Download or read book The Athlete s Dilemma written by John Weston Parry and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-06-16 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sports provide people around the world with unmatched entertainment, from the excitement of victory to the agony of defeat. Unfortunately, it also has become painfully clear that the agony of sports goes well beyond athletes losing games or competitions. Playing through concussions, the abuse of pain medicine, the use of performance-enhancing substances, and other health-related issues have become a constant reminder that being a professional athlete can be as dangerous as it is lucrative. In The Athlete's Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame, John Weston Parry examines the health-related transgressions and hot-topic issues in America’s top spectator sports, particularly in football, baseball, hockey, soccer, cycling, tennis, and Olympic competitions. Parry delves into the unique health risks that pertain to each individual sport and scrutinizes how the various leagues and organizations have handled these issues. Controversies and scandals surrounding elite athletes are also included, highlighting the need for changes in how sports are governed and regulated in the United States and worldwide. From football and soccer players returning to the field too soon after concussions to Olympic athletes using performance-enhancing substances, The Athlete’s Dilemma provides a broad perspective on the health risks prevalent in sports and what can be done to reduce these risks in the future. Accessibly written yet carefully researched, this book will be of interest to athletes of all levels, sports fans, academics, and health professionals.

Download or read book Taboo written by Jon Entine and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In virtually every sport in which they are given opportunity to compete, people of African descent dominate. East Africans own every distance running record. Professional sports in the Americas are dominated by men and women of West African descent. Why have blacks come to dominate sports? Are they somehow physically better? And why are we so uncomfortable when we discuss this? Drawing on the latest scientific research, journalist Jon Entine makes an irrefutable case for black athletic superiority. We learn how scientists have used numerous, bogus "scientific" methods to prove that blacks were either more or less superior physically, and how racist scientists have often equated physical prowess with intellectual deficiency. Entine recalls the long, hard road to integration, both on the field and in society. And he shows why it isn't just being black that matters—it makes a huge difference as to where in Africa your ancestors are from.Equal parts sports, science and examination of why this topic is so sensitive, Taboois a book that will spark national debate.

Download or read book Loving Sports When They Don t Love You Back written by Jessica Luther and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Triumphant wins, gut-wrenching losses, last-second shots, underdogs, competition, and loyalty—it’s fun to be a fan. But when a football player takes a hit to the head after yet another study has warned of the dangers of CTE, or when a team whose mascot was born in an era of racism and bigotry takes the field, or when a relief pitcher accused of domestic violence saves the game, how is one to cheer? Welcome to the club for sports fans who care too much. In Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back, acclaimed sports writers Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson tackle the most pressing issues in sports, why they matter, and how we can do better. For the authors, “sticking to sports” is not an option—not when our taxes are paying for the stadiums, and college athletes aren’t getting paid at all. But simply quitting a favorite team won’t change corrupt and deplorable practices, and the root causes of many of these problems are endemic in our wider society. An essential read for modern fans, Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back challenges the status quo and explores how we might begin to reconcile our conscience with our fandom.

Download or read book The Heritage written by Howard Bryant and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following in the footsteps of Robeson, Ali, Robinson and others, today’s Black athletes re-engage with social issues and the meaning of American patriotism Named a best book of 2018 by Library Journal It used to be that politics and sports were as separate from one another as church and state. The ballfield was an escape from the world’s worst problems, top athletes were treated like heroes, and cheering for the home team was as easy and innocent as hot dogs and beer. “No news on the sports page” was a governing principle in newsrooms. That was then. Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start, were committing a political act simply by being on the field. In fact, among all black employees in twentieth-century America, perhaps no other group had more outsized influence and power than ballplayers. The immense social responsibilities that came with the role is part of the black athletic heritage. It is a heritage built by the influence of the superstardom and radical politics of Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos through the 1960s; undermined by apolitical, corporate-friendly “transcenders of race,” O. J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods in the following decades; and reclaimed today by the likes of LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, and Carmelo Anthony. The Heritage is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Through deep research and interviews with some of sports’ best-known stars—including Kaepernick, David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber—as well as members of law enforcement and the military, Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.

