ESPN's Claire Smith: Race, Gender, and Sports

sports are still guilty of keeping introducing two too many dark and ugly secrets from the university of kansas memorial ballroom k pierre presents the power of sport i'm j mcintyre and today on k pr presents it's a conversation on race gender and athletics clare smith was the keynote speaker at this year's power of sports symposium which marks fifty years of women's intercollegiate athletics a k u smith is a sportswriter and news editor for espn she was the first african american women to cover major league baseball sports starting with the new york yankees in nineteen eighty two this marks the fourth annual power of sports event sponsored by the university of kansas school of business the langston hughes center and kansas athletics this year's event featured former k basketball all american darnell valentine who went on to play professionally for portland los angeles and cleveland it also featured lafayette norwood who was the first african

american as sustained coach and play basketball history and now espn sports writer claire smith and the power of sports i was seeing here are thinking about what i would take from this experience in my projected to this time tomorrow evening and it's going to give a whole new spin to the phrase i'm not in kansas anymore because i will be a truly sad because i will have to say goodbye again and and also just want you want to know how wonderful this has been just thank you for having me on sunday a lot of philadelphians are gonna be bragging about this game that's taking place what i'm going to tell them i was a kansas and that's where will chamberland blocked and learned his profession and no one no one product of philadelphia stands taller literally figuratively

and wilt chamberlain so thank you for all you did for what chamberlain who will grow up and western and west philly and my mom says family at her parent's lives thereafter emigrating from jamaica so she had to answer the question did did you ever meet world and she told me that she had in which a song she was sitting in the car one day and a group of kids walked by a car but one she could only see from the knees down so she knew that she had had just had an encounter with well i am so impressed and so grateful to langston hughes center and director shaun alexander for inviting me to participate in your fourth annual symposium on race sports and society i would not be doing any

justice to all the recent show on head for inviting me if i didn't and a category and gender have come about because in my small list of pioneering events more had to do with gender than race but certainly errors i don't separate being african american woman i don't split them up it's often done for me i wasn't the first time i've been asked whether arrested in shawn's asked me today what was more difficult being a woman or being african american throughout my career thirty six years of covering our working for entities that cover major league baseball never had one problem that i ever saw all felt more sense that had to do with race

it was really tough to go to be overtly racist covering sports said had many prominent african americans in the locker room they belong to a larger family if you will and if they solve that racism spill over onto a journalist they would have come to the defense immediately time has not run out on being ignorant when it comes to being a sexist our headlines tell us that more than ever as brave women speak out so much more of an issue for women to this day to walk into predominantly male oriented sports leagues and walk out and scary i want to get that our liaison ending gender to this as well are serving as the year the keynote speaker is not only an amazing privilege but it's also an

awesome responsibility so i thank you again sean for asking me and truthfully i also find myself asking a question that i've always in my head but since being named jj taylor spink award winner and that's why me yeah i wanted to go to work every day and thirty six thirty five years later mike pearce said well that was pretty is how amazing that you did that for thirty five years i always saw myself as as literally doing my job skating my lane following a dream but most of all just being a messenger in being the best at that i could at doing that i saw the list of your previous keynote speakers i can construct a feces or elite athletes and institutions to discover their better selves through the academic

world as harry edwards dr harry edwards does so capably try as i might call never be the wordsmith that my friend and peered over again is he's such a talent such a mentor and i thank him to this day thank you bill for everything you've done for me yet here i am on the stage following the good doctor and bill and dave's ear in the iconic political sports columnist as the deliverer of this address it's humbling to be in their company to say the least where to start i believe it will be with a request please allow me to revisit the who what where women and why is journalism students you know the five w's of journalism in order examine how those five dailies captured my attention spark my imagination for the last thirty nine i'm yours and spasms i believe these

questions have everything to do with the reason sean asked me here tonight for they showed friends that helped weave tonight's topics together throughout my life i'm an american and i'm an african american and the great granddaughter of a freed slave on one side and the granddaughter of jamaican immigrants on the other and the daughter of a mother who was a scientist and a father who was an artist to me bernie sandos smith were two of the most outstanding members of the greatest generation which in the greatest generation this nation has ever known their struggles and triumphs and their ability to have to live a nation that did not always loved them back taught me and valuable lessons they showed me and admiration of sports that was contagious they so

