Darwin's athletes: how sport has damaged black America and preserved the myth of race

Darwin's Athletes zeroes in on our society's fixation on black athletic achievement. John Hoberman compellingly argues that this obsession - one shared by both blacks and whites in the media, in corporate America, and even by athletes themselves - has come to play a disastrous role in African American life and a troubling role in our country's race relations. This sports fixation originates in the painful century-long exclusion of blacks from every other path to high achievement. The scarcity of other kinds of race heroes has conferred messianic status on the most popular black athletes, which has fostered a delusion of integration while contributing to deep social divisions. Rich, flamboyant superstars lend credence to age-old prejudices, recycled scientific theories denigrating black intelligence, and stereotypes of black violence. This athleticizing of black identity encourages a disdain for academic achievement already too widespread among black males. During the past centur