Download or read book Young Black Rich and Famous written by and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2008-03-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Young, Black, Rich, and Famous, Todd Boyd chronicles how basketball and hip hop have gone from being reviled by the American mainstream in the 1970s to being embraced and imitated globally today. For young black men, he argues, they represent a new version of the American dream, one embodying the hopes and desires of those excluded from the original version. Shedding light on both perception and reality, Boyd shows that the NBA has been at the forefront of recognizing and incorporating cultural shifts?from the initial image of 1970s basketball players as overpaid black drug addicts, to Michael Jordan?s spectacular rise as a universally admired icon, to the 1990s, when the hip hop aesthetic (for example, Allen Iverson?s cornrows, multiple tattoos, and defiant, in-your-face attitude) appeared on the basketball court. Hip hop lyrics, with their emphasis on ?keepin? it real? and marked by a colossal indifference to mainstream taste, became an equally powerful influence on young black men. These two influences have created a brand-new, brand-name generation that refuses to assimilate but is nonetheless an important part of mainstream American culture. This Bison Books edition includes a new introduction by the author.

Download or read book Out of Bounds written by Lori Latrice Martin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-04-17 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays highlights the controversies surrounding racism in sports and African American athletes, examining the racial discrimination that exists in one of the most public arenas in the 21st century. Despite increasing diversity in the American population, race and racial bias continue to be significant issues in the United States. Sports—one of the most visible and important subsets of American culture—directly reflect our society's beliefs about race. This book examines racial controversy and conflict in various sports in the United States in both previous eras as well as the current "Age of Obama." The essays in the work explain how racial ideologies are created and recreated in all areas of public life, including the world of sports. The authors address a wide range of sports, including ones where racial minorities are in the numerical minority, such as hockey. Specific topics covered include the devaluation of black athletes, racism in Major League Baseball, and the treatment of black female athletes.

Download or read book Athletes and the American Hero Dilemma written by Janet C. Harris and published by Human Kinetics Publishers. This book was released on 1994 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do American youths have heroes? Has the seeming loss of American society's shared values turned heroes into shallow celebrities? Or does the popularity of sport figures prove that heroes are viable? This text examines both sides of the debate. It asks questions such as: which societal institutions are sources of hero choices for youths?; how do gender, race and age affect hero choices?; what are the characteristics of heroes?; and do athletic heroes still exist?

Download or read book The Making of High Performance Athletes written by Debra Shogan and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1999-12-15 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Highly skilled athletes are produced by technologies of training which seek to create the athlete as a singular identity. Yet the disciplinary model of modern sport is consistently disrupted by the diversity and hybridity of the participants. Using Foucault's work on disciplinary power as a theoretical framework, Debra Shogan, an academic in sports ethics and a coach of high performance athletes, examines the ways in which athletes are produced through technologies of training and the ethical issues which emerge when demands to improve performance envelopes athletes, coaches, administrators and sports scientists in decisions about how far to push the limits of performance. Making the case for a new, postmodern sports ethic, Shogan shows how the juxtaposition of hybrid athletes with the homogenizing technologies of sport discipline opens up spaces for questioning, refusing, and perhaps creating new ways of participating in sport.