admired the abilities of games to show the value of the meritocracy systems that their tales of jackie robinson jesse owens joe louis made such stars feel like part of our family i was sharing a story earlier this afternoon about how my mother who was born in new york city but sent back to jamaica as an infant because her how was not good and her grandmother back in jamaica was the three areas i i i don't want to say well the country doctor she e was the midwives she had the potions and and all the cure alls that could nurses this baby to help and so she was there for her for sixteen years and she told me about how jamaicans would sit in a little country store or in the homes that were our

blessed enough to have short wave radios and when why would they gathered to listen to joe louis fights to listen to a lot to hear tales of jesse owens to look across the caribbean at a country that really was true then that shining city on the hill and dream of being a part of this my mom an american citizen by barak finally came to america at the start of war were too she was actually on a passenger ship heading to england to start a college career when the war broke out and all the ships were recruited sent to the us and so she moved in with her parents and the the maiden m and a chauffeur rich family in philadelphia she settled into philadelphia life she ended up at temple university brilliance to

our hallahan high school girls' high of their catholic school system there and down eventually followed her dream she became a chemist after graduating from oregon state she worked in space aquarium at general electric power in the missile system i met the monkey that one in space as your child she helped fuel cell that was put in the missile that took john glenn into space she was my hidden figure but she was certainly my hero more than not dad was an artist out of janesville maryland he graduated from philadelphia museum of art school otherwise known as the place that rocky ran up the stairs to how to get it to his last exercise in i'm proud philadelphians and i'm a proud philadelphian and a proud daughter of greece and elsewhere my parents where my

heroes as i said and they're heroes were my heroes as well and all from mom and ed to rachel and jackie and beyond to help me may help make me who i am and helped guide me here tonight my mom loved the dodgers she loved the dodgers because a jackie she made darn sure that i'd love the dodgers to own and i did i can't remember a time when i didn't know his story didn't know rachel story as in third grade when the nuns at st james elementary school in elkins park pennsylvania spirit of our costs in the basement to the church and showed us a movie that jackie robinson's story starring ruby dee as rachel robinson but starring jackie robinson as jackie robinson i knew a story to see his face two years voice to see the footage from games i was i was just hooked and i love baseball ever since always knew that it would be in my heart

and eventually i figured out how to make it a part of my life what am i i'm a lawman one who works in a profession that still is attempting to find a big enough hammer to shatter still standing glass ceilings and walls across the board and i cover sports institutions that are shall we say still noticeably male dominated and sports like corporate america like the entertainment industry like journalism sports are still guilty of keeping and producing to too many dark and ugly secrets one gender me too yes me too there are secrets about race about gender about biases too numerous to mention they're being exposed today as never before brought to light by a women and men of all colors from the tiniest the youngest of athletes to them it aspires in hollywood wall street and journalism it

is a movement that hasn't lined with our sports with our society there's no turning back time's up that's what i'm i also why not a sports journalist i am rather journalist who happens to work at the art of covering sports i chronicle edited and suggest i watch an observer to the best of my ability i think nic to contribute to a greater product by helping to shape coverage that transcends sports pushing myself and encouraging others to commit to seeking seeing more than just balls and strikes this all helps form part and parcel of the answer to my favorite question out of the five w's and that is why it is my belief that is journalist we just our citizens not only of our departments

of or print or electronic media of our sports shows and our outlets but we're also citizens more importantly of this nation in this world as such i truly feel we should resist seidel wing issues to the detriment of any one of the larger communities to which we belong that is why i have always strived to explore how race and gender sports and society intersect these entities are inextricably linked and no fee out from the government a team owner or port of russian box can make that not so so from the philadelphia bullet in ending choir to the new york times and now espn that's the where i've been afforded opportunities to have a seat at the table to be maybe that seat on a news desk or in press row

i am so blessed that after four decades to still be asked to be in the rooms where ideas are born and for all the above reasons what i've been able to witness study and learn to become has become very much a part of who i am the countless lessons found in the sacrifices that so many generations of athletes sports executives and yes journalists who covered them are indelible it may no longer be mohammed ali or wilma rudolph jim brown or bill russell kareem or bob gibson being told to keep his or her place and keep their minds just solely on sports or just entertain us and be grateful for the privilege today's athletes are being barraged with the same admonitions play gamut don't think don't look to your communities and speak for them still the suppliers

