Race, Politics, and Basketball
Race, Politics, and Basketball

Author: Gerry Kavanaugh

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-06-09

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 9463510028

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Storytelling is one of the oldest, yet most provocative human art forms. It allows us to learn through the illustration and presentation of events as they happened in real time, through the words of those who participated, allowing the reader to understand and recognize the unvarnished truth. As a means of education and learning, it is innately valuable. Speaking of race and racism, it allows us to underscore our values and principles of social justice. It allows the participants to express their insights and knowledge through their actual experiences. The author has done just that with Race, Politics, and Basketball – a fascinating story of race, racism, politics, education, and inequality in the early 1970s, told through the voices of those who were there, who witnessed it and were a part of it. It provides the juxtaposition of good and decent white kids with an unparalleled mentor who kept them on the straight and narrow, against good and decent Black and Cape Verdean kids who were forced to face the daily forces of inequality and racial unrest each and every day. The summer of 1970 was immensely educational for all who experienced it. The Vietnam War, the civil rights movements, Black Panthers, a long, dreary recession with high unemployment – all explained through the voices of white and Black kids and adults who were there, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, living through it, and navigating the ebbs and fl ows of their daily lives. In the middle of it all, a 17 year old Cape Verdean kid, standing outside a club in the city’s West End, during a period of unrest, was gunned down by three white kids from the suburbs. They didn’t even know him. To top it off, they were all acquitted at trial, despite the fact that the guy who shot the gun confessed to it. The book tells a fascinating story of inequality, race, and politics that can help us understand the struggles that we are still going through today, as we try to understand and reconcile our differences, and treat everyone as equals. Anyone interested in the issue of race and racism in America today should read this story. Gerry Kavanaugh is the Senior Vice Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He was the Chief of Staff to Senator Edward M. Kennedy in Washington, DC, and now lives in New Bedford with his wife, Colleen.

Race, Sport and Politics
Race, Sport and Politics

Author: Ben Carrington

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2010-08-01

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1849204292

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Written by one of the leading international authorities on the sociology of race and sport, this is the first book to address sport′s role in ′the making of race′, the place of sport within black diasporic struggles for freedom and equality, and the contested location of sport in relation to the politics of recognition within contemporary multicultural societies. Race, Sport and Politics shows how, during the first decades of the twentieth century, the idea of ′the natural black athlete′ was invented in order to make sense of and curtail the political impact and cultural achievements of black sportswomen and men. More recently, ′the black athlete′ as sign has become a highly commodified object within contemporary hyper-commercialized sports-media culture thus limiting the transformative potential of critically conscious black athleticism to re-imagine what it means to be both black and human in the twenty-first century. Race, Sport and Politics will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology of culture and sport, the sociology of race and diaspora studies, postcolonial theory, cultural theory and cultural studies.

The Inside Game
The Inside Game

Author: Wayne Embry

Publisher: The University of Akron Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 9781931968140

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In the fall of 1999, Wayne Embry was so highly thought of by his peers that he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor to the game. In the summer of 1999, the Cleveland Cavaliers thought so little of him that they replaced him as general manager. Now in his new autobiography, The Inside Game, Embry, who was once sent home from a game when a bullet was found on his seat, tells the inside story of his fall from grace and the part he believes racism played in it. He deals with the unsavory dealings that led to his departure from the Cavs and introduces startling information about one of the most highly regarded coaches in the league. He discusses the social and economic changes affecting the league and other problems threatening to destroy it. His book is part historical perspective, part inside look behind the scenes, part business strategy and part social commentary

Black Men on the Blacktop
Black Men on the Blacktop

Author: A. Rafik Mohamed

Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 9781626376663

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"Presents basketball, and especially pickup basketball, as a text of the political, social, and economic struggles of black men in the United States" --

The Heritage
The Heritage

Author: Howard Bryant

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 2019-01-29

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 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.

