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The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism

de Howard Bryant

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"The Heritage is the story of sports post-9/11, once neutral but now embedded with deference toward the military and police, colliding with the political reawakening of the black athlete in post-Ferguson America"--
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Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
I received this book as an early reviewer. I had never read one of Howard Bryant's books before. As an historian, the title of the book intrigued me and I am glad that I was lucky to be able to read and review this book. It is a good, unsettling, and eye-opening read.

The argument that Bryant puts forth is well researched and well constructed. He gives a treatise on black activism by athletes well-known and perhaps not so well known. While I knew Paul Robeson to be an actor and a man blessed with an amazing vocal range, I did not know that he was a former athlete who lost everything because of his stance on politics and equality. I knew about the struggles of Jackie Robinson, Tommie Smith, Muhammad Ali, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Lou Alcindar) as I was a student of current events and history from a young age.

Howard deconstructed the commercials featuring O. J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods. He addressed the monetary value of these ventures to the companies and the athletes while addressing the issue that these athletes would never be on an equal footing with the big companies or the management and owners of the teams for which they played, or the products they endorsed. I realize that golf is a singular effort by a golfer, but he/she has a support team and merchandising support.

Reading about Kaepernick's motivation to kneel during the national anthem opening a whole new avenue of thought about "paid patriotism" and how that grew out of heart-felt patriotism immediately following 9/11/2001. Not too many years later, it came at a monetary cost - paying to display large American flags, military honor guards, etc. Now don't get me wrong, I honor our military and am the wife of a veteran, but on the day of Senator John McCain's funeral I was reading about the investigation that he and fellow senator Jeff Flake conducted. Their findings showed this "paid patriotism" and their disgust over that practice- just to look good and bill teams, communities, and military groups for the costs of these "displays" of patriotism.

After reading this book, I am not sure that I can look at opening events at football games the same any more. All Colin Kaepernick was doing was trying to open the fans eyes to the reality of what was going on behind the scenes and to reclaim, in Bryant's words, "The Heritage." ( )
  prudencegoodwife | Sep 16, 2018 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
Summary: An account of black athletes in professional sports, from the path-breakers whose very presence was political, to the athletes of the '70's onward whose success tempted them to just play the game, to the recent clash of patriotism and protest that has led to a new generation of athlete-activists.

When Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest of the numbers of blacks dying in police-involved shooting, his act was the latest of a long line of black athletes whose presence, and whose advocacy asserted that they were far more than mere bodies, employed for the pleasure of largely white audiences and the profit of white team owners. When Kaepernick could not get another position when his contract expired, he joined "the Heritage"--a long line of black athlete activists who could not settle for simply "playing the game" in the face of the injustices faced by his people, and often suffered the consequences from acting as people with voices and minds, and not merely bodies to be employed for sport.

Howard Bryant, a senior writer for ESPN, chronicles this history in The Heritage. He traces the beginnings of the Heritage in the lives of Paul Robeson, Jesse Owens (who went from US Olympic glory in Hitler's Germany to poverty and bankruptcy), Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier in baseball, Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali who went to prison for his refusal to be drafted on religious principle, the 1968 raised fist protests of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and Curt Flood, whose refusal to accept a trade led to free agency, but also resulted in his being blackballed from baseball.

Things changed in the 1970's in what Bryant calls the "greenwashing" of professional athletes. Beginning with stars like O.J. Simpson, who received huge contracts and endorsement deals, a new generation of black athlete came on the scene who "just played the game" and took the money. Perhaps they invested it quietly in causes that uplifted the communities in which they played, or grew up. Bryant focuses on three as representative of this period: Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods, who in an interview described himself as "Cablinasian."

In sports as so much of American life, everything changed on 9/11. The citizenship rite of the national anthem was replaced by elaborate patriotic displays: singing police officers, fly-overs and veterans salutes, huge flags on the fifty yard lines. First responders and those in the armed services became heroes who were recognized in some form at every game. A kind of undifferentiated hero worship failed to grapple with a more nuanced reality of some real heroes, many decent, hard-working people, and some bad apples--just like in most of society. Bryant also cites evidence that this was staged by the military, rather than being simply an honest, spontaneous gesture of sports team. Teams profited by tax money spent for these displays, which were seen as good recruiting tools. An American public indulged these displays, perhaps guilty over treatment of returning Vietnam vets and the fact that most of us were at the mall while a small percent were fighting our wars in far off places.

