Modern sports and the black experience.

PositionAthletic Arena - Modern Sport and the African American Experience - Book review

Modern Sport and the African American Experience, an anthology by sociologist Gary Sailes, contains 19 essays about male and female athletes, "trash talking," the glass ceiling, and other topics related to how sports and black culture intertwine. "African-American culture has a very special relationship with sports;' notes Sailes. "For a lot of African-American youth, their career is sports."

Although this is his second anthology and seventh book, Sailes admits that he was guilty of not studying black women in athletics prior to this project. "I have a thick folder about black women athletes, and boy, did I learn a lot. The socialization of the female athlete intersects and parallels the male athlete, but there is stuff that impacts them and not the male athlete. They deal with the double negative of gender and skin color."

The anthology also analyzes the "unique individual that is the black athlete" and how he performs on the court. Sailes indicates that when a black male athlete plays basketball, "he can't just do a lay-up; he has to go through the back, through the legs, slam dunk, and trash talk."

Sailes claims that black males do this "cool pose" as a means to compensate for the obstacles they face due to race discrimination...

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