to get me about civil rights issues put them on a shelf or down play their role because the tradeoff would be not doing so well on the tennis court. and if you every in the middle in those days if you re a moderate it s the same thing as being an uncle tom. at the time i don t really think that he wanted to be an
strange but i wish it would rain i can remember kareem referring to arthur ashe as arthur ass. arthur just wasn t aggressive enough with his stand on racism in tennis. he was our tennis hero but that s like o.j. can play football. he wasn t my hero. arthur ashe, that conjured up a whole image. internationalism. nice guy. crosses over. in the 60s i was much more impressionable. i had some friends who used to try to get me about social issues or civil rice matters, put them on a shelf or downplay their role because the trade-off would be not doing so well on the tennis court. and if you re in the middle in those days, if you re a moderate, it was the same thing