I can't work up too much sympathy here...

I had to read this twice because I couldn't believe my eyes the first time.

This is an announcement of an Author Discussion/Signing at a bookstore next month:

"Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete"
New York Times sportswriter William Rhoden talks about how the star system in sports often rewards athletes with wealth but little freedom.

After reading a review of the book with some excerpts, I will concede that in decades/centuries past black and white athletes were indeed oppressed, taken advance of and used until they were worn out and then tossed aside. Most, if not all, of them were left with nothing, having been robbed of their earnings by unscrupulous managers and/or promoters.

But, that was then. Big time athletes today, black or white, cannot, in my opinion, be considered as slaves to anything except their own greed, selfishness and excesses. I cannot by any stretch of the imagination think of tens of millions of dollars a year as "slave wages." Here I am trying to support my family on WAY less than 30 grand a year while these guys haul in more money in a week than I do in 10 years. If anybody's making slave wages, it's all of us regular working people struggling to put food on the table and pay our rent and utilities. Pardon me if I just can't shed a tear over their "tough life." Puh-leeze!