Download or read book We Matter written by Etan Thomas and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interviews with sports stars, activists, surviving family members, and others fighting racial injustice: “Before Kaepernick, there was Etan Thomas.”—The New York Times A Library Journal Best Book of the Year Professional athletes have long been influential figures in American life. Today, many of them are using their platforms to speak up about injustice and inequality. This book features interviews by former NBA player Etan Thomas with over fifty athletes, executives, media figures, and more—interwoven with essays and critiques by Thomas. Includes personal stories and opinions from: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook, Steve Kerr, Oscar Robertson, Mark Cuban, Michael Bennett, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose, Swin Cash, Alonzo Mourning, Chris Webber, Jemele Hill, Anquan Boldin, Jamal Crawford, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson, Shannon Sharpe, James Blake, John Carlos, Laila Ali, Michael Eric Dyson, Joakim Noah, Eric Reid, Adam Silver, Soledad O'Brien, John Wall, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Bradley Beal, Tamika Catchings, Curtis Conway, Harry Edwards, Chris Hayes, Chamique Holdsclaw, Scoop Jackson, Bomani Johnes, Shaun King, Jimmy King, Ted Leonsis, Thabo Sefolosha, Ilyasah Shabazz, Torrey Smith, Kenny Smith, Michael Smith, David West, Michael Wilbon, Jahvaris Fulton (brother of Trayvon Martin), Emerald Snipes (daughter of Eric Garner), Allysza Castile (sister of Philando Castile), Valerie Castile (mother of Philando Castile), and Dr. Tiffany Crutcher (sister of Terence Crutcher) “In We Matter, Thomas strives to show the influence professional athletes can have when they join the conversation on race, politics, and civil rights. Thomas conducted 50 interviews, which included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Laila Ali, Michael Bennett, and Eric Reid, among many other athletes, as well as journalists, television personalities, and family members of unarmed black men who were shot and killed. Thomas also explored his ties with the Wizards and spoke with John Wall, Bradley Beal, and current majority team owner Ted Leonsis.”—TheWashington Post “The honest conversations, published in transcript form and often accompanied by black-and-white photos, serve as a primer on recent police violence cases, a history lesson on the first athletes who stood up for racial injustice, an examination of the experience of being young and black in the United States, and an insightful look at how it feels to lose a loved one to tragedy, from contributors such as Jemele Hill, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Carmelo Anthony...An important read, executed uniquely.”—School Library Journal (starred review) “Voices of pain, anger, and hope resound through these pages--and through the reader's heart.”—Kirkus Reviews

Download or read book Dilemmas of Leadership written by Tudor Rickards and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-17 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leadership, the practice of focusing and motivating a group or organization to achieve its aims, is a much discussed but often misunderstood concept. This comprehensive textbook introduces the subject for Masters level students. Readers are invited to make a series of metaphorical journeys of discovery, thematically organized around fundamental dilemmas within the field of leadership studies. Building on the success of previous editions, the text uses a simple map-based approach to consider dilemmas such as: Is a leader born or made? How are tensions between ethical dilemmas and economic self-interest resolved? How does a leader's desire for control balance with the need to empower members of the organization? This third edition contains a brand new chapter on leadership in sport, an enhanced chapter on creativity, and more international content. Also new to this edition is a companion website containing PowerPoint slides, revision quizzes and a tutor’s guide. This text will be essential reading for Masters and MBA students on leadership courses, and will also be illuminating for managers pursuing leadership development.

Download or read book The Psychology of Doping in Sport written by Vassilis Barkoukis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to draw together cutting-edge research on the psychological processes underlying doping use in sport and exercise, thereby filling an important gap in our understanding of this centrally important issue in contemporary sport. Covering diverse areas of psychology such as social cognition, automatic and controlled processes, moral decision-making, and societal and contextual influence on behaviour, the book also explores methodological considerations surrounding doping assessment in psychological research as well as future directions for evidence-based preventive interventions and anti-doping education. Written by a team of leading international researchers from countries including the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Greece, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Ireland, the book integrates empirical findings with theoretical guidance for future psychological research on doping, and illuminates the challenges, needs and priorities in contemporary doping prevention. It is important reading for advanced students and researchers in sport and exercise science, sport management and sport policy, and will open up new perspectives for professional coaches, sports administrators, policy makers and sport medicine specialists looking to better understand the doping behaviours of athletes in sport.

Download or read book A Level Playing Field written by Gerald L. Early and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-29 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The noted cultural critic Gerald Early explores the intersection of race and sports, and our deeper, often contradictory attitudes toward the athletes we glorify. What desires and anxieties are encoded in our worship of (or disdain for) high-performance athletes? What other, invisible contests unfold when we watch a sporting event?