we cover do speak out maybe more so than ever before they dared his stage peaceful protest here she can still be seen taking in the balloting ahead or questioning everything from wage inequality to the animals behind the militia's nightsticks weighing more suspiciously spent bullet or certain baggage like those who came before them today's athlete can and does pay a price should here's xi speaking out just ask holland kaepernick the former nfl quarterback to this day wears a target on his back that looks suspiciously like a presidential seal and had just completed regular season in which quarterbacks were felled by the dozens he still could not find a job in a league where you want to start other consequences countless nfl nba and of the nba

ayers heard their cries for justice for victims of police brutality and an off speed judicial system answer with enemas taunts that question their patriotism and sold at their mothers and in the case of nfl players to malign their manhood these men and women chose to ignore the treacherous domains of public opinion and social media they did so in order to assure that sports continues continue to play a significant role in the development of a healthier more accepting culture thank god thank god for those who refused to bow despite the rest to livelihoods and even still in our area of life itself now to use your name a new notoriety on behalf of others certainly can be a vital tool muhammad ali used his ability to wrap his defiance and both wit wisdom and wait

jackie makes grit and grace and a grim determination to sacrifice for the greater good he hasn't played in over a half century and yet he still inspires he still certainly inspires me venus williams she defy tennis to justify its notion that women are not worthy of the same winnings as man venus like the champion that she is persevered yes she really persevered history shows there were prices to be paid for stepping outside the lines the human toll taken more the founding record books but in the stories of flesh and blood recounting jackie was all before his time his body wore not only by team but by their choice to be the civil rights pioneer decades before dr king took the baton other lesser known stories were an art just isn't as poignant i'd like to share one in particular with few

who remembers would startle how nice nice he was the chairman of the fame pittsburgh pirates a lumber company the man mountain who stood taller than paul bunyan in my eyes his bat seem so small in his hands and it was often like until today but i remember willie for another reason i remember him for sharing insight into the america in which he was raised a youngster has spent the bulk of his childhood in california he did not know the overt racism much of the south until this pursuit of baseball are carried him to the jim crow south and the texas league where he was one of the first african americans to play in that on that circuit texas is where that dear dear man received death threats from the klan and others who opposed integration back in the day

the vowels to shoot him dead and he took his position in the outfield or isn't subtle as they were free willy like jackie before him still chose to play he chose the freedom of choice over fear but he told me one day in his early go rounds in the texas league a car beyond the outfield fence backfired that norway's so like a shotgun blast he'd been warned could come his way cause that mountain of a man to use will use words luce's water who says there's no crying in baseball because willy cried that day he told me that story and so today that it's hard to imagine now that lives like we'll use like henry aaron's like khakis and larry doby as they were threatened because they had the audacity to want to play baseball livelihoods

such as mohammed ali's and human peons tommie smith and john close to work derailed or ended because of the athletes political moral and ethical stances or because they chose merely to exercise the right to peacefully protest cancelled their kinds of indignation or untoward willie as prominent as i've ever encountered tell me about teammates well meaning or otherwise would rub his head for good luck why well it turns out it was a throwback to the antebellum so all were rubbing the heads of those little statuettes of black stable voice lawn jockeys was a fame supposed to bring you good luck culhane newspaper legend sam lacy and wendell smith the fellows and put the stories and jackie another black athletes out in

public who championed their causes while pushing sports to integrate they had their stories to the quad of the indignities suffered in with an amazing grace on their part these great journalists from historically black publications had to buy tickets and sit in the stands in order to cover sports why press boxes were close to them even as jackie another's integrated the fields by the time i arrived signs declaring that no women or children were to be permitted in press boxes still hung in some major league ballpark the press boxes and that was nineteen eighty two so you can imagine that when i saw those signs and barring me and any child i apparently would have taken to address what i could only imagine what they said just a decade or two earlier about race the thought of such indignities make me nauseous to this

