>>>> For a long time blacks weren't encouraged to play professional
>>>> sports.
>> Correction:
>> For a long time Blacks were not allowed to play in the professional
>> major leagues.
>
> That certainly falls under my more general category of not encouraging
> blacks to enter pro sports.
>
>> The bans were unwritten rules in the form of an
>> "understanding" among team owners. However, there were Black
>> professional leagues and every once and a while Black all-star
>> teams would play White all-star teams.
>> The ban in baseball was finally broken by Brooklyn Dodger owner
>> Branch Rickey in 1947 when he acquired future Hall-of-Famer
>> Jackie Robinson from the professional Negro league. The bans
>> in professional basketball and hockey were also lifted in the late
>> 1940s. However, I think there were a few Black professional
>> football players in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
>
> What about boxing?
It was quite a mixed bag before Joe Louis. There were occasional
Black vs White bouts at the lower levels. However, at the upper
levels
there were no repercussions for White boxers that refused to fight
Black boxers. Typically, title-holders did just that. In a recent
documentary on the legendary Jack Johnson, it was reported that
Jim Braddock fought Black Boxers until he became champion. He
then refused to fight them because he didn't want to risk degrading
the sport by having a Black champion. I'm fuzzy on details but
Jack Johnson had to wait many years before public and media
pressure on the champion resulted in his title fight.
> Is the boxing community more progressive than the math "community?"
It is impossible to make a credible comparison. Boxing has
changed dramatically over the decades whereas I imagine the
progression of female mathematicians has been steady but sluggish.
>> The unwritten bans were also pervasive in college sports.
>>>The conclusion from not having any blacks on pro teams might
>>>> be that blacks weren't any good at sports.
>> The excuses for not having them were more insidious. .. Blacks
>> lacked the intelligence to perform well in structured team sports
>> ... Blacks lacked the courage to perform well in stressful
>> situations, etc.
>
> It would be interesting to discover how anything analogous could
> happen to women in math.
In that respect, math is probably not much different than business or
law.
> Unlike sports where a physical appearance is inherently necessary, no
> one ever needs to know anything about the race or gender of a
> mathematician.
Indeed. I have read many papers without knowing at the time
that the author or co-author was female.
> Indeed, of all human endeavors including music, law, engineering,
> education, etc., math, more than anything else, has the smallest
> "personal knowledge" footprint.
>
> A mathematician could be a hermit and be on a level playing field with
> everyone else in his field.
>
> Indeed, being isolated from humanity -- and it's prejudices -- seems
> to help. Â Newton did his work hiding out in the countryside trying to
> avoid some disease.
>
> Maybe getting started requires some kind of in person contact but as
> far as I can tell, if any disparity could be blamed on societal
> prejudice, it's too subtle for me.
>
> In fact, according to the study, there is no disparity, not in girls
> and not in the standard deviations of the sexes.
>
>>> You're kidding. I've always thought black people were rather dominant at
>>> the Olympics, organized by Hitler, Berlin 1936, much to his frustration.
>>> The African-American Jesse Owens was the undisputed hero of the games
>> Blacks were allowed to be on the U.S. Olympic teams because the
>> United States wanted to win.
>
> Up until recently S. Africa would only enter whites.
>
> Cutting off your nose to spite your face.
If i recall correctly, SA teams were banned from the Olympics
until they allowed Blacks to participate.
Greg