Bryant argues that this set up the clash between black athletes protesting injustices in policing, and a wider American public. What began as an effort to call attention to ways a country wasn't living up to the values represented by the flag clashed with the patriotism displays that had become commonplace in the nearly twenty years since 9/11. Some efforts were effectual. When players at the University of Missouri threatened to refuse to play because of issues of systemic racism, a university president was ousted. LeBron James could wear "I can't breathe" jerseys with impunity, being at the top of his game and flush with endorsement deals. But a quarterback at the end of his contract was blackballed because he took a knee, a respectful symbol of praying usually reserved for locker rooms or end zones and his action was characterized as unpatriotic and an insult to soldiers. People who wanted Kaepernick to just play the game failed to observe that the game itself had been co-opted for political purposes in an unqualified endorsement of both police and military (and unspoken in all this were the ongoing wars in which the military was engaged).

This is an uncomfortable book perhaps most of all because it raises the issue that black athletes' value continues to be their bodies, and that while they may be rewarded well when they excel in physical feats, the powers that be will continue the attempt to silence them when they use their voices and minds to speak for those who do not share their fame and expose the ways as a nation we fail to live up to our principles.

It also raises the issue of the ways we've changed as a country since 9/11. A simple citizenship rite at the beginning of a game has become wrapped in a celebration of both safety and military forces, and the use of their power to keep a fearful nation safe. Instead of celebrating the shared liberties of an empowered people, we've come to celebrate the power of the state. We've traded "peanuts and cracker jacks" for "shock and awe."

I suspect I've probably made some people mad simply because I reviewed this book and haven't done the white thing of pushing back with all that is wrong with it. I guess I've come to a place where I want to understand why a talented quarterback chooses to throw it all away by a simple gesture (actually unnoticed for several games) that for the life of me looks like prayer. I find myself wondering why such a humble gesture is so threatening that despite the fact that no law was broken, a combination of media, public opinion and even presidential power was brought to bear to suppress it. I find myself wondering what this gesture threatens. I wonder...

____________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )
  BobonBooks | Jul 30, 2018 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
With the 2018 NFL Season about to begin and a new NFL policy in place for the National Anthem, this book could not be more timely. In this book, Bryant tells the story of "the Heritage" - the history and cultural impact of black Americans in professional and collegiate sports. Bryant got his start as a sportswriter for the Oakland Tribune and his background in sports gives this history of black athletes a very nuanced and insightful viewpoint that might have been lost if Bryant had not had significant experience in sports reporting. Bryant is able to use interviews and historical texts to describe both the fan and the player's side of the issue for the past few decades. Throughout this book, Bryant weaves together sports history and cultural reactions in ways that I had never previously considered. For example, the cultural impact of the movie Dirty Harry on the public's perception of police departments in the United States or the social impact of the TV show "COPS." This book is well thought through with firm arguments and a compelling narrative that leaves the reader with quite a bit to think about. ( )
  pbirch01 | Jul 28, 2018 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
Fighting against political and social injustice while at the same time battling an opponent in the arena existed before Jackie Robinson carried the hope of a people under the staggering weight of a nation’s gaze. However, Mr. Robinson’s valiant efforts on and off the field as the man who integrated baseball are where many, especially among white folk, began to pay attention to the game and the struggle. The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America, And the Politics of Patriotism is Howard Bryant’s valiant effort at offering history, context, definition to the black athlete’s current role in the game of politics in sports.

Protesting America’s schizophrenic system of justice, which frequently sees unarmed black men gunned down by law enforcement, Colin Kaepernick refused to stand during the National Anthem preceding every NFL kickoff. His play on the field had already taken a nosedive, having gone from leading the San Francisco Forty-Niners to a Super Bowl to rarely seen back-up well on his way to becoming the answer to a “Whatever happened to” trivia question on the back of a box of Wheaties. Kaepernick became the bullseye for the grotesque racial hatred American society still does far too well and served in part as a catalyst for Mr. Bryant’s book.

