On Feb. 21, 2008, the Department of Africana Studies at Wayne State University will present a lecture by Professor Lisa Alexander: "Barry Bonds and the History of Blacks in Baseball." Alexander will consider the steroid controversy overshadowing the career of Barry Bonds and the diminishing number of black baseball players in the major leagues. The lecture will take place at 12:30 pm in the Student Center Building, room 289, located on Gullen Mall in the center of the WSU campus.

Barry Bonds' career is a statistical marvel: he currently holds six major league records, including the single season home-run record, and became the charter member of the 500/500 club. Despite his on-the-field achievements, and possibly due to his adversarial relationship with the media, Barry Bonds does not seem to receive the credit his stats suggest he deserves. At a time when the number of black major league baseball players has reached its lowest point in almost 30 years, the most dominant player in the game is oftentimes shunned by the media.

Alexander will discuss how Bonds' accomplishments have been treated by sports journalists and will address the several questions surrounding his controversial career:

• Why was Bonds' record-breaking home run chase treated differently than the 1998 chase between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa?
  
• How can we read media response to Bonds breaking the all-time home-run record?
  
• Why has the media adopted a guilty-until-proven-innocent posture toward Bonds where steroids are concerned while other (white) athletes are innocent until proven guilty?
  
• Does the fact that the baseball establishment refuses to acknowledge Bonds' achievements have less to do with his attitude and more to do with his race and/or his age?

Cosponsors for the event include the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Black Student Union. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information call the Department of Africana Studies at (313) 577-2321.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students.