Race and Sports

June 1, 2021

After decades of racial integration, racism still pervades U.S. sports. Myers (dir. of equity and inclusion, Choate Rosemary Hall) examines the barriers faced by Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian American athletes, coaches, and journalists, as well as their responses to racism. Myers looks at the 1940s benching of Leonard Bates and Lucien V. Alexis Jr., two Black student athletes who were forced to sit out games when their schools played against institutions with racist policies; the Black player Curt Flood's 1969 antitrust suit against Major League Baseball; the Williams sisters' boycotting the Indian Wells tennis tournament after they endured racist comments there; Nike's support of Colin Kaepernick and the Black Lives Matter movement; and the bias experienced by Jeremy Lin, the first Taiwanese American player in NBA history. Chapter 3 consists of seven personal essays on racist stereotypes, access, and other topics. Chapter 4 offers profiles of individuals (LeBron James, Oren Lyons, Simone Biles) and organizations (American Tennis Association, the "Change the Mascot" campaign). The book has an annotated bibliography, and each chapter includes a list of additional resources. The chronology and chapters on history provide the most interesting reading, while the "Data and Documents" section and the index are the most reference-friendly. This title distinguishes itself from similar works that limit themselves to onlyprofessional, youth, or college sports; specific athletes; or topics such as politics or gender. However, readers might wish for more discussion of solutions. VERDICT Will be of interest to social sciences and physical education students, as well as those interested in athletics.--Laurie Selwyn, formerly with Grayson Cty. Law Lib., Sherman, TX

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 21, 2021
Sports are more than just points scored and games won or lost; they are a reflection of society's greater hopes, dreams, and prejudices. Never is that more evident than in how sports treat race relations. This volume in ABC-CLIO's Contemporary World Issues series makes that dramatically clear. Like all other Reference Handbooks, it is part narrative text and part reference book. Following an academic sociological background and history, the work presents a series of historical events and problems covering the time period from 1940 to 2020. Seven first-person perspectives, newly written for this work, present individual encounters with racial issues at the high school, college, and professional levels. The reference part of the handbook includes biographies of thirteen individuals and four organizations, several court cases and other legal documents, statistical data, a chronology, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography. This work is a welcome compilation that will be of use to anyone interested in the impact of race in sports and on society as a whole.

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