Grace Hall
Aldridge
American Popular Culture
25 Sept 2018
A People’s History of Sports in the United States Review
Dave Zirin writes on sports, politics, and how they influence each other. He has written ten books on sports politics; most recently he published Jim Brown: Last Man Standing and Things that Make White People Uncomfortable.[1] Eil Philip claims that Zirin “occupies a singular space in American journalism;”[2] and instead of shying away from controversial topics regarding politics and sports “Zirin has made a career of aiming straight at them.”[3] Zirin is an avid sports fan and was born and raised in New York City. While he was a student at Macalester College he developed his love for both history and politics. In college, Zirin found “sports radicals” fascinating and was particularly inspired by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s protest against the national anthem.[4] In an interview with Max Tcheyan from Bleacher Report, Zirin says that after learning about the controversy surrounding Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s protest he was inspired to write a sports version of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.[5] Twelve years later, A People’s History of Sports in the United States is published and Zirin argues that athletes have a duty to recognize their influence on society and should feel an obligation to fight for what they believe in.
Zirin starts the book with the history of sports in America dating back to the early forms of lacrosse played by Native Americans. King James of England felt sports should be used to keep people from getting into trouble at bars or in town; a similar argument as to why there are so many athletic after school programs focused on inner-city youths today.[6] While America was beginning to form, sports created bonding opportunities for communities; but with this bonding also created isolation. Different groups had their own sports. Slaves would play sports that did not require equipment like dances and races; while both upper and lower-class white males in the south would partake in horse racing and bare-knuckle boxing.[7] In contrast, upper-class New Englanders were less likely to participate in rough sports. President Roosevelt was a major “spokesperson” for Muscular Christianity,[8] the response to upper class boys appearing too soft and dainty. In response, prestigious universities quickly created an intercollegiate league for football.[9] Dwight Eisenhower later altered on Roosevelt and King James’s idea by saying the “true mission of American Sports is to prepare young men for war.”[10] Sports began to become part of daily American life. Baseball became a “game for the masses” including “gambling, drinking, and taunting” and a National League.[11] With baseball, among other sports, creating professional leagues in conjunction with the rise of American capitalism, athletic teams became an opportunity for money to be made instead of a lighthearted way to pass time.
A consistent theme through the book, Zirin takes pride in athletes standing up for themselves and their self-identified people. Once football grew to encompass more of America than the Ivy League schools, there was a young African American student, Paul Robeson, who wanted to play football at Rutgers University. He was faced with backlash from his own teammates and other teams in the conference. Zirin was impressed with Robeson because of Robeson’s commitment to his race.[12] Robeson felt like he was the “representative of a lot of Negro boys who wanted to play football, who wanted to go to college.”[13] While later in life Robeson seemed to speak out for his race in a way Zirin deemed ironic; Robeson was the first major college athlete to speak out against the racism he suffered and Zirin respected his bravery.[14] Around the same time as Robeson, Jack Johnson was the first African American heavy weight champion. To win his title Johnson had to both defeat a white boxer, Jim Jeffries; and Johnson had to fight the racist stigmas built into the minds of every white person watching the match.[15] When Johnson won the race, riots broke out across the United States. When Johnson was pressured to “condemn African Americans for rioting” by influential African American leader Booker T Washington he “remained defiant.”[16] Muhammad Ali won a gold medal in the 1960s Olympic games for boxing; yet, when he wore his medal to a restaurant in Louisville, his hometown, he was still denied service because of the color of his skin.[17] Ali, already a fiery person, was attracted to the anti-non-violence massage of Malcom X and they soon became allies and friends.[18] When Ali announced he was joining the Nation of Islam, Malcom X’s radical racial separatist group the public was shocked. Ali continued to shock the public by citing Islam as the reason he could not be drafted for the Vietnam war.[19] Like previous African American athletes, Bill Russell “felt a duty to resist racism.”[20] After being given the keys to a city Russell was denied service at the restaurant in his hotel.[21] Zirin has great respect for the athletes he writes about and has worked hard to empathize with the prejudice these athletes experienced.
