Gift and grit : race, sports, and the construction of social debt / Joseph Darda.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Darda, Joseph, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Sports--Social aspects--United States.
• Athletic ability--Social aspects--United States.
• Racism in sports--United States.
• Racism--United States.
• African American athletes--Public opinion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 321 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

In 1998, Bill Clinton hosted a town hall on race and sports. 'If you've got a special gift,' the president said of athletes, 'you owe more back.' Gift and Grit shows how the sports industry has incubated racial ideas about advantage and social debt since the civil rights era by sorting athletes into two broad categories. The gifted athlete received something for nothing, we're told, and owes the team, the fan, the city, God, nation. The gritty athlete received nothing and owes no one. The distinction between gift and grit is racial, but also, Joseph Darda reveals, racializing: It has structured new racial categories and redrawn racial lines. Sports, built on an image of fairness, inform how we talk about advantage and deservedness in other domains, including immigration, crime, education, and labor. Gift and Grit tells the stories of Roger Bannister, Roberto Clemente, Martina Navratilova, Florence Griffith Joyner, and LeBron James - and the story their stories tell about the shifting meaning of race in America.

Contents:

• Introduction : the natural's bouquets
• The mismeasure of sport
• Roberto Clemente on the Black/Brown color line
• Black on Black
• How the student-athlete subsidizes the amateur
• Color commentary
• Draft capital
• Epilogue : sports norming.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 26 May 2025).

ISBN:

• 1-009-58404-9
• 1-009-58409-X
• 1-009-58407-3