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Book Black Men Can t Shoot

Download or read book Black Men Can t Shoot written by Scott N. Brooks and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The myth of the natural black athlete is widespread, though it's usually only talked about when a sports commentator or celebrity embarrasses himself by bringing it up in public. Those gaffes are swiftly decried as racist, but apart from their link to the long history of ugly racial stereotypes about black people - especially men - they are also...

Book Hands Up  Don   t Shoot

Download or read book Hands Up Don t Shoot written by Jennifer E Cobbina and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding the explosive protests over police killings and the legacy of racism Following the high-profile deaths of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and twenty-five-year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, both cities erupted in protest over the unjustified homicides of unarmed black males at the hands of police officers. These local tragedies—and the protests surrounding them—assumed national significance, igniting fierce debate about the fairness and efficacy of the American criminal justice system. Yet, outside the gaze of mainstream attention, how do local residents and protestors in Ferguson and Baltimore understand their own experiences with race, place, and policing? In Hands Up, Don’t Shoot, Jennifer Cobbina draws on in-depth interviews with nearly two hundred residents of Ferguson and Baltimore, conducted within two months of the deaths of Brown and Gray. She examines how protestors in both cities understood their experiences with the police, how those experiences influenced their perceptions of policing, what galvanized Black Lives Matter as a social movement, and how policing tactics during demonstrations influenced subsequent mobilization decisions among protesters. Ultimately, she humanizes people’s deep and abiding anger, underscoring how a movement emerged to denounce both racial biases by police and the broader economic and social system that has stacked the deck against young black civilians. Hands Up, Don’t Shoot is a remarkably current, on-the-ground assessment of the powerful, protestor-driven movement around race, justice, and policing in America.

Book Black Men Can t Read

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charles G. Ankrom
  • Publisher : Pageturner, Press and Media
  • Release : 2020-03-04
  • ISBN : 9781643768144
  • Pages : 230 pages

Download or read book Black Men Can t Read written by Charles G. Ankrom and published by Pageturner, Press and Media. This book was released on 2020-03-04 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dialogue on race in America does need to change, but not in the way most people have been programmed to believe. The author presents proof from various segments of society, in support of his proposition that society and the media pander to blacks to such a degree, pursuant to a politically-correct mind-set of reverse discrimination, so ingrained, that it actually poses a barrier to ending racism. Why is it always presumed that whites discriminate against blacks every time a cry of racism is heard? And why are these stories so prevalent in today's media? "Black lives Matter" and "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" are all that seem to be on the evening news. Yet the facts of some of these cases (Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown) hardly seem to provide adequate poster boys for a new civil rights movement. Hate crimes seem to only get filed against whites, many times for the hanging of a noose. Yet blacks assault whites with cries of "justice for Troyvon" or "remember Michael Brown" and hate crimes are not even considered. Why does society so excessively pander to blacks with such things as Black History Month, The Congressional Black Caucus, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, etc, yet the white equivalent of these do not exist and their very mentioning would bring cries of racism? How can there so blatantly exist a Notional Association for the Advancement of Colored People which garners a place at the tables of the highest politicians, yet to propose the same type of organization for whites would immediately be labeled racist. Why is it socially accepted that blacks can use the dreaded n-word at will, the word being a staple in rap music lyrics, yet white people dare utter the word and careers are lost? Like the little boy that cried wolf, racism is all America hears. And so much so that the silent white majority is comfortable with just turning a deaf ear, even in cases (Eric Garner and Freddie Gray) where those cries, or at least cries of police brutality, seem to have merit. The author also proposes that a 'thug mentality' or 'thug culture' is so prevalent among blacks today that it stands as an additional obstacle, perhaps insurmountable, to overcoming racism in America. The silent white majority is tired of hearing the likes of blacks who look, talk and act like Michael Brown's stepfather the moment after the grand jury decision in Ferguson was announced, as he vehemently urged onlookers to "burn this bitch down." The author urges you to read and consider, agree or disagree, but above all to open your mind to the possibility that the propositions herein ore true. Because then and only then can the dialogue on race occur that is necessary to defeat the ugly monster of racism.