Zirin obviously felt most passionately about Michael Jordan and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. In Zirin’s opinion, Abdul-Rauf is more than just an athlete. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf courageously continued to stand up for his religious beliefs after being boo-ed at games and even after his house was burned down.[22] Zirin does not dispute Jordan’s dominance in professional basketball; but he does resent how Jordan has treated his own fame. As Zirin says, Michel Jordan is the only athlete who “has ever had more and done less.”[23] Coming from Zirin, this is a backhanded compliment. Zirin wanted to see athletes use their social influence to make the world a better place; but when given the opportunity to help their communities, athletic celebrities like Jordan choose to stay silent for fear of retribution or specifically in Jordan’s case, a drop profit margins.[24] When Jordan was asked to endorse African American Harvey Gantt in the 1990 North Carolina senate campaign, he refrained because “Republicans by sneakers, too.”[25] I believe, to Zirin this is the ultimate corruption. Jordan is choosing to avoid helping humanity for his personal profit. Throughout the book, Zirin picks sources that speak negatively about the massive amounts of money poured into the sports industry, like Jim Bouton who is adamantly against the modern-day stadium costs.[26] Yet, rarely do you see any negative language describing Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf because he chose to stand up for his beliefs no matter the consequences he was facing.
In my opinion, Zirin did an effective job arguing for the importance of athletes using their fame as a platform to express their beliefs. I do feel on a political scale Zirin falls to the left; it does not bother me personally because I, like Zirin, love to see people standing up for what they believe in. But, I also see how people who disagree with athletes using their celebrity status to make political statements disagreeing with the foundation of Zirin’s argument, thus making the book less effective. I wish Zirin had chosen better sources. So he could sound less biased, Zirin chose sources that could express his own opinion for him. Zirin never disagreed with any source he put in his book, yet, I wish I could have seen a counter argument and Zirin’s response. I feel then maybe Zirin’s arguments could have been more effective to a broader audience. I agree with Bill Littlefield’s review of Zirin’s A People’s History of Sports in the United States. Littlefield says that “Zirin’s judgement regarding Jordan is probably safe” but that some of Zirin’s generalizations about the United States population as a whole are “difficult to certify” (FTN).[27] Like Littlefield I also appreciate the positive look toward the future at the end of the book.[28] To me, history is supposed to be learned from and improved on; therefore, saying something like we are doomed, and humanity is bad is ineffective for the reader. Zirin does a great job showing what needs to be corrected and how we can respond to the wrongs of the past.
[1] “Dave Zirin.” Edge of Sports, www.edgeofsports.com/bio.html.
[2] Eil, Philip. “The Athletic is the Political in the Words of Dave Zirin.” Forward, 03 2018, p. 50. ProQuest. Web. 24 Sep. 2018 .
[3] Eil, Philip. “The Athletic is the Political in the Words of Dave Zirin.” Forward, 03 2018, p. 50. ProQuest. Web. 24 Sep. 2018 .
[4] Tcheyan, Max. “The B/R Interview: Dave Zirin.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 4 Nov. 2008, bleacherreport.com/articles/77402the-br-interview-dave-zirin.
[5] Tcheyan, Max. “The B/R Interview: Dave Zirin.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 4 Nov. 2008, bleacherreport.com/articles/77402the-br-interview-dave-zirin.
[6] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 2.
[7] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 5.
[8] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 30.
[9] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 18.
[10] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 3.
[11] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 20.
[12] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 38.
[13] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 38.
[14] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 38-39.
[15] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 42.
[16] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 44.
[17] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 135.
[18] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 136.
[19] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 143.
[20] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 153.
[21] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 153.
[22] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 239-240.
[23] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 237.
[24] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 238.
[25] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 238.
[26] Zirin, Dave. A People’s History of Sports in the United States. The New Press, 2008, 263.
[27] Littlefield, Bill. “Zirin’s Zinnish Look at the History of Sports.” New Politics 13.1 (2010): 120-2. ProQuest. Web. 24 Sep. 2018.
[28]Littlefield, Bill. “Zirin’s Zinnish Look at the History of Sports.” New Politics 13.1 (2010): 120-2. ProQuest. Web. 24 Sep. 2018.