day and he reminds me to never forget the slaps and slights others and door so that all of us might never have to suffer this some more outrageous so i choose to remember for willie and wendell and sam as well as all the other barrier breakers my friend new friends through north now i know that jim crow is dead i know that many of the most memorable legends to take the frontlines of causes such as civil rights and gender equality have long been off the playing field's hard to believe but jesse owens stared down hitler way back in nineteen thirty six at the olympic games in berlin and joe lewis and larry doby fought fascism in a world war that ended in nineteen forty five jackie and branch rickey they joined forces to integrate baseball seventy six years

ago this april this coming april and bill russell walked with dr king in the nineteen sixties very morton washington ancient history to so many of you in this room tommie smith and john carlos they raise their fares in mexico city fifty years ago this coming sunday summer their sacrifices their sacrifices enable large segments of the subsequent generations of athletes to see beyond black and white now some cynics might say the prior hardships allowed the privilege to see only green i wasn't going to mention them by the you did it are now so i look to michael jordan's generation if you will as kind of the last generation because people so easily disappeared behind their gated communities sold products and forgot that they many of the kids pining to wear their shoes were even

hungrier for role models and direction to be good citizens and all too many athletes won and where the dollars and many of their parents could deal for its ban that selling sneakers outstripped stumping for your fellow man for too many and for too long he had time thankfully not completely diminish the lessons are legacy as christy years heroes on the front lines and today's activism and the need for it shows that the old guard what the orbit and it remains relevant and so many case it's that is so painfully clear who can possibly deny in this year of two thousand eighteen that race and sports and gender and their effects on society do not combine to make his volatile topic as they did in the thirties

forties sixties and seventies today's headlines and cries for justice ourselves mr to yesteryear that is an eerie reminder that the work is not yet done it also makes one wonder what would not jackie or chose or others have taken a knee no matter the protests from the white house and beyond they're such a time continue to all these hot button issues thankfully what also remains is a constant and that is the time on a belief held by many an athlete owe each executive and reporter at the stifling parameters drawn up by others like so many foul lines and poor boundaries can and must be ignored on capra making your brawn james venus and serena coaches like gregg popovich and steve kerr journalists i can now kill robin robertson bill

rhoden they've all used their platforms they've all used and risk their names in their celebrity to maintain their commitment to something larger than themselves whether their movements can be sustained their commitments maintained that really remains to be seen meanwhile should we show watch write and record a new we will look for that telltale gesture that turn a phrase that will remind the valley again we will continue to believe that we will know it when we see it that stance of jackie robinson that brave brave man when we do the chills and the admiration will do that we will garner from that will make it clear that something more important than playing and winning of games is taking place so i consider it just that many of those who can't so command audiences with their athletic skills

have and will continue and choose to do more again there's a lot that they're always be consequences just ask mr kaplan but one such athletes and others connected with sports crossed lines others expect them to not five pj we in the media will continue to ask why don't you like i will will never expect to hear many regrets we certainly haven't heard remorse or what ifs from colin kaepernick when last seen the one time in fl quarterback was still not permitted to hold the football but nonetheless still was holding his head pretty darn high yes he's sacrificed he also persisted and no one could ever ask for anything more thinking you just heard there from the espn

sports writer speaking at the fourth annual power of sports and posey i'm at the university of kansas smith was the first an american woman to cover major league baseball and as the first female to keynote the power sports and posey him this event was held february first two thousand eighteen in conjunction with black history month and marking the fiftieth anniversary of intercollegiate women's athletics aka you you're listening to a pr prisons on kansas public radio i'm j mcintyre and now claire smith takes questions from the audience thank you for the art keynote speaker and are constantly for having my question is from the perspective of how has black masculinity changed through the years in sports oh well not being a black male out and give me a second to think about that aa i'm sure just there is as hollywood's

uglier days tried to use it as a weapon art to divide the country the first african american athletes were presented as threats appeal your children your wives your mother's your daughter's i am and demonize for being exploited our eye when i went back into the newspaper morgue at the philadelphia board in bullet in uncertain and being very philadelphians falling nineties philadelphia bulletins more which is where all the clippings are kept contained of why the deceased newspapers so i went back and looked up the articles written about jackie robinson the day that he first came to philadelphia the way he

