Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete

Rhoden traces the history of African Americans’ role in sports and finds a persisting legacy of exploitation. His survey dates to slavery, when sporting events among black slaves served as diversions, contributing to the slaves’ “psychic survival.” Slaveowners also frequently exploited their slaves, however, entering them into sporting competitions that provided the plantation owners with free entertainment and possibilities for gambling. From this history of sports on plantations comes Rhoden’s central metaphor, which presents the modern sports industry as a plantation. The comparison also inspires the book’s title: When African American former NBA player Larry Johnson was accused of being ungrateful, a disgruntled fan labeled him a $40 million slave.

In the modern sports world, this exploitation takes many forms. Rhoden cites the Conveyor Belt, a system of recruitment by which promising young black athletes are taken out of their communities and groomed to fit in to white power structures. Among the consequences, Rhoden notes examples of black athletes who, having been made to feel they were untouchable, later wind up disciplined, expelled, or imprisoned. 

As athletes are often unaware of this exploitation, Rhoden argues, they do little to stop it or in many cases even ride it to successful careers and stardom.