Title: College Athletics: How far is too far?

College Athletics: How far is too far?

Much of college and university life surrounds itself by athletics. This remains a known fact. Anyone who attends college can tell you the same. On Saturdays, groups of fans dress up or paint themselves and march down to the stadium in order to demonstrate their school pride. What's the harm in that, one may ask; absolutely nothing. The problem lies with the athletes who entertain their classmates.

Beginning as far back as the Native Americans, discrimination still occurs in today's society. It began with the pilgrims and left off with African Americans. In the 1800's, Europe, Africa, and America would trade goods among each other. First Europe would ship cloth, rum, salt, and weapons to Africa. Africa would then ship off slaves to America; and in turn America would ship tobacco, sugar and molasses to Europe. African American slaves originated from this trading system.

English: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin ...

English: Dr. Martin Luther King giving his "I Have...

Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: ...

Always looked down upon and treated like dirt, slaves wished and dreamed for freedom to one-day come.

A Civil Rights Movement legend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led the way for the less fortunate and looked down upon to gain equality. King's dream that "one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal," started becoming a reality in 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment became ratified. It stated that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States and gives Congress the power to enforce this article by legislation.

Then in 1896, the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson upheld a "separate but equal" doctrine (blacks must remain segregated but now equal to whites) that still left African Americans out in the dust. This decision marked...