was portrayed and described by some of the most mainstream media in the country made me cry i took cuttings out and i taught them to my sports editor and ask them to please explain to me howl in this country we could have noted newspaper people right well yes he has the the athletic skills but he cannot make it because he doesn't have the mental ability to use to solve this game he doesn't have the courage she doesn't have this or have been referred to in such terms that likened him to the animals do we see that to this day of so and so and darryl strawberry natural athlete he runs like a gazelle he does this he does that but at his counterpart over the air the caucasian race thinker

he's gonna be a manager one day he works hard to get colds have changed over time i think they still still still akbar used to denigrate to far too many athletes are as far as the masculinity i find just you keep asking questions and i'm having a difficult time trying to see to starve i hope that helps but always always always be on guard for those terms even the football players who were here please don't let anybody write more than once that you're articulate it's an insult actor articulate as opposed to walk or was supposedly surprise that you can put a sentence together you don't have to put a sentence together to be president of the united states apparently

and we're supposed to be astounded that apply can't really can put a sentence together so journalists future journalist mark that we're writing down and please don't ever be tempted to use it to divide because it is this backhanded are koppelman as you can ever do so is comparing an athlete an animal because it suggests that it's an innate thing it's boring and then they don't have to work at their restoration wake up on christmas even run a triple requiring no water no four thought no you know weight lifting or whatever so it's still there it's just a little more subtle but it still hurts it still stings and it's not just it's it's for any minority want to identify as having

this these quiet selects tony curtis hall tamer told me that when he was playing for the cincinnati reds he really fought like crazy to get a command of the language english is born in cuba blight after game if he had a big game he'd watch the media go to and johnny bench or joe morgan or pete rose to ask them what tony was thinking about his baking he played there for decades in cincinnati and so there were reporters who never spoke to him he moved on to montreal about a language barrier on top of a language barrier had his first endorsement offers in montreal had reporters fight through the french very of the french barrier to the english barrier to ask him questions that he

never heard in cincinnati these are such subtle ways of making a person feel small making them feel lesser and as a journalist that's that's just on a bad job and we should always be aware of that how you're presenting yourself are you projecting the respect that you expect in return so poorly on sarah meander on the bed and former journalists a candidate current events question i worked with kevin blackstone of the dallas morning news and joe drape when he was there on back to me i'm joined again about the new york times to allow huge washington nationals fan on the top and tonight's topic i wonder if you could talk a little bit about managers and baseball were still heartbroken about losing dusty baker and

will we ever see jason werth on a baseball field again yes the world never seems to run out of a place for jason morris the party so and this is probably why baseball players are not favored it's football players and basketball players because baseball money is just flat out guaranteed where the play or not and now i loved the headlines know at such and such a quarterback signs for a gazillion dollars and all i can think is how much is guarantee i hardly any of it so our baseball has a real serious issue jackie robinson would not celebrate jackie robinson day every april fifteenth i'm convinced the curlers the appeal of the game has been lost on the african american community with good

reason but they're also i think the forces that are combining to push african americans off the field and therefore our pipelines to the front offices and to the dugout as managers and coaches there were seven i believe us seven managerial changes in the offseason baseball has its but silicon role which commands teens to diversify their poles that candidate polls now one african american was interviewed for one single manager opening this winter when asked about this the commissioner baseball said oh we're very happy with where the silica rule stands because god bless them alex cora and dave martin

is what i have jobs and well deserved it great baseball people live baseball looks at its rainbow faces and they don't notice or choose not to notice that african americans are systematically dying off in baseball there were thirteen teens with one are fewer african americans very diverse teams because there's asia and there's latin america and their people all walks of life color in those houses but what happened to that jackie robinson's of the world where we're did it go so badly off the routes there that african american kids just choose to are we choosing not why do we not have it the access to baseball this war runs a reviving baseball in the inner cities lead

what when they when it comes down to these teams and their rosters they're just so few and far between adam jones was asked adam jones lost her center fielder for the orioles was asked why no baseball players were taking indian support of the causes that colin kaepernick and the nba players were championing and he said because we can be made to disappear he said that is the only african american on the baltimore orioles oddly yankees last year did not have been african american player every single thing he wore a number forty two on april fifty five who do you go to to ask why aren't you deal in brazil and touts arm there was a

