A level playing field
Subtitle: African American athletes and the republic of sports
By: Gerald L. Early
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 263
ISBN-13: 9780674050983
Subjects: Social conditions; Sports; Discrimination in sports; African American athletes; History
Other titles: African American athletes and the republic of sports
Description: As Americans, we believe there ought to be a level playing field for everyone. Even if we don't expect to finish first, we do expect a fair start. Only in sports have African Americans actually found that elusive level ground. But at the same time, black players offer an ironic perspective on the athlete hero, for they represent a group historically held to be without social honor.  In this collection of sports essays the author, a noted cultural critic  investigates these contradictions as they play out in the sports world and in our deeper attitudes toward the athletes we glorify. He addresses a half century of heated cultural issues ranging from integration to the use of performance enhancing drugs. Writing about Jackie Robinson and Curt Flood, he reconstructs pivotal moments in their lives and explains how the culture, politics, and economics of sport turned with them. Taking on the subtexts, racial and otherwise, of the controversy over remarks Rush Limbaugh made about quarterback Donovan McNabb, he restores the political consequence to an event most commentators at the time approached with predictable bluster.  The essays in this book circle around two perennial questions: What other, invisible contests unfold when we watch a sporting event? What desires and anxieties are encoded in our worship of (or disdain for) high performance athletes?  These essays are based on the Alain Locke lectures at Harvard University's Du Bois Institute.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-263).
Table of contents: title: Leveling the Playing Field. When worlds collide: Jackie Robinson, Paul Robeson, Harry Truman, and the Korean War; title: Curt Flood, gratitude, and the image of baseball; title: Donovan McNabb, Rush Limbaugh, and the making of the black quarterback; title: Heroism and the Republic of Sports. American integration, black heroism, and the meaning of Jackie Robinson; title: Performance and reality: race, sports, and the modern world; title: Where have we gone, Mr. Robinson?