[PDF] The Black Athlete As Hero eBook

Author : Joseph Dorinson
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 28,51 MB
Release : 2022-10-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1476678863

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Part history, part biography, this study examines the Black athlete's search to unify what W.E.B. DuBois called the "two unreconciled strivings" of African Americans--the struggle to survive in black society while adapting to white society. Black athletes have served as vanguards of change, challenging the dominant culture, crossing social boundaries and raising political awareness. Champions like Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Wilma Rudolph, Roberto Clemente, Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe, Serena Williams, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James make a difference, even as many in the Black community question the idea of athletes as role models. The author argues the importance of sports heroes in a panic-plagued era beset with class division and racial privilege.

Author : Howard Bryant
Publisher : Beacon Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 33,83 MB
Release : 2019-01-29
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 0807038083

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Following in the footsteps of Robeson, Ali, Robinson and others, today’s Black athletes re-engage with social issues and the meaning of American patriotism Named a best book of 2018 by Library Journal It used to be that politics and sports were as separate from one another as church and state. The ballfield was an escape from the world’s worst problems, top athletes were treated like heroes, and cheering for the home team was as easy and innocent as hot dogs and beer. “No news on the sports page” was a governing principle in newsrooms. That was then. Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start, were committing a political act simply by being on the field. In fact, among all black employees in twentieth-century America, perhaps no other group had more outsized influence and power than ballplayers. The immense social responsibilities that came with the role is part of the black athletic heritage. It is a heritage built by the influence of the superstardom and radical politics of Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos through the 1960s; undermined by apolitical, corporate-friendly “transcenders of race,” O. J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods in the following decades; and reclaimed today by the likes of LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, and Carmelo Anthony. The Heritage is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Through deep research and interviews with some of sports’ best-known stars—including Kaepernick, David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber—as well as members of law enforcement and the military, Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.

Author : Jack Olsen
Publisher : Crime Rant Books
Page : 97 pages
File Size : 40,20 MB
Release : 2020-06-16
Category : Social Science
ISBN :

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Jack Olsen’s blunt depiction of the shameful treatment of black athletes in the 1960’s. A view of the sport most Americans refused to see during a time of complacency and pervasive racial crisis in America. Black collegiate athletes were often dehumanized, exploited and discarded. Recruited for their skill then lionized on the field and ostracized on campus. The world of professional sports offered black athlete’s opportunity but not equality. Positions that carry authority and responsibility were typically labeled “white only”. Olsen interviewed sociologists, black community leaders, coaches, AD’s and numerous athletes. This ground-breaking and controversial report sparked nationwide reforms when it was covered in a five-part series published by Sports Illustrated in 1968.

Author : Howard Bryant
Publisher : Beacon Press
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 13,54 MB
Release : 2020-01-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0807019550

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A bold and impassioned meditation on injustice in our country that punctures the illusion of a postracial America and reveals it as a place where authoritarianism looms large. Whether the issues are protest, labor, patriotism, or class division, it is clear that professional sports are no longer simply fun and games. Rather, the industry is a hotbed of fractures and inequities that reflect and even drive some of the most divisive issues in our country. The nine provocative and deeply personal essays in Full Dissidence confront the dangerous narratives that are shaping the current dialogue in sports and mainstream culture. The book is a reflection on a culture where African Americans continue to navigate the sharp edges of whiteness—as citizens who are always at risk of being told, often directly from the White House, to go back to where they came from. The topics Howard Bryant takes on include the player-owner relationship, the militarization of sports, the myth of integration, the erasure of black identity as a condition of success, and the kleptocracy that has forced America to ask itself if its beliefs of freedom and democracy are more than just words. In a time when authoritarianism is creeping into our lives and is being embraced in our politics, Full Dissidence will make us question the strength of the bonds we think we have with our fellow citizens, and it shows us why we must break from the malignant behaviors that have become normalized in everyday life.

Author : Samantha N. Sheppard
Publisher : University of California Press
Page : 269 pages
File Size : 13,62 MB
Release : 2020-06-16
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0520307798

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Sporting Blackness examines issues of race and representation in sports films, exploring what it means to embody, perform, play out, and contest blackness by representations of Black athletes on screen. By presenting new critical terms, Sheppard analyzes not only “skin in the game,” or how racial representation shapes the genre’s imagery, but also “skin in the genre,” or the formal consequences of blackness on the sport film genre’s modes, codes, and conventions. Through a rich interdisciplinary approach, Sheppard argues that representations of Black sporting bodies contain “critical muscle memories”: embodied, kinesthetic, and cinematic histories that go beyond a film’s plot to index, circulate, and reproduce broader narratives about Black sporting and non-sporting experiences in American society.

Author : Gerald L. Early
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 45,31 MB
Release : 2011-04-29
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0674050983

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The noted cultural critic Gerald Early explores the intersection of race and sports, and our deeper, often contradictory attitudes toward the athletes we glorify. What desires and anxieties are encoded in our worship of (or disdain for) high-performance athletes? What other, invisible contests unfold when we watch a sporting event?

Author : Todd Balf
Publisher : Crown
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 39,64 MB
Release : 2009-01-27
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 0307236595

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The story of a man who transcended the handicaps of race to become America’s first African American mega sports celebrity At the turn of the 20th century, hundreds of lightning-fast racers won the hearts and minds of a bicycling-crazed public. Scientists studied them, newspapers glorified them, and millions of dollars in purse money were awarded to them. Major Taylor aimed to be the fastest of them all. Taylor’s most formidable and ruthless opponent-a man nicknamed the "Human Engine" was Floyd McFarland. One man was white, one black; one from a storied Virginia family, the other descended from Kentucky slaves; one celebrated as a hero, one trying to secure his spot in a sport he dominated. The only thing they had in common was the desire to be named the fastest man alive. Finally, in 1904, both men headed to Australia for a much-­anticipated title match to decide who would claim the coveted title. Major is the story of a superstar nobody saw coming, the account of a fierce rivalry that would become an archetypal tale of white versus black in the 20th century, and, most of all, the tale of our nation’s first black sports celebrity.

Author : George L. Lee
Publisher :
Page : 165 pages
File Size : 40,49 MB
Release : 1993
Category : African American athletes
ISBN : 9780780733442

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Drawn from the author's newspaper feature "Interesting People," these are his illustrations and information about stars in the sports of boxing, baseball, football, basketball, and others.

Author : MORRIE TURNER
Publisher : Trafford Publishing
Page : 151 pages
File Size : 14,61 MB
Release : 2011-11-02
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1426976542

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At the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, Jesse Owens won gold medals in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and the 400-meter relay—and Adolph Hitler scrambled from his private box to avoid honoring the black athlete. During World War II, Joe Louis, heavyweight champion of the world, paid surprise visits to military hospitals. Though he later lost his title belt to the German Max Schmeling (which greatly pleased Hitler), when Louis died, broke, Schmeling used his wealth to pay for Louis’s funeral. In the 1971 World Series, Roberto Clemete posted the greatest single performance by any player ever, making two impossible catches in the outfield, batting .414, and hitting seven singles, two doubles, one triple, and two homeruns. Clemente died the next year in a plane crash while flying relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Stories like these are testaments to the power of athletics to influence and inspire people, nations, and cultures. In Black Sports Heroes: Past and Present, author and cartoonist Morrie Turner skillfully presents cartoons and stories, known and unknown, about black athletes of all nations and the impact they had upon their sport and their world. Through his impressive combination of humor and fact, Turner brings “kid power” and “rainbow power” to life, showing us a world where all people, regardless of racial, religious, sexual, or physical differences, can live, learn, work, and play together.