Controversial book brings Black intellectuals together to discuss whether African Americans are preoccupied with sports
New York — If African Americans have become overly obsessed with
sports, the engagement or lack thereof by Black intellectuals on the
subject should not be blamed, contend a group of scholars who attended
a symposium held here earlier this month.
The scholars convened to critique a controversial book that argues
that sport is damaging Black America by helping to preserve racial
myths and stereotyping. The book also contends that African Americans
are encouraged to be overinvested in sports.
The scholars took issue with numerous observations made by Dr. John
Hoberman, author of Darwin’s Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black
America and Preserved the Myth out Race. Described by the organizer as
a “wake-up call” urging Black scholars to begin addressing sport
issues, the symposium left little doubt about the willingness of Black
intellectuals to answer criticism leveled by Hoberman, an University of
Texas scholar whom several symposium participants depicted as an
“uninformed” observer of African American life.
As Dr. Donald Spivey, chair of the department of history at the
University of Miami, said, “It is not that I find fault with everything
that he writes in his book; I find fault with most of it…. Professor
Hoberman’s thesis is spurious, historically anti-contextual,
unsubstantiated by research, and indefensible.”
Another symposium participant simply declared at the end of his presentation, “F–John Hoberman.”
The book, published in 1997, has stirred controversy among
scholars, the sports industry, and the public for alleging that sports
are doing more harm than good to the African American community. While
a number of Black scholars, such as Dr. Gerald Early of Washington
University, have said the book raises important issues, many others
have faulted it for its attack on the Black middle class and Black
intellectuals.