There is ample evidence of the unique rock and hard place confronting the black athlete, “the heritage”, even today in the twenty-first century, and the pressure felt from the various racial and political communities in the fan base. It is ubiquitous, observed across all major sports, and although with far less frequency it has even been seen at the college and high school levels. When faux patriotism is inserted into these confined situations, the athlete now finds themselves in a potentially explosive rock and a hard place. As opposed to genuine patriotism, those deep feelings shared by the thousands of fans in the stands or watching at home, most fans are unaware that what they are often witnessing is store bought patriotism. Professional teams and even colleges charge the military thousands of dollars to show off the return valiant warrior. What better advertising is there than the soldier, disguised as the catcher, surprising his wife and young children when they hurl the honorary first pitch.

Discerning the proper response to the heritage, and it does require a response from everyone regardless of race, is at best complicated and confusing, and at worse flippant and disrespectful. To see the athlete as simply another person is to deny or hide their race. To include race in one’s recognition is segregation. If the athlete of color is quite or introverted, then they are an Uncle Tom. To be militant is to be irrational or ruled by emotion, or worse yet to harbor some form of reverse prejudice. To do any of these while making millions of dollars is selfish and uncaring. Regardless of the position taken, there are always those seeking to sow discord.

One of the best examples of this is Bryant’s description of the testimony Jackie Robinson gave to Congress during the darkness of McCarthyism. Robinson was asked about one of the few black athletes to achieve fame outside the African-American community, Paul Robeson. Valedictorian of the 1919 class of Rutgers University, Roberson was also a consensus All-American football player. He briefly played in the NFL while earning his law degree at Columbia, where he was again one of the tops in his class. However, his success as an actor and singer did not allow much time for practicing law. Politically active, Robeson would eventually become a communist, even making trips to the Soviet Union. Having testified prior to Jackie Robinson’s appearance, Robinson was placed in a position of defending or condemning Robeson. Though it was not the part of his testimony that garnered headlines, Jackie Robinson pointed out to those present that the racial and social injustice that existed in America at that time was no less real because of Mr. Robeson’s politics. Obviously, Jackie Robinson’s performance on the baseball diamond and his response to racism whether he was in a Dodger’s uniform or a suit is what he is most famous for, but believe his continued work after his baseball days were through were just as important to the heritage Mr. Bryant writes about.

Mr. Bryant does not shy away from pointing out those who have ignored the responsibility born from their success on the athletic stage. Tiger Woods and Michael Jordon being the best examples. However, there were others whose absence I found puzzling. Purple People Eater, and Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Alan Page; former Oklahoma quarterback and U.S. Representative J.C. Watts, to name just a couple. There also seemed to be a minimal discussion of the women who contributed to the heritage.

Race is very difficult topic to discuss today, not that it has ever been easy, but it seems most difficult right after our hopes for improvement are met with the disappointment and frustration of reality and the work that remains. That we even tried on a term like “post-racial America” in 2008 after President Obama was elected looks like a Red Sox fan putting on a 1986 World Series Champion hat while Bill Buckner is on his way out to play first base.

There is one disagreement I have with Mr. Bryant and that is his defense of Colin Kaepernick’s decision not to vote in the 2016 elections. I concede every point about the low turnout, and because of where would have voted it wouldn’t have made a difference, etc. Vote anyway! There’s too much money in politics and no room for a real and honest discussion? Make room! In football alone I’m reminded of all the young men who were told at one level or another, there was no way they could play quarterback: Joe Gilliam, Joe Washington, Warren Moon, Condredge Holloway (I’m a Volunteer), Randall Cunningham, and 170lb kid who played for Nevada with a weird name.

He wasn’t much of a ballplayer, but I think he has expressed my point better than any of the great men I’ve listed so far, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin. ( )
1 vota lanewillson | Jul 23, 2018 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
A timely look at the political actions of African American athletes. Whether or not you agree with the statements or where and how they are made, this book is an important piece in the conversation.
  TravisWilson | Jul 6, 2018 |
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"The Heritage is the story of sports post-9/11, once neutral but now embedded with deference toward the military and police, colliding with the political reawakening of the black athlete in post-Ferguson America"--

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El llibre de Howard Bryant The Heritage: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of the Black Political Athlete estava disponible a LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

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