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Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race – An Indictment of Athletic Stereotypes and Academic Disdain Among Black Males
DARWIN'S ATHLETES focuses on society's fixation with black athletic achievement. Hoberman argues that this obsession has come to play a troubling role in African American life and our country's race relations. Rich, flamboyant superstars lend credence to age-old prejudices, recycled "scientific" theories denigrating black intelligence, and stereotypes of black violence. This portrayal of black identity encourages a disdain for academic achievement already too widespread among black males. Darwin's Athletes is a powerful indictment of modern sport's racial spectacle.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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June 7, 2024
A CRITICAL LOOK AT “THE CULTURAL COMPLEXITIES OF RACE INSIDE THE SPORTS WORLD”
Dr. John Milton Hoberman is a Professor of Germanic languages at the University of Texas at Austin. He wrote in the Preface to this 1997 book, “I embarked on this project for several reasons. First of all, I was fascinated by the cultural complexities of race inside the sports world… that is seldom brought to life by the sportswriters who cover it. A second stimulus was the taboo that has wrapped the issue of racial athletic aptitude in a shroud of fear; I resolved to follow the evidence wherever it led, and I have done so. A third motive was to produce a socially useful analysis of black subjugation to white institutions and the racial folklore that sustains it… [This book] discusses aspects of the black experience that are seldom addressed because they point to the terrible damage that racism has done…
“Of the major questions this book attempts to answer, the most urgent are the following: Why are many African-Americans’ feelings about athletic achievement so intense that they amount to a fixation that almost precludes criticism of its effects? How do white-controlled institutions profit from the perpetuation of the sports fixation? Finally, how has the cult of the black athlete exacerbated the disastrous spread of anti-intellectual attitudes among African-American youth facing life in a knowledge-based society?”
In his Preface to the Mariner edition of this book, he states, “There is no question that [this book] became a hotly contested book in part because its author is white. For many African Americans, this raised once again the specter of … white incursions into black cultural space… Other black commentators found me to be relatively ignorant about African-American life in general… It would be impossible and foolhardy for me to try to refute such criticism in its entirety… Outsider status… can confer unique advantages on the observer who is willing to stop, look, and listen to people whose experiences are often very different from his own.”
He states, “this faith in the black athlete as a politically invaluable role model became one of the ruling dogmas of American thinking about race and was eventually incarnated in the person of Jackie Robinson. The fields of sport appeared as a utopia of equal opportunity where blacks could demonstrate their long-denied ‘manhood’ and ‘fitness’ for full citizenship. Athletic competition was also an extraordinary opportunity to deal out some licks to members of the ‘superior’ race, both in the arena and on the sports page.” (Pg. 12)
He notes, “The presence of large numbers of black athletes in the major sports appears to have persuaded almost everyone that the process of integration has been a success. This sense of closure is an illusion that is rooted not in the fact of racial equality but in a combination of black apathy and white public relations efforts.” (Pg. 28-29)
He suggests, “This mythifying, deracializing strategy transforms black athletic superiority into ‘magical’ entertainment---the fabled leaping ability of the black player is incorporated into playfully surreal television and magazine ads for athletic shoes and energizing drinks. The more cynical purpose of the crossover marketing strategy is to encourage affluent young whites to adopt the athletic clothing and speech styles of black ‘homeboys’ while learning nothing else about black life.” (Pg. 34)
He argues, “for some people, athleticism has come to mean nothing less than black intelligence itself, which gives athletic champions a significance beyond the familiar themes of courage and force of character… [This raises] the question of why verbal skills were converted into physical ones in some of the minds that made up this black audience. My answer to this question is one of the major arguments of this book: namely, that traumatic aspects of the African-American experience have prompted black people to regard athletic proficiency as a comprehensive representation of all proficiencies, including intellectual skills.” (Pg. 52-53)
