Full Dissidence
Notes from an Uneven Playing Field
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4.7 • 12 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bryant (The Heritage), a writer for ESPN the Magazine, poses disquieting questions about the intersection of race, politics, history, and sports in this wide-ranging and sharp-edged essay collection. Contending that "black success... has always led to white retribution," and that African-Americans' grievances inevitably spark "white mainstream backlash," Bryant discusses organized resistance to Supreme Court-mandated school desegregation, the creation of urban slums through white flight and redlining of real estate districts, the militarization of local policing in the wake of 9/11, and the election of Donald Trump following the Obama presidency. Autobiographical forays into Bryant's youth in "the hostile white backdrop" of Plymouth, Mass., and experiences with racial prejudice while hunting for a Boston apartment enrich his arguments, though the book's focus is on sport figures including Tiger Woods, Madison Keys, and Colin Kaepernick and their status at "the forefront of a certain type of trade: assimilation in exchange for money and star status affixed to serious considerations." These and other black athletes, Bryant contends, must choose between leaving their home culture and never returning, or speaking out and "expect the full weight of their industry... to punish them." Bryant's informed analyses and righteous anger transform sports into a valuable lens and tool for examining and combatting racism. Progressive sports fans will heed this incisive cri de coeur.
