Darwin's Athletes

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John Hoberman describes in detail African Americans' so-called preoccupation with sports and how this has adversely affected our entry into the pursuit of academic and professional achievements. He asks, "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?" He states, "...it is unlikely that any black intellectual would choose to write so critically about the impact of athletic achievement on African-American life." Black sports psychologist Harry Edwards refers to this book as "Hoberman's Hoax."

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Tackling an issue rarely broached by black or white commentators, Hoberman argues that the traumatic history of America has led blacks to prize athleticism so much that it substitutes for other achievement and perpetuates images of intellectual inferiority. He also takes the larger society to task for not probing the racial significance of sports and for perpetuating stereotypes and false "virtual integration" in sports imagery. If Hoberman (Mortal Engines) writes more ponderously than an enlightened sportswriter, he delves thoughtfully into history. He observes that the black soldier and aviator were public icons during WWII, but that those images were subsequently suppressed and replaced by sportive ones. He shows the way the racial divide develops similarly in European sports: "[M]edia saturation means that every modern society generates its own racial subcultures of sports." He deconstructs the way black intellectuals (Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson) distort the cultural importance of athletics. Finally, he delves into questions of racial biology, disputing the folk wisdom that slavers selected hardy people and that slavery helped create even hardier ones. Similarly, he adds, arguments about the inherent superiority of black athletes cannot be proven, and black sports success remains influenced by culture. In the end, Hoberman maintains, the race-based images of sports influence right-wing thinking about black criminality and inherited intelligence. This provocative book deserves wide discussion. (Mar.)

Library Journal

Hoberman (Germanic languages, Univ. of Texas at Austin) has studied the cultural complexities of race in sport for 25 years. Arguing that our obsession with black athletes ultimately perpetuates the myth of race, he examines society's fixation on black athletic achievement, which he feels fosters a delusion of integration. Hoberman challenges established beliefs in a thought-provoking, albeit disturbing manner, offering arguments that are convincing, controversial, and guaranteed to spark debate. Although well researched and featuring an exhaustive bibliography and notes, this work is not for everyone. Recommended for large public and academic libraries, or where demand warrants.-Larry Robert Little, Penticton P.L., British Columbia,