He says, “It is time to recognize that the Jackie Robinson story has long served white America, and liberals in particular, as a deeply satisfying combination of entertainment and civic virtue that has simultaneously permitted disengagement from less tractable and more important interracial tasks, such as the pursuit of educational and military equality.” (Pg. 65)
He contends, “If there is one interest group that might have been expected to resist black America’s profound attachment to athletic achievement, it is African-American intellectuals, both inside and outside the universities. Yet the black male intelligentsia that has denounced almost every other form of cultural entrapment has never mounted a campaign against the sports fixation… this abstention from serious criticism has failed to serve black educational and social development.” (Pg. 76)
He observes, “the spectacle of white failure in the world of sport, while real enough inside the stadium, has not been accompanied by any significant change in the traditional imbalance of power between white Euroamerica and those of African descent… Given the continuing subordinate status of black people, we must ask why black athletic victories matter to white people at all. This book argues that current white responses to white athletic decline are of psychological importance because they are indicators of anxiety about social an economic status in relation to black progress, and because racial disparities in athletic performance encourage unscientific thinking about racist biology in enormous numbers of people.” (Pg. 118)
Of the late evolutionary anthropologist Vincent Sarich, he comments, “he complicates matters by pointing to the majority in the [NBA] to confirm the reality of racial difference, thereby overlooking the cultural dimension that leads the game to attract a disproportionately large and committed number of talented blacks… What Sarich and many others do not grasp is how many factors contribute to the origins of elite athletic performance and how impossible it is to control for many of the relevant variables in a scientifically convincing way.” (Pg. 237)
He concludes, “The ‘superkidneys’ of these black ancestors thus play a role in the survivalist myth that still captivates many African Americans… This fanciful recreation of the slaves’ ordeal offers their descendants a myth of eugenic progress rather than the older myth of dysgenic inferiority, and the trials of black life can make such eugenic fantasies an attractive option. Today, however, black eugenics comes at a very high price, for it is the black athlete, the product of another ‘unnatural selection’ and the most celebrated representative of black creativity, who carries the torch of eugenic advancement for his people. His tragedy is that he can neither advance nor lead his face in the modern world.” (Pg. 241)
Hoberman advances some quite incorrect notions (e.g., “[Cornel] West is clearly a sporting neophyte who, as a black intellectual, feels obligated to address a subject that does not really interest him in more than a peripheral way”; pg. 86); but his book is a provocative and thought-provoking look at a number of controversial issues---one need not agree with him to benefit from some of his discussion.
Dr. John Milton Hoberman is a Professor of Germanic languages at the University of Texas at Austin. He wrote in the Preface to this 1997 book, “I embarked on this project for several reasons. First of all, I was fascinated by the cultural complexities of race inside the sports world… that is seldom brought to life by the sportswriters who cover it. A second stimulus was the taboo that has wrapped the issue of racial athletic aptitude in a shroud of fear; I resolved to follow the evidence wherever it led, and I have done so. A third motive was to produce a socially useful analysis of black subjugation to white institutions and the racial folklore that sustains it… [This book] discusses aspects of the black experience that are seldom addressed because they point to the terrible damage that racism has done…
“Of the major questions this book attempts to answer, the most urgent are the following: Why are many African-Americans’ feelings about athletic achievement so intense that they amount to a fixation that almost precludes criticism of its effects? How do white-controlled institutions profit from the perpetuation of the sports fixation? Finally, how has the cult of the black athlete exacerbated the disastrous spread of anti-intellectual attitudes among African-American youth facing life in a knowledge-based society?”
In his Preface to the Mariner edition of this book, he states, “There is no question that [this book] became a hotly contested book in part because its author is white. For many African Americans, this raised once again the specter of … white incursions into black cultural space… Other black commentators found me to be relatively ignorant about African-American life in general… It would be impossible and foolhardy for me to try to refute such criticism in its entirety… Outsider status… can confer unique advantages on the observer who is willing to stop, look, and listen to people whose experiences are often very different from his own.”
