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The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism by Howard Bryant
estherrosedq's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
While this book covers a very important subject and does so using compelling evidence, I felt like the book’s organization and structure lessened it’s impact on me. It felt all over the place and whole the evidence was compelling, the argument wasn’t supported enough by the author’s writing. I also feel as though the most startling reveal in the book is buried towards the end and the evidence all around isn’t used to it’s full advantage.
wellreadmegs's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
This should be required reading for all. Extremely insightful and interesting read. I find myself thinking more about Patriotism and wanting to read more on it as well. Very eye-opening read.
This should be required reading for all. Extremely insightful and interesting read. I find myself thinking more about Patriotism and wanting to read more on it as well. Very eye-opening read.
christinalepre's review against another edition
4.0
This book was super interesting. I heard the author on Fresh Air (I think?) last year when the book came out and immediately added it to my TBR. Bryant covers the history of the "heritage" that all black athletes carry with them: the obligation to use their platforms to advocate for civil rights and equality while being watched by a public that wants to admire them solely for being physically superhuman, and the conflict those two competing desires cause.
Bryant talks about the history of black athletes in sports, from using their platform to push for integration of baseball, to the 80s/90s silence of major black athletes in favor of using their public image to become unimaginablly rich, up to the current swing back to activism with Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality. The book also gets into the militarization of professional sports since 9/11 (and the conflation of law enforcement with the military), and how this has led to current protests against police killing black people being viewed as being anti-military. Once you start thinking about this, you can't stop seeing examples of the heritage. As I write this, CBS news is doing a story about whether it will be warm enough to open the roof so that they can achieve the air force flyover timed perfectly for the national anthem during the super bowl this weekend, only serving to reinforce the law enforcement/military = good, not buying into this shit = bad idea that's been propelling American sports fans for the past nearly 20 years. Also, the craziest thing in this entire book is a story about an authoritarian policy at Yankee stadium up through like 2008, where people couldn't leave their seats during the 7th inning stretch while God Bless America was playing. That is BANANAS. Why were we OK with that?
If anything, this book made me appreciate the athletes who are using their voices to draw attention to police brutality even more than I already did. I'm grateful to them for not staying silent, and taking this huge risk to their careers.
Bryant talks about the history of black athletes in sports, from using their platform to push for integration of baseball, to the 80s/90s silence of major black athletes in favor of using their public image to become unimaginablly rich, up to the current swing back to activism with Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality. The book also gets into the militarization of professional sports since 9/11 (and the conflation of law enforcement with the military), and how this has led to current protests against police killing black people being viewed as being anti-military. Once you start thinking about this, you can't stop seeing examples of the heritage. As I write this, CBS news is doing a story about whether it will be warm enough to open the roof so that they can achieve the air force flyover timed perfectly for the national anthem during the super bowl this weekend, only serving to reinforce the law enforcement/military = good, not buying into this shit = bad idea that's been propelling American sports fans for the past nearly 20 years. Also, the craziest thing in this entire book is a story about an authoritarian policy at Yankee stadium up through like 2008, where people couldn't leave their seats during the 7th inning stretch while God Bless America was playing. That is BANANAS. Why were we OK with that?
If anything, this book made me appreciate the athletes who are using their voices to draw attention to police brutality even more than I already did. I'm grateful to them for not staying silent, and taking this huge risk to their careers.
tommyh's review
4.0
Timely, helpful and fascinating. Paints a pretty grim picture of the fuzzy lines between sports, patriotism, the military, the police and consumerism. Picked this up after listening to an interview with Bryant here: https://thisishell.com/interviews/1013-howard-bryant.
cajunhusker's review
5.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It takes a good look at the history of athletic activism, tracking it through the early 1900s to the modern day and exploring issues including changes around 9/11 and paid patriotism (which finally gave me the vocab for something that has irked me for several years). For the sport fan, the political scientist, and the everyday reader as they try to make sense of new movements.
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