9/20/2022
National Archives Exhibition Challenges the Meritocratic, Democratic Myths of American Sports
Historians in the Newstags: racism, sports
Kevin B. Blackistone, ESPN panelist and professor of the practice at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, writes sports commentary for The Washington Post.
“Why should a man who is trying to do what his audience expects him to do and pays for be the target of vile abuse, all on account of his color of skin?
“Doesn’t the … instinct of man have assent itself? Draw away the veil of civilization and you will find the human race pretty morally equal. In science we have advanced wonderfully, but morally, precious little, of any at all. We should all cultivate the sense of fair play.”
So wrote the first Black man allowed to fight for (and win) the heavyweight championship of the world, Jack Johnson. Circa 1921. On lined notepad sheets. In cursive. With pencil.
From prison.
It is one page of his handwritten autobiography, a brownish yellow now, some of which the National Archives Museum unveiled Friday along with myriad other artifacts — such as the blue jacket worn by President George W. Bush when he threw the first pitch after 9/11 — in its first-ever sports exhibit.
But what caught my attention were the items that reminded — as Johnson pondered — how sports have been, and often still are, contested turf for the egalitarian ideals we champion them for embodying: meritocracy, fairness, inclusiveness, equality. The same problems we see all these years later manifested in things such as NFL coach Brian Flores’s discrimination lawsuit against the league, women’s soccer players having to wrestle for equitable World Cup prize money and, of course, Colin Kaepernick being exiled. This is why sports are a perfect petri dish for protest and social change.
....
The exhibit’s curator, Alice Kamps, admitted to not being a rabid sports fan. What drove her to design the display, she said, was instead her interest in studying national identity.
“I was really intrigued to learn about the way that sports was used in the late 19th century, early 20th century, like almost a prescriptive fashion to create good citizens in schools and in military training grounds, because of the values that sports teach,” Kamps explained. “And you can see that in some of the propaganda, too. There’s a poster in the exhibit that says, ‘This is America.’”
comments powered by Disqus
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"