Book Don t Shoot

    Book Details:
  • Author : David M. Kennedy
  • Publisher : A&C Black
  • Release : 2011-11-07
  • ISBN : 1408828898
  • Pages : 363 pages

Download or read book Don t Shoot written by David M. Kennedy and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-11-07 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable story of David Kennedy's crusade to combat America's plague of gang- and drug-related violence - with methods that have been astonishingly effective across the country. 'If you want to read a book on urban gangs and find out why they exist and why they kill each other, read this ... this is a sociology book, but it's like immersing yourself in The Wire ... When Kennedy says something, you believe him' Scotsman Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every two hundred young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of government and law enforcement have made much difference. But when David Kennedy, a self-taught and then-unknown criminologist, engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the mid-1990s, he pointed the way toward what few had imagined: a solution. Don't Shoot tells the story of Kennedy's long journey. Riding with beat cops, hanging with gang members, and stoop-sitting with grandmothers, Kennedy found that all parties misunderstood each other, caught in a spiral of racialized anger and distrust. He envisioned an approach in which everyone-gang members, cops, and community members-comes together in what is essentially a huge intervention. Offenders are told that the violence must stop, that even the cops want them to stay alive and out of prison, and that even their families support swift law enforcement if the violence continues. In city after city, the same miracle has followed: violence plummets, drug markets dry up, and the relationship between the police and the community is reset. This is a landmark book, chronicling a paradigm shift in how we address one of America's most shameful social problems. A riveting, page-turning read, it combines the street vérité of The Wire, the social science of Gang Leader for a Day, and the moral urgency and personal journey of Fist Stick Knife Gun. But unlike anybody else, Kennedy shows that there could be an end in sight.

Book Sociologists Backstage

    Book Details:
  • Author : Sarah Fenstermaker
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2011-04-27
  • ISBN : 1136891072
  • Pages : 273 pages

Download or read book Sociologists Backstage written by Sarah Fenstermaker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-04-27 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published social science rarely gives real attention to the actual doing of research, making the process appear magical, or at least self-evident and simple. This book is intended to right the balance by illuminating the craft and the choices made as the research process unfolds for the sociologist. The metaphorical image of going "backstage" speaks to the reader’s experience with each of the seventeen interviews, which illuminate the choices and constraints of researchers as well as unanticipated developments, good and bad. The volume represents a range of interests, themes, research philosophies and approaches from a diverse group of contributors. Particularly suited for advanced undergraduate and graduate research methods students, the volume addresses virtually all of the most vexing methods questions through accessible and compelling first-hand descriptions of sociological research. The volume is an invaluable addition to the library of all social science researchers. From the Foreword by Howard Becker: "The stories in Sociologists Backstage tell how the contributors, who differ in so many ways, dealt with the situations they found themselves in as they did their research, and how who they were and what they had become in their lives intersected with those situations. The stories will fascinate you, and give you a lot to think about as you go ahead with your own research adventure."

Book They Can t Kill Us All

Download or read book They Can t Kill Us All written by Wesley Lowery and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it. Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today. In an effort to grasp the magnitude of the repose to Michael Brown's death and understand the scale of the problem police violence represents, Lowery speaks to Brown's family and the families of other victims other victims' families as well as local activists. By posing the question, "What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?" Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs. Studded with moments of joy, and tragedy, They Can't Kill Us All offers a historically informed look at the standoff between the police and those they are sworn to protect, showing that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in the broader struggle for justice. As Lowery brings vividly to life, the protests against police killings are also about the black community's long history on the receiving end of perceived and actual acts of injustice and discrimination. They Can't Kill Us All grapples with a persistent if also largely unexamined aspect of the otherwise transformative presidency of Barack Obama: the failure to deliver tangible security and opportunity to those Americans most in need of both.

Book Something Happened in Our Town

Download or read book Something Happened in Our Town written by Marianne Celano and published by American Psychological Association. This book was released on 2020-06-08 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES AND #1 INDIEBOUND BEST SELLER #6 on American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom's Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020 A Little Free Library Action Book Club Selection National Parenting Product Award Winner (NAPPA) Something Happened in Our Town follows two families — one White, one Black — as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives. Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and racism with children, child-friendly definitions, and sample dialogues.

