Why are there so few black pro players..?

hello said:
Is there an explanation why so few black players seem to have interest pool at professional level..?
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There three great articles about this subject written by the journalist and editor Mike Shamos. He wrote for Billiard Digest for many years and was a expert reviwer of the game. The artcale reflected more on the past than current players but are all well written and worth the read, you finish then better informed, they are:

"Parallel Universes"
"Black Ball"
"Pool Shark Fro Brooklyn" (Not written by Mike, but retrenched)
 
JAM said:
... Interestingly, there is an excellent article about James Evans, relatively unknown Black pool great, in Billiards Digest written by Mike Geffner, but I can't find it. It explains a lot about the Black pool community many moons ago. ...
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June 2003.
 
3kushn said:
Going Pro takes a personality/drive to accept a million misses, much less Hitting a Million Balls.

Just like the female question, its a numbers game maybe a money game. Don't exactly know the population percentages of White vs Black but believe that Black folks in the US are still a minority.
Then there's always the money thing. No matter if you're white black or green, you need cash to compete in Pro Tournaments.
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Blacks account fot 14% of the US population.
 
Chopdoc said:
Perfect answer.

Outside of a cultural anthropologist, maybe a marketing or advertising person, I am not sure why it would matter much to most. Maybe a "black studies" professor...

I would ask if anybody here spends much of any time thinking about it. If so, why?

Interesting to note that pool is very accessible to the general public, but it seems most tables outside pool halls are in bars. My old university had a great pool hall filled with Gold Crowns. They took it out.

Do recreation centers still have pool halls? Our local bowling alley has a couple tables, but they are crap.

Demographics and pool is interesting, but who sits around thinking about it unless it's their job?
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If thats a perfect answer to you, I dont want to see the imperfect ones...
 
hello said:
If thats a perfect answer to you, I dont want to see the imperfect ones...
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I meant his answer was perfect. ;) "Who cares?"

I edited my response to show that.

His question has a double meaning, so I was being facetious when I called it a "prefect answer" because it can be taken two different ways.
 
rossaroni said:
Surprised not one mention of Willie Munson.(unless I missed it)

Ok, that’s my 2 cents on the subject. 😬
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Willie Munson played tournament pool. The OP's question was why are there so few black pro players. Willie was a pro.
 
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