young man from africa on the pittsburgh pirates last season and i believe he's going to be on the toronto blue jays as hear why i suggested to espn said do you know that the pittsburgh pirates have more africans than three major league teams have african americans it's it's just hearts to understand and fathom what's going on by the last year the representation on the field among buyers was the lowest it's been since nineteen fifty i am there were five starting pitchers there hasn't been an african american catcher and about two decades i know that hires parents are saying go to college get your degree take that scholarship baseball still wasn't dependent on colleges to service its minor leagues so

therefore if i had a son who was playing sports and the choice was the texas only forty thousand are signing bonus or katie you wish you'd better democrats and you will have your degree i push to put i think there are other maybe more insidious reasons for what's going on but theories going around but the fact that no one get an interview this past winter when the tarry pendleton zinn the water and awesome people are still waving their hands in the air i am caught a lot of people's they got a lot of people's attention and i think you're going to be hearing a lot more about that before april fifteen comes along there's a lot of anger right now amongst the new generation of former players who now there we used to have just

a really nice nice image in baseball and it doesn't exist anymore if there were reports that the new rules are right at the top and i think that it's a disgrace that his peers haven't seen fit to put him in the whole thing and i mean i don't know if you remember installment being asked about jackie robinson i don't know nothing about no jackie robinson there was a period where athletes really it was all about me all about me and so there was a lot of history that was ignored or that little what happened italian about veterans committees now made the beneficiaries of this upward escalator that has yet to find the top who won't vote marvin miller and

if you can get marvin miller into the halting curt flood prone has so little chance to get in i think before it would love to get some of the players who were on those committees to explain why they don't support the men who made it economically possible to be the biggest and most powerful union in terms of earning money intern writes most powerful sports union in the world i don't think so i'm curious three days ago we got great is that the highly race as mascot of the cleaner ones all will be revealed at the end of twenty eighteen and i'm a thing as progress but i'm curious on your thoughts if they

think that it's enough and b even though i were transferred to the washington football team yes so we had a wonderful discussion this afternoon in shawn's costs about this it won't be until the native american populations or even the population in one native american says our work is done we no longer feel a little are stereotyped by sports everywhere my high school jeremy high school in langhorne pennsylvania is apparently one of the fifty three remaining schools in the country that uses the redskins nickname it's the controversy there as i'm sure it is in every community that uses it i like our chances perhaps of getting rid of it before the washington redskins teams forced to because i see no pressure whatsoever from the lead

in trying to convince the redskins that it's time for that to go they support the redskins and their right to use the the name arden was long past time for chief want to go and it's not like hi everybody saying that chief wahoo as the same as the abomination is the same to use the logo on that phrase because it's not a stereotype it's not the native american version of little black sambo or the native american version of the caricature is that hitler using cartoons too demeaning and disgrace the jewish population this is an ugly symbol it demeans people and it is it's its

second dismissal by the indians hopefully you'll never have to make that decision again they brought it back and it's very popular in ohio and i'm sure they gave them a year's grace period so that they can sell their product moved it off the shelf but guaranteed they're gonna create those out and they're going to make as much money off of it as possible but they have committed to getting rid of it and it's long overdue in my opinion the last time we were talking about watching the washington redskins in any substantial way which was last season or run a flutter of activity when the debate when it was being reopened and pardon the interruption tonic organizer michael douglas said they're not going to say the word redskins on the air they're just there for the team as washington and it seemed to me that the sportswriter such as yourself and sport commenters actually have a role to why and choosing not to use some of these words and print and end in your conversation

to refer to cleveland rather than the indians are or otherwise and i wonder just what you think about that if if you actually have that kind of control or if that's an editorial decision that you don't get to control even at your level your stature or if you think that's the kind of thing that could be you know in a way symbolic like kneeling but really important if we were to start noticing that a change in how people talked in sports i think it is pianist left it up to each individual on air talent and there it's our the numbers i think are large who of commentators and play like like people they have the choice whether to call the team by its eighteen or bias its nickname i was sharing a story with shawn's class art newspaper and high school to play with here it's gone on three years ago now the students who run that newspaper got together and decided that they would not use the word redskin they would use and