Book Black Fatigue

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mary-Frances Winters
  • Publisher : Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • Release : 2020-09-15
  • ISBN : 1523091320
  • Pages : 180 pages

Download or read book Black Fatigue written by Mary-Frances Winters and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to define and explore Black fatigue, the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of Black people—and explain why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects. Black people, young and old, are fatigued, says award-winning diversity and inclusion leader Mary-Frances Winters. It is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining to continue to experience inequities and even atrocities, day after day, when justice is a God-given and legislated right. And it is exhausting to have to constantly explain this to white people, even—and especially—well-meaning white people, who fall prey to white fragility and too often are unwittingly complicit in upholding the very systems they say they want dismantled. This book, designed to illuminate the myriad dire consequences of “living while Black,” came at the urging of Winters's Black friends and colleagues. Winters describes how in every aspect of life—from economics to education, work, criminal justice, and, very importantly, health outcomes—for the most part, the trajectory for Black people is not improving. It is paradoxical that, with all the attention focused over the last fifty years on social justice and diversity and inclusion, little progress has been made in actualizing the vision of an equitable society. Black people are quite literally sickand tired of being sick and tired. Winters writes that “my hope for this book is that it will provide a comprehensive summary of the consequences of Black fatigue, and awaken activism in those who care about equity and justice—those who care that intergenerational fatigue is tearing at the very core of a whole race of people who are simply asking for what they deserve.”

Book From Racist to Non Racist to Anti Racist

Download or read book From Racist to Non Racist to Anti Racist written by Keith L Anderson and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended to be an aid to moving people from racist to non-racist to anti-racist. I am writing this book for people who want to be change agents in the area of racial justice. I am writing this book for true patriots, who want the best for America. This book isn't written to teach the reader about slavery, Jim Crow, Black History or the history of the civil rights movement. There are plenty of well written books, written by very dedicated and detailed historians, who can make a reader a walking wealth of historical civil rights information. Some may say, in order to fix the future, we must know and understand the past. To a certain degree, I agree. But living in the historical, can sometimes prevent action towards improving the future. I decided to teach people the difference between a racist, a non-racist and an anti-racist. Here's why; the lack of understanding and defining who is a racist, a non-racist and an anti-racist; has always been a dagger sticking through the heart of America. This lack of admitting, knowing, understanding and defining racism has been one of the biggest obstacles keeping America from realizing its true potential and obligation to provide equality to all its citizens. Also, the lack of admitting, knowing, understanding and defining racism is a major reason why America cannot rid itself of racism. And ifAmerica doesn't understand what racism is, and deal with it once and for all, America will eventually commit social suicide. So, who will this book help? We have many important social situations going on in America. People are dealing with healthcare issues. People are becoming aware that the top one percent of Americans own ninety percent of America's wealth. Americans are realizing that the American Dream has all but disappeared. But, believe me when I say, ahead of them all, is racism; and it has dominated America since the first Europeans sailed here and settled in a place and called it Jamestown in 1607. Racism is why they quickly massacred the native people. Racism allowed them to buy, steal and sell Africans into slavery. Racism was the catalyst behind forcing the Chinese to work the railroads and live in underground cities. Racism put Japanese people into internment camps and stole their property. Within the words of America's documents of freedom and sown within the fabric of the America's institutions and flag, is a powerful ideology called racism. It dwells smack dab in the heart of social and civic justice, education, religion, health and financial wealth. Racism continues to chug along throughout American society like a locomotive, purposely set to steamroll anyone who isn't the right color. Racism never gets fixed because Americans have been taught to not truly understand it or speak freely about it. Racism never gets fixed because anyone with a pair of lips and a tongue thinks and speaks as if their feelings are facts. Racism never gets fixed because White people think people of color are the only victims of it. Racism never gets fixed because whites in power have been able to convince poor whites, that people of color are the reason they are in the financial and social predicament they're in. Racism never gets fixed because White America doesn't invest in ridding America of racism. The bottom line is racism never gets fixed because people do not understand that racism was perpetrated on purpose, therefore it must be un-done on purpose. Racism isn't just going to go away because of a moving speech. It will take love, desire, money and White people willing to take a backseat (until they acquire real knowledge) to people of color, in regards to moving people from racist to non-racist to anti-racist.

Book Let it Bang

Download or read book Let it Bang written by R. J. Young (Writer) and published by Mariner Books. This book was released on 2018 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A story of race, guns, and self-protection in America today, through the quest--funny and searing--of a young black man learning to shoot a handgun better than a white person