He states, “this faith in the black athlete as a politically invaluable role model became one of the ruling dogmas of American thinking about race and was eventually incarnated in the person of Jackie Robinson. The fields of sport appeared as a utopia of equal opportunity where blacks could demonstrate their long-denied ‘manhood’ and ‘fitness’ for full citizenship. Athletic competition was also an extraordinary opportunity to deal out some licks to members of the ‘superior’ race, both in the arena and on the sports page.” (Pg. 12)
He notes, “The presence of large numbers of black athletes in the major sports appears to have persuaded almost everyone that the process of integration has been a success. This sense of closure is an illusion that is rooted not in the fact of racial equality but in a combination of black apathy and white public relations efforts.” (Pg. 28-29)
He suggests, “This mythifying, deracializing strategy transforms black athletic superiority into ‘magical’ entertainment---the fabled leaping ability of the black player is incorporated into playfully surreal television and magazine ads for athletic shoes and energizing drinks. The more cynical purpose of the crossover marketing strategy is to encourage affluent young whites to adopt the athletic clothing and speech styles of black ‘homeboys’ while learning nothing else about black life.” (Pg. 34)
He argues, “for some people, athleticism has come to mean nothing less than black intelligence itself, which gives athletic champions a significance beyond the familiar themes of courage and force of character… [This raises] the question of why verbal skills were converted into physical ones in some of the minds that made up this black audience. My answer to this question is one of the major arguments of this book: namely, that traumatic aspects of the African-American experience have prompted black people to regard athletic proficiency as a comprehensive representation of all proficiencies, including intellectual skills.” (Pg. 52-53)
He says, “It is time to recognize that the Jackie Robinson story has long served white America, and liberals in particular, as a deeply satisfying combination of entertainment and civic virtue that has simultaneously permitted disengagement from less tractable and more important interracial tasks, such as the pursuit of educational and military equality.” (Pg. 65)
He contends, “If there is one interest group that might have been expected to resist black America’s profound attachment to athletic achievement, it is African-American intellectuals, both inside and outside the universities. Yet the black male intelligentsia that has denounced almost every other form of cultural entrapment has never mounted a campaign against the sports fixation… this abstention from serious criticism has failed to serve black educational and social development.” (Pg. 76)
He observes, “the spectacle of white failure in the world of sport, while real enough inside the stadium, has not been accompanied by any significant change in the traditional imbalance of power between white Euroamerica and those of African descent… Given the continuing subordinate status of black people, we must ask why black athletic victories matter to white people at all. This book argues that current white responses to white athletic decline are of psychological importance because they are indicators of anxiety about social an economic status in relation to black progress, and because racial disparities in athletic performance encourage unscientific thinking about racist biology in enormous numbers of people.” (Pg. 118)
Of the late evolutionary anthropologist Vincent Sarich, he comments, “he complicates matters by pointing to the majority in the [NBA] to confirm the reality of racial difference, thereby overlooking the cultural dimension that leads the game to attract a disproportionately large and committed number of talented blacks… What Sarich and many others do not grasp is how many factors contribute to the origins of elite athletic performance and how impossible it is to control for many of the relevant variables in a scientifically convincing way.” (Pg. 237)
He concludes, “The ‘superkidneys’ of these black ancestors thus play a role in the survivalist myth that still captivates many African Americans… This fanciful recreation of the slaves’ ordeal offers their descendants a myth of eugenic progress rather than the older myth of dysgenic inferiority, and the trials of black life can make such eugenic fantasies an attractive option. Today, however, black eugenics comes at a very high price, for it is the black athlete, the product of another ‘unnatural selection’ and the most celebrated representative of black creativity, who carries the torch of eugenic advancement for his people. His tragedy is that he can neither advance nor lead his face in the modern world.” (Pg. 241)
Hoberman advances some quite incorrect notions (e.g., “[Cornel] West is clearly a sporting neophyte who, as a black intellectual, feels obligated to address a subject that does not really interest him in more than a peripheral way”; pg. 86); but his book is a provocative and thought-provoking look at a number of controversial issues---one need not agree with him to benefit from some of his discussion.
June 30, 2012
I purchased this book in 2009 along with Forty Million Dollar Slaves. Its well-written, well-researched and presents a complete representation of the endeavors some have taken to explain and even discredit not only athletes of Africans and Blacks but their accomplishments too. If you love reading books that have sociological observations mixed with sports, I highly recommend this to you.
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