chairman i those brave bold it didn't cause a ripple what caused a ripple was the school board convening a meeting and ordering students at the newspaper to use the word redskin that was sorry that was a bad day it's an art their message that terrible messages it sent to those students aren't so many levels don't think don't be you sell don't follow your conscience and started school tradition is more important than whether we're insulting anyone unbelievable decision so i think that tony and that that might have a lot more power if you will to do what they want and i have them for that i just put together notes for our game cruz and for baseball tonight i do not use

indians i'll certainly never use the word redskin i called cleveland cleveland's tears are now i just can't bring myself to do that i appreciate your cars early this morning and my question is are two questions do you think journalists clare on creating colorblind racism and also the belief that the mainstream media's few black athletes requiring white supervision contributes at all towards the public's view of mass incarceration and the naturalization of that certainly i think they're our discussion earlier about just weren't her image is portrayed it can lead people to this march the hard work of any athlete using the phrases that suggests that black athletes on how to work as hard

or have to have a disadvantage we've heard arm serena's feminism question working those muscles look at this look at that and people write those things are just off the cuff say those things without thinking of the consequences what is the message you're sending it's it's hard to write on deadline it's hard to please yourself but darn it you have to have two before he hit that send button just as you are encouraged sweet and so you read it again don't send but it's out there and you can't get it back on words hurt it really they really did i once had a wonderful conversation with ken griffey senior who came into new york and he had an amazing hot chip on his shoulder he was he had walls built around an npr

reporter one day and i took a messiah what he'd doing well i've been treated badly in my life in the senate or sip not by him he's ever written anything but laudatory articles about you we treat you fairly i know him he's one of my best friends on this be what you did was wrong and may i just share this with you can you're in new york there were twelve newspapers at that time they travel or nine newspapers i traveled with the team he came from the city that had i believe two newspapers at the time they're down one in cincinnati ah there where radio stations with megaphones the famine that the advent of talk radio if you will and then there were all the other local outlets who are there ways to send their

reporters would descend on yankee stadium so it always looked like a world series was taking place in swing a bat without hitting reporter and i said to him you have to decide if you really want to go to war with people that happen million barrels a day and at their disposal and go to war or based on something that did not happen i always i hope it i hope and then i show them how it was going to bounce off a bus and go back or humans you saw that as what's our first instinct sad but true in a lot of cases the slot back and slapped back even harder than you hit undone by the time can was traded a few years later he was i thought there were

tears in the eyes of reporters because he relaxed he showed us an incredible insight into baseball he was fined and bill cosby told him he should be in comedy that cellphone he was but the inside he brought the honesty the lack of cliches the willingness to talk to us to teach us something about the game he had mastered it was elected by the end was a terrible day when they traded him to atlanta night there was anger in the press room because we are going to miss him and their relationship was great that we work on nurturing that professional relationship i think that we just have to be honest with each other after the august job ice there was an african american woman a yankees that i stopped speaking to because every time he saw me he'd make a remark like a lot of

women big tvs and it just went on and on an iced up speaking to many came to me one day i want to talk to me anymore so why don't you respect me for that job that underway and i told him exactly why he apologized and from that day on we had a great relationship so it really it's such a two way street we do have probably more power than perhaps we should play it let's award no one wins and for this silly reasons it's often plot it's just sad really is it really really is you've just heard player smith espn sports writer speaking at the fourth annual power of sports and cozy and at the university of kansas smith was the first african american women to cover major league baseball and

as the first female to keynote the power of sports symposium this event was held february first two thousand eighteen in conjunction with black history month and marks the fiftieth anniversary of intercollegiate women's athletics aka you the power of sport was sponsored by the university of kansas school of business a langston hughes center in kansas athletics thanks to keep ers checks meant for audio of this event i'm j mcintyre kbr presents is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas did you know that most katie are present shows are archived at our web site so you can listen to them anytime if you missed my conversation with lawrence bestselling author laura moriarty about her latest work american hard you can find it there or if you're heading to kansas city's union station to see the part of that critique of it

you can catch my interview with lego artist nathan the way out for the previous keynote speakers at the power of sports symposium it's all i can just public radio dot org click on news i'm katie our prisons and thanks for listening