The Heritage
Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
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.
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In this timely book, Bryant, senior writer for ESPN Magazine, astutely explains how sports serves "as a barometer of blacks' standing in the larger culture," with some black athletes facing harsh criticism for their support of equal rights. He cites Paul Robeson, who was the first Rutgers All-American star to play in what would become the NFL in 1921, and whose labor union campaigning got him blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Bryant then turns to baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson, who, Bryant argues, as a political moderate undercut the public's resistance to his playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers; meanwhile, Muhammad Ali was suspended during his prime for his opposition to the draft. Outspoken athletes such as Olympian track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos and hoops legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar courted controversy as they railed against injustice during the civil rights era. Bryant discusses how the apolitical views of O.J. Simpson and Tiger Woods kept them out of public scrutiny, while quarterback Colin Kaepernick got blackballed from professional football for kneeling during the national anthem. "Through the great unifier of sports," writes Bryant, "with the black players kneeling, the white players standing, the police heroes to one, center of protest to others, America would discover explosively and definitively just how severe its fractures truly were." This indispensable book expertly chronicles a fractured nation dealing with black players who no longer want to (as Fox News host Laura Ingraham told LeBron James) "shut up and dribble."