Midnight Basketball
Midnight Basketball

Author: Douglas Hartmann

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-07-28

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 022637498X

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Sport-based intervention programs designed to divert poor minority youth from gangs and crime got their start with the Midnight Basketball initiatives of the late 1980s. Hartmann explains the mystery of why a basketball- based program became popular as a solution to problems of crime and poverty in dozens of American cities. In part, then, this book is a history, but also a cultural analysis to explain the prominence of these programs at first (and then so controversial later on), and how they were expanded upon in the years that followed. In fact, it was in Chicagohome of Michael Jordan and the Bullsthat Midnight Basketball first achieved prominence. Under the direction of former Congressman Jack Kemp and the Chicago Housing Authority, two leagues were organized, in Rockwell Gardens and the Henry Horner Homes. To understand why the program caught on, Hartmann explores the policy transformations of the period (such as the new penology and neoliberal paternalism), and, at length, he gets into the cultural tensions and institutional realities that shaped this program and the entire field of sport-based social policy. In the end, Midnight Basketball, Race, and Neoliberal Social Policy provides a one-of-a-kind view of the culture of sport and race in America, and neoliberal policy broadly conceived."

After Artest
After Artest

Author: David J. Leonard

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 143844205X

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Explores how the NBA moved to govern black players and the expression of blackness after the “Palace Brawl” of 2004.

Globetrotting
Globetrotting

Author: Damion L. Thomas

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2012-09-30

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0252094298

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Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union deplored the treatment of African Americans by the U.S. government as proof of hypocrisy in the American promises of freedom and equality. This probing history examines government attempts to manipulate international perceptions of U.S. race relations during the Cold War by sending African American athletes abroad on goodwill tours and in international competitions as cultural ambassadors and visible symbols of American values. Damion L. Thomas follows the State Department's efforts from 1945 to 1968 to showcase prosperous African American athletes including Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, and the Harlem Globetrotters as the preeminent citizens of the African Diaspora, rather than as victims of racial oppression. With athletes in baseball, track and field, and basketball, the government relied on figures whose fame carried the desired message to countries where English was little understood. However, eventually African American athletes began to provide counter-narratives to State Department claims of American exceptionalism, most notably with Tommie Smith and John Carlos's famous black power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Exploring the geopolitical significance of racial integration in sports during the early days of the Cold War, this book looks at the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations' attempts to utilize sport to overcome hostile international responses to the violent repression of the civil rights movement in the United States. Highlighting how African American athletes responded to significant milestones in American racial justice such as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Thomas surveys the shifting political landscape during this period as African American athletes increasingly resisted being used in State Department propaganda and began to use sports to challenge continued oppression.

Smashing Barriers
Smashing Barriers

Author: Richard Edward Lapchick

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1568331770

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This book blends an insider's critique of the race politics of the sports industry withand activist's crusade against racial injustice.

Writings on the Wall
Writings on the Wall

Author: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Publisher: Time Inc. Books

Published: 2016-08-23

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1618935437

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A New York Times and Washington Post Bestseller Bestselling author, basketball legend and cultural commentator Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explores the heart of issues that affect Americans today. Since retiring from professional basketball as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, six-time MVP, and Hall of Fame inductee, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has become a lauded observer of culture and society, a New York Times bestselling author, and a regular contributor to The Washington Post, TIME magazine and TIME.com. He now brings that keen insight to the fore in Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White, his most incisive and important work of non-fiction in years. He uses his unique blend of erudition, street smarts and authentic experience in essays on the country's seemingly irreconcilable partisan divide - both racial and political, parenthood, and his own experiences as an athlete, African-American, and a Muslim. The book is not just a collection of expositions; he also offers keen assessments of and solutions to problems such as racism in sports while speaking candidly about his experiences on the court and off. Timed for publication as the nation debates whom to send to the White House, the combination of plain talk on issues, life lessons, and personal stories places Writings on the Wall squarely in the middle of the conversation, as many of Abdul-Jabbar's topics are at the top of the national agenda. Whether it is sparring with Donald Trump, within the pages of TIME magazine, or full-length features in the The New York Times Magazine, writers, critics, and readers have come to agree on what The Washington Post observed: Abdul-Jabbar "has become a vital, dynamic and unorthodox cultural voice."