Dr. Thabiti Lewis, author of Ballers of the New School : race and sports in America

Hosted by:

Emma Jackson Ford, O.B. Hill, Patricia Welch

Produced by:

KBOO

Program::

Black Book Talk

Air date:

Thu, 12/01/2011 - 11:30am to 12:00pm

Dr. Thabiti Lewis, author of Ballers of the New School : race and sports in America

Dr. Thabiti Lewis, author of Ballers of the New School : race and sports in America, shares insights into the realities of race in sport culture. Ballers of the New School is one of the first and best books to come along that effectively explains contemporary athletes and the public response to them. It challenges the well-worn narrative of sport as America's most significant site of racial progress by scrutinizing the true role of sport in mobilizing and shaping definitions, social relations, and public life. American sport culture performs and propagates rituals, symbols, and expressions of fear and difference that sustain racism, and notions of racial supremacy and block bridges to racial progress.

Dr. Lewis was the guest speaker at the opening of "Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience." This travelling exhibit, presented by Multnomah County Library, toldthe story of black baseball players over