Download or read book Olympic Pride American Prejudice written by Deborah Riley Draper and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this “must-read for anyone concerned with race, sports, and politics in America” (William C. Rhoden, New York Times bestselling author), the inspirational and largely unknown true story of the eighteen African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, defying the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South. Set against the turbulent backdrop of a segregated United States, sixteen Black men and two Black women are torn between boycotting the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany or participating. If they go, they would represent a country that considered them second-class citizens and would compete amid a strong undercurrent of Aryan superiority that considered them inferior. Yet, if they stayed, would they ever have a chance to prove them wrong on a global stage? Five athletes, full of discipline and heart, guide you through this harrowing and inspiring journey. There’s a young and feisty Tidye Pickett from Chicago, whose lithe speed makes her the first African American woman to compete in the Olympic Games; a quiet Louise Stokes from Malden, Massachusetts, who breaks records across the Northeast with humble beginnings training on railroad tracks. We find Mack Robinson in Pasadena, California, setting an example for his younger brother, Jackie Robinson; and the unlikely competitor Archie Williams, a lanky book-smart teen in Oakland takes home a gold medal. Then there’s Ralph Metcalfe, born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, who becomes the wise and fierce big brother of the group. From burning crosses set on the Robinsons’s lawn to a Pennsylvania small town on fire with praise and parades when the athletes return from Berlin, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice has “done the world a favor by bringing into the sunlight the unknown story of eighteen black Olympians who should never be forgotten. This book is both beautiful and wrenching, and essential to understanding the rich history of African American athletes” (Kevin Merida, editor-in-chief of ESPN’s The Undefeated).

Download or read book Jake Maddox Dance Team Dilemma written by Jake Maddox and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2013 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hannah has to decide what's more important: keeping her spot on her school's dance team or keeping her best friend.

Download or read book The Invisible Line written by Daniel J. Sharfstein and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-02-17 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Invisible Line" shines light on one of the most important, but too often hidden, aspects of American history and culture. Sharfstein's narrative of three families negotiating America's punishing racial terrain is a must read for all who are interested in the construction of race in the United States." --Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello In America, race is a riddle. The stories we tell about our past have calcified into the fiction that we are neatly divided into black or white. It is only with the widespread availability of DNA testing and the boom in genealogical research that the frequency with which individuals and entire families crossed the color line has become clear. In this sweeping history, Daniel J. Sharfstein unravels the stories of three families who represent the complexity of race in America and force us to rethink our basic assumptions about who we are. The Gibsons were wealthy landowners in the South Carolina backcountry who became white in the 1760s, ascending to the heights of the Southern elite and ultimately to the U.S. Senate. The Spencers were hardscrabble farmers in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, joining an isolated Appalachian community in the 1840s and for the better part of a century hovering on the line between white and black. The Walls were fixtures of the rising black middle class in post-Civil War Washington, D.C., only to give up everything they had fought for to become white at the dawn of the twentieth century. Together, their interwoven and intersecting stories uncover a forgotten America in which the rules of race were something to be believed but not necessarily obeyed. Defining their identities first as people of color and later as whites, these families provide a lens for understanding how people thought about and experienced race and how these ideas and experiences evolved-how the very meaning of black and white changed-over time. Cutting through centuries of myth, amnesia, and poisonous racial politics, The Invisible Line will change the way we talk about race, racism, and civil rights.

Download or read book ISSUES AND DILEMMAS IN SEXUAL BEHAVIOURS written by Robert Burns and published by Australian Self Publishing Group. This book was released on 2023-07-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will help those confused by the gender wars to gain a grip on the issues. The distinction between sex and gender identity is explained as to the meaning and implications of the individual elements of the LGBITQ+ group. The roles of culture and religion are shown to create many entwined issues and dilemmas for individuals and society, with serious argument inter alia over dysphoria assessment/treatments and self-declaration, abortion and anti-abortion rights, transgender female athletes competing against biological females, the consent revolution, extra marital affairs, dating apps problems and dictates of religious beliefs.

Download or read book Having Their Say written by Kristie Bunton and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2021-04-02 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks expressed her opposition to the Iraq War and President Bush in a country music concert, she was told to "shut up and sing." When NFL player Colin Kaepernick protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem, he was applauded by some and demonized by others. Both had their careers irrevocably altered by speaking out for their beliefs. This book examines the ethical issues that arise when famous people speak out on issues often unrelated to the performances that brought those figures to public attention. It analyzes several celebrity speakers--singers Taylor Swift and the Chicks; satirist Jon Stewart; actor Tom Hanks; and athletes Serena Williams, Stephen Curry, Colin Kaepernick, and Naomi Osaka--and demonstrates that justifiable speaking requires celebrity speakers, journalists, and audiences to consider ethical issues regarding platform, intent, and harm. Celebrity speakers must exercise ethical care in a digital world where audiences equate celebrity status with authority and expertise about public issues. Finally, this book considers how people who are not famous can understand their ethical responsibilities for speaking out about public issues in their own spheres of influence.