To examine how athletes are promoted based on their race, let’s examine Elvis Presley, Barbie, the NFL, and the WNBA.
During my initial visit to the National Museum of African American Music in the beginning of 2021, I was drawn to a specific item. It was a sign with a quotation from record executive Sam Phillips of Memphis, who ran Sun Records in the 1950s and 1960s.
Early in his career, Phillips gained notoriety and financial success by recording Black blues musicians such as Howlin’ Wolf, Little Milton, and B.B. King. Phillips’ earliest love was blues music, which he felt went beyond racial boundaries in its observations of the struggles and victories that all people face in life. Phillips was aware that race did important, particularly in the context of economics.
He declared, “I could make a million dollars if I could find a white man who had a Negro sound and a Negro feel.” As they say, the rest is history about what happened to Phillips. He would later record Elvis Presley, a white man who became incredibly successful commercially by emulating the gospel and secular Black musicians who had influenced his early music through his singing and dancing.
