Steinberg: Sports a unifying force

As America is roiling in the aftermath of horrific killings of police in a major city and trying to cope with the spectre of controversial shootings of black males by police, there is one area of society which combines different races every day in harmonious workplaces. Team sports may provide metaphorical inspiration as to how the larger society can start to view people from other racial and religious backgrounds with tolerance rather than fear and work together for shared goals and values. Sports has its own sad history of racial and gender discrimination to move past, but consider this reality -- every day all across the country blacks, whites, Asians, and Latinos assemble in high school, collegiate, professional and club sports with a minimal amount of conflict.

Athletes focus on a shared goal. They want to compete and win. They accept a set of rules and regulations that are uniformly applied. The reason that football was able to welcome a gay player was that sports, with exceptions, is a meritocracy. If a defensive lineman has an ability to rush the passer and help a team win, his racial,religious,sexual preference is secondary to the team goal. It was not always like this, but a younger generation of athletes who are more tolerant, and the pressures of competing have made it so.

Consider a Major League Baseball team. The Dodgers have players who are white, black, Japanese, Korean, Latino, Caribbean and they play together, shower together, travel together every day. If an athlete has real antipathy to other races, a racially diverse locker room is not a great place to spend time. A football team functions similarly to the army. There is a common enemy, a threat of injury, a need for teamwork. These players rely on the ability of other players to watch their back. They bleed together, go through rehab together and form friendships and loyalty. They may not spend much time socializing away from the game, but sports creates a level of camaraderie, bonding and shared experiences that can last a lifetime.

Many parts of this country are residentially segregated so that different races may not come into much contact. Washington D.C. media talking heads can pontificate about solutions to racial tension -- but they may not have had the daily experience of actually living proximate to other races. or building real friendships. I grew up in Los Angeles, several blocks from a Federally supported residential project. I had friends who were Latino, Black, Asian. That provides the perspective of seeing people as real people, not stereotypes. In the 1980s Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon and I were featured in an advertisement for Pac Bell which portrayed us using the phone to maintain our relationship. How often does popular media feature racially diverse relationships that actually exist at many levels?

Does every athlete love every one of their teammates? Probably not. But there are wonderful human beings from every background and jerks from every background. Being able to look at a person as a person and not a racial representative is where this society can grow. Showing the public more examples of athletes forming friendships and working for a larger goal might help decrease the alienation that threatens us.

Sports does not have the solution for controlling rogue police or protecting police from domestic terrorism, but it certainly can impact the public discussion.