Description
Book SynopsisA significant examination of how athletes have fought for inclusion and equality on and off the playing field, despite calls for them to “stick to sports.”
There is a common cry in many public discussions that athletes should just “stick to sports,” that sports and politics are somehow sealed off from one another, even while team owners, directors, managers, and entire leagues insist on using patriotic displays such as the playing of the National Anthem in order to project a sense of unity. The truth, however, is that unity in sports and American society is far from the reality, and that athletes have as much a right as anyone to fight for a more inclusive world.
In Don't Stick to Sports: The American Athlete’s Fight for Inclusion, Derek Charles Catsam carefully explores this disparity. He examines how, throughout sports history, minority athletes have had to fight every step of the way for their right to compete, and continue to fight for equity today. From African Americans and women to LGBTQ+ and religious minorities, Catsam shows how these athletes have taken a stand to address the underlying injustices in sports and society despite being told it’s not their place to do so.
While it’s impossible for a single book to tell the entire history of exclusion in sports in the United States, Don’t Stick to Sports illustrates the ways in which both exclusion and the fight against that exclusion have helped to define a system that often claims to be based on meritocracy but has proven to be far from the truth.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction The Binded and the Protected
Chapter 1 “The Highest Point of the Game’s Enthusiasm”: The National Anthem, Patriotism, and the 1918 World Series
Chapter 2 Of “Dead Sparrows” and “Muscle Molls”: Gender Expectations and Women’s Sport
Chapter 3 Jackie Robinson, The Army, and Sam Huston College: The Dilemma of the Black Athlete in 1940s
Chapter 4 A Tale of Two Cities: The Integration of Professional Sports in Boston and Cleveland
Chapter 5 The 1960s and the Limits of “Integration” in American College Sports
Chapter 6 Oh Say Can You See?: Rebellion, Anger, and Contested Americanisms
Chapter 7 Raised Fists, Black Shorts, and a Fallen Queen: Race, Politics, and Sex-pectations in Track and Field
Chapter 8 Gaps Between Ideals and Reality: Exclusion and Modern Sport
Conclusion Taking a Knee: Sport and Politics in 21st Century America
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