Book White Men Can t Hump  As Good As Black Men

Download or read book White Men Can t Hump As Good As Black Men written by Todd Wooten and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2006-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White Men Can't Hump is a book of hope. The hope is that one day Black Men in America will no longer be viewed as unintelligent, unattractive, undesirable, uncivilized, and just plain old worthless. White Men Can't Hump will address why Black Men in America are perceived in such a negative way, and will also explore the origins of this negativity. White Men Can't Hump will also explore how this negativity has been spread for the last four centuries (a la stereotypes), and why this negativity has been spread (a la "Fear of the Black Penis"). Several of these so-called negative Stereotypes will be closely examined and shown in a new light. White Men Can't Hump will ask why two well known Stereotypes that have been historically assigned to Black Men, are only considered negative when applied to Black Men. Most men desire a large Penis and an elevated sexual prowess, but all across America (in offices, bars and locker rooms) the Black Penis and Black Prowess are routinely the Punch Line to jokes. White Men Can't Hump will ask why, and will also ask a question that will create a debate for the ages: "Who's better in bed, Black Men or White Men?" White Men Can't Hump will take you the reader on an educational and enlightening journey through America's past and present with the hope of changing America's future. So sit back and enjoy or cuss, agree or disagree, and most importantly think with an open mind. Because whether you like it or not, White Men Can't Hump tells the story of who all of us are, where we've come from, and where we're going. White Men Can't Hump is divided into two VOLUMES. VOLUME I focuses on how Sex has historically affected Race relations in America, and VOLUME II focuses on how Race has affected Sex relations in America. Don't be confused by the similar titles because both VOLUMES pack a different Sexual, Racial, Political, and Social punch. For more information feel free to visit: www.whitemencanthump.com Enjoy the ride my friend.

Book The War on Cops

    Book Details:
  • Author : Heather Mac Donald
  • Publisher : Encounter Books
  • Release : 2016-06-21
  • ISBN : 1594038767
  • Pages : 196 pages

Download or read book The War on Cops written by Heather Mac Donald and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Violent crime has been rising sharply in many American cities after two decades of decline. Homicides jumped nearly 17 percent in 2015 in the largest 50 cities, the biggest one-year increase since 1993. The reason is what Heather Mac Donald first identified nationally as the “Ferguson effect”: Since the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, officers have been backing off of proactive policing, and criminals are becoming emboldened. This book expands on Mac Donald’s groundbreaking and controversial reporting on the Ferguson effect and the criminal-justice system. It deconstructs the central narrative of the Black Lives Matter movement: that racist cops are the greatest threat to young black males. On the contrary, it is criminals and gangbangers who are responsible for the high black homicide death rate. The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of “mass incarceration.” A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that “black lives matter” than today’s data-driven, accountable police department. Mac Donald gives voice to the many residents of high-crime neighborhoods who want proactive policing. She warns that race-based attacks on the criminal-justice system, from the White House on down, are eroding the authority of law and putting lives at risk. This book is a call for a more honest and informed debate about policing, crime, and race.

Book Sport and Sociology

Download or read book Sport and Sociology written by Dominic Malcolm and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How has our understanding of sport been shaped by sociological ideas? How can the study of sport help sociologists to understand wider society? The sociology of sport is a sub-discipline approaching maturity. This is the first book to stand back and reflect upon the subject’s growth, to trace its developmental phases and to take stock of the current fund of knowledge. It offers a ‘state of the art’ review of the sociology of sport and investigates those areas where sport has come to influence the sociological mainstream. The book also examines how the sociology of sport has attempted to engage with a popular readership, and what the consequences of such engagement have been. Focusing on touchstone issues and concepts within sociological discourse such as race, gender, celebrity, the body and social theory, the book assesses the successes and failures of the sociology of sport in influencing the parent discipline, related sub-disciplines and the wider public. It also asks to what extent the sociology of sport can be said to be autonomous, distinctive and distinguished, and challenges students of sport to extend their work out of the narrow confines of the subdiscipline and across disciplinary divides. As the first book to provide a history of the sociology of sport and to clearly locate the contemporary discipline in the wider currents of sociological discourse, this is important reading for all students and scholars interested in the relationship between sport and society, whether they are working in sport studies or in the sociological mainstream.

