Disclaimer: This assignment should be done by somebody who has already read one of the novels listed below and by someone who has taken Sports and Race classes before.
Overview:
For this assignment, you will choose and read an outside text exploring a topic at the intersection of sports and race, ethnicity, culture, gender, colonialism, etc. After reading and synthesizing the text, you will be responsible for composing a critical analysis of your book through a brief paper.
The idea here is that this will provide you with the opportunity to explore areas of particular interest to you that might go unexplored or only briefly considered in the content of our curriculum (a reality of the nature of coursework in large classes).
Keep in mind both that your paper is a critical analysis, delving into how concepts we have been discussing, and other questions of race, ethnicity, colonialism, and equity, played out in the particular content of your chosen text, and what they mean for sports-involved life in the 21st century. In short, this is not a summary of your chosen text (i.e. just going over the plot/content), nor a review (what you liked/didn’t like).
Assignment Logistics:
Once you have read our chosen book, you may want to do some additional reading and research as appropriate (i.e. Are there new concepts you need to look up to fully understand the text?; Did the arguments hinge on other texts you should familiarize yourself with?; If this is a historical text or dated memoir, how have things changed since it was written, and who else has explored this topic?), and then prepare your paper.
In it, you should:
- Share a BRIEF summary of content, ideas, findings, and arguments in the text, NOT a review of the entire plot/narrative,
- Discuss the way AT LEAST 3-5 key course concepts are present in the text, offering your analysis and critical assessment of how they are examined/under-examined by the author/text (i.e. Not opinion, but analysis: What were astute analyses/observations? What was missing from the book’s analysis/conclusions? Were there problematic or concerning elements?),
- Identify any recent research, extensions, or current events that connect to your text, and,
- Report on key takeaways and discuss the implications/lessons this text has for your sporting-involved lives (i.e. What does reading this text make me think about for the future?)
|
Title |
Author |
General Topic |
|
Things the Make White People Uncomfortable |
Michael Bennett |
Football; Black Athletes |
|
Brazil’s Dance with the Devil (Updated Olympics Edition): The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy |
Dave Zirin |
Olympics; Latin American Sports; Colonialism |
|
Dragon Hoops |
Gene Luen Yang |
Basketball; Youth sports; Multiracial contexts |
|
The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World |
Dave Zirin & John Carlos |
Track; Civil Rights Era |
|
Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith |
Tommie Smith |
Track; Civil Rights Era |
|
Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the 60’s |
Mike Marquese & Dave Zirin |
Boxing; Civil Rights Era |
|
Not the Triumph but the Struggle: 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete |
Amy Bass |
Olympics; Civil Rights Era |
|
The Revolt of the Black Athlete |
Harry Edwards |
Black Athletes; Civil Rights Era |
|
Race, Culture, and the Revolt of the Black Athlete: The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath |
Douglas Hartmann |
Olympics; Black Athletes; Civil Rights Era |
|
Forty Million Dollar Slaves |
William C. Rhoden |
Football; Black Athletes |
|
We Will Win the Day |
Louis Moore |
Black Athletes; Civil Rights Era |
|
Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball |
Howard Bryant |
Baseball; Racial Divides |
|
Before the Eyes of the World: Mexico and the 1968 Olympics |
Kevin Witherspoon |
Latin American Sports; Olympics |
|
Ballers of the New School |
Thabiti Lewis |
Basketball; Black Athletes |
|
Soccer in Sun and Shadow |
Eduardo Galeano |
Soccer; Latinx Athletes; Colonialism |
|
The New Face of Baseball |
Time Wendel |
Baseball; Latinx Athletes |
|
Futbolera |
Brenda Elsey |
Soccer; Gender; Latinx Athletes |
|
Fútbol in the Park |
David Trouille |
Soccer; Latinx culture; migration |
|
The Sports Gene |
David Epstein |
General; Racial Divides |
|
Not a Game: Allen Iverson |
Kent Babb |
Basketball; Black Athletes |
|
A Place on the Team: Triumph and Tragedy of Title IX |
Welch Suggs |
Gender; General |
|
Friday Night Lights |
H.G. Bissinger |
Football; Whiteness; Racial Divides |
|
The Unlevel Playing Field |
David Wiggins |
Black Athletes |
|
Indentured: The Exploitation of College Athletes |
Joel Nocera |
NCAA/College athletes |
|
Third and a Mile: History of the Black Quarterback |
William C. Rhoden |
Football; Black Athletes |
|
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson |
Geoffrey C. Ward |
Boxing; Black Athletes |
|
The Great White Hopes: The Quest to Defeat Jack Johnson |
Graeme Kent |
Boxing; Whiteness |
|
The World’s Fastest Man: The Life of Major Taylor |
Michael Kranish |
Cycling; Black Athletes |
|
Buried in the Sky: The Story of the Sherpa’s on K2’s Deadliest Day |
Peter Zuckerman & Amanda Padoan |
Mountaineering/Climbing; Colonialism |
|
Life and Death on Mt. Everest |
Sherry Ortner |
Mountaineering/Climbing; Colonialism |
|
Eddie Would Go: The Story of Eddie Aikau |
Stuart Holmes Coleman |
Surfing; Colonialism |
|
Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Hawai’i |
Isaiah Helekunihi Walker |
Surfing; Colonialism |
|
Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell |
Chas Smith |
Surfing; Colonialism |
|
One Goal: A Coach, a Team, and the Game that Brought a Divided Town Together |
Amy Bass |
Soccer; Black Athletes; Racial Divides |
|
I Fight for a Living: Boxing and Black Manhood 1880-1915 |
Louis Moore |
Boxing; Black Athletes; Gender |
|
The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, & the Politics of Patriotism |
Howard Bryant |
Black Athletes; Civil rights; sport & politics |
|
Playing While White: Privilege and Power On and Off the Field |
David Leonard |
Whiteness; Sport & politics; General |
|
Until it Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and how it harms our Kids |
Mark Hyman |
Youth Sports; Cultural Capital |
|
Darwin’s Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America & Preserved the Myth of Race |
John Hoberman |
Black Athletes; Racial divides |
|
Gloryland: A Novel |
Shelton Johnson |
Black History; National Parks |
|
Black Faces White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship between African Americans to the Great Outdoors |
Carolyn Finney |
Black Athletes; Outdoor Sports; National Parks |
|
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape |
Lauret Savoy |
Colonialism; Outdoor sports; History |
|
Out of Thin Air: Running wisdom & magic from above the clouds in Ethiopia |
Michael Crawley |
Running/ athletics; Colonialism |
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