Black Sporting Resistance

Diaspora, Transnationalism, and Internationalism

By Joseph N. Cooper; Foreword by Gerald Horne

SERIES: Critical Issues in Sport and Society

Rutgers University Press

In recent years, there has been increased attention towards activism in sporting spaces. A vast majority of these contributions have focused on intra-nation tensions and impact. Yet, there is a dearth of scholarship that has engaged in a theoretically grounded analysis of how Black sportspersons have exhibited resistance in and through sport across national borders across time, space, and context. In this text, Joseph N. Cooper introduces the Black Sporting Resistance Framework (BSRF) as an analytic lens to examine how resistance actions in and through sport have contributed to the advancement of local and global racial justice efforts. Key concepts such as African (Black) diaspora, transnationalism, internationalism, sporting resistance typology, and sport activism typology are incorporated throughout the book. Black sporting resistance is also analyzed alongside broader social movements such as the Black Liberation Struggle, Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Black Radicalism. Insights on the ways in which sport can be used to advance social justice in the future are presented.

A strong contribution to sports, politics, and the sociology of race, Black Sporting Resistance indisputably argues that Black athletes and sport organizers have historically been at the forefront of anti-racist political activism. There really is no comparable text to this one.’
Janelle Joseph, author of Sport and the Black Atlantic: Cricket, Canada, and the Caribbean Diaspora

Black Sporting Resistance is impressive in scope, breadth, and its mastery of different literatures. It's a tremendously important synthesis of scholarship. Drawing on the tradition of Black internationalism, Cooper theorizes race and resistance to Euro-American imperialism through sport as a global process and dialogue that stretches across both time and space. We can see how Black athletes in different times and places react to organize in opposition to global white supremacy. Jeffrey Montez de Oca, author of Discipline and Indulgence: College Football, Media, and the American Way of Life during th

JOSEPH N. COOPER is the inaugural Dr. J. Keith Motely Endowed Chair of Sport Leadership and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is the author of From Exploitation Back to Empowerment: Black Male Holistic (Under)Development through Sport and (Mis)Education and A Legacy of African American Resistance and Activism through Sport.

GERALD HORNE is the John and Rebecca Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is the author of over thirty books, including Revolting Capital: Racism and Radicalism in Washington, D.C., 1900–2000 and The Counter Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery and Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism.

List of Tables and Figures
Foreword
Introduction: Beyond Boundaries: Sport as a Site for Black Resistance
1   Black Sporting Resistance
2   A Collective Consciousness: African (Black) Diaspora Sporting Resistance
3   They Lived on Their Own Terms: Black Transnationalism Sporting Resistance
4   Revolutionary Consciousness: Black Internationalism Sporting Resistance
5   A Radical Imagination of Future Black Sporting Resistance
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Foreword by Gerald Horne vii
Introduction: Beyond Boundaries—Sport as a Site for Black Resistance 1
1 Black Sporting Resistance 20
2 A Collective Consciousness: African (Black) Diaspora Sporting Resistance 44
3 They Lived on Their Own Terms: Black Transnationalism Sporting Resistance 75
4 Revolutionary Consciousness: Black Internationalism Sporting Resistance 125
5 A Radical Imagination of Future Black Sporting Resistance 160
Acknowledgments 175
Notes 177
References 199
Index 000

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