Book South Asian Racialization and Belonging after 9 11

Download or read book South Asian Racialization and Belonging after 9 11 written by Aparajita De and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2016-05-26 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays interrogates literary and cultural narratives in the contexts of the incidents following 9/11. The collected essays underscore the new and (re)emerging racial, political, and socio-cultural discourse on identity related to terrorism and identity politics. Specifically, the collection examines South Asian American identities to understand culture, policy making, and the implicit gendered racialization, sexualization, and socio-economic classification of minority identities within the discourse of globalization. The essays included here relocate the discourse of race and cultural studies to an examination of transnational labor diasporas, reopen debate on critical constructions of U.S. racial and cultural formations, and question the reconfiguration of gendered and sexualized discourses of the South Asian diaspora within the context of national security and terrorism. This book provides a multifaceted account of South Asian racialization and belonging by drawing from disciplines across the humanities and the social sciences. The scholars included here employ methods of ethnographic studies as well as literary, culture, film, and feminist analysis to examine a wide range of South Asian cultural sites: novels, short stories, cultural texts, documentaries, and sports. The rich intellectual, theoretical, methodological, and narrative tapestry of South Asians that emerges from this inquiry enables us to trace new patterns of South Asian cultural consumption post-9/11 as well as expand notions and histories of “terror.” This volume makes an important contribution to renewing scholarship in the key areas of representations of race, labor, diaspora, class, and culture while implicating that there needs to be a simultaneous and critical dialogue on the scope and reconnections within postcolonial studies.

Book The Stickup Kids

    Book Details:
  • Author : Randol Contreras
  • Publisher : Univ of California Press
  • Release : 2013
  • ISBN : 0520273389
  • Pages : 304 pages

Download or read book The Stickup Kids written by Randol Contreras and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insider’s look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as “Stickup Kids,” these men raided and brutally tortured drug dealers storing large amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and cash. As a participant observer, Randol Contreras offers both a personal and theoretical account for the rise of the Stickup Kids and their violence. He mainly focuses on the lives of neighborhood friends, who went from being crack dealers to drug robbers once their lucrative crack market opportunities disappeared. The result is a stunning, vivid, on-the-ground ethnographic description of a drug robbery’s violence, the drug market high life, the criminal life course, and the eventual pain and suffering experienced by the casualties of the Crack Era. Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely absorbing.

Book Not for Long

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert W. Turner II
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2018-07-06
  • ISBN : 0190872853
  • Pages : 289 pages

Download or read book Not for Long written by Robert W. Turner II and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-06 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The NFL is the most popular professional sports league in the United States. Its athletes receive multimillion-dollar contracts and almost endless media attention. The league's most important game, the Super Bowl, is practically a national holiday. Making it to the NFL, however, is not about the promised land of fame and fortune. Robert W. Turner II draws on his personal experience as a former professional football player as well as interviews with more than 140 current and former NFL players to reveal what it means to be an athlete in the NFL and explain why so many players struggle with life after football. Without guaranteed contracts, the majority of players are forced out of the league after a few seasons. Over three-quarters of retirees experience bankruptcy or financial ruin, two-thirds live with chronic pain, and too many find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Robert W. Turner II argues that the fall from grace of so many players is no accident. The NFL, he contends, powerfully determines their experiences in and out of the league. The labor agreement provides little job security and few health and retirement benefits, and the owners refuse to share power with the players, making change difficult. And the process of becoming an elite football player--from high school to college and through the pros--leaves athletes with few marketable skills and little preparation for their first Sunday off the field. With compassion and objectivity, Not for Long reveals the life and mind of high school, college, and NFL athletes, shedding light on what might best help players transition successfully out of the sport.

Book Desi Hoop Dreams

    Book Details:
  • Author : Stanley I. Thangaraj
  • Publisher : NYU Press
  • Release : 2015-06-26
  • ISBN : 0814760937
  • Pages : 283 pages

Download or read book Desi Hoop Dreams written by Stanley I. Thangaraj and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Asian American men are not usually depicted as ideal American men. They struggle against popular representations as either threatening terrorists or geeky, effeminate computer geniuses. To combat such stereotypes, some use sports as a means of performing a distinctly American masculinity. Desi Hoop Dreams focuses on South Asian-only basketball leagues common in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, to show that basketball, for these South Asian American players is not simply a whimsical hobby, but a means to navigate and express their identities in 21st century America. The participation of young men in basketball is one platform among many for performing South Asian American identity. South Asian-only leagues and tournaments become spaces in which to negotiate the relationships between masculinity, race, and nation. When faced with stereotypes that portray them as effeminate, players perform sporting feats on the court to represent themselves as athletic. And though they draw on black cultural styles, they carefully set themselves off from African American players, who are deemed “too aggressive.” Accordingly, the same categories of their own marginalization—masculinity, race, class, and sexuality—are those through which South Asian American men exclude women, queer masculinities, and working-class masculinities, along with other racialized masculinities, in their effort to lay claim to cultural citizenship. One of the first works on masculinity formation and sport participation in South Asian American communities, Desi Hoop Dreams focuses on an American popular sport to analyze the dilemma of belonging within South Asian America in particular and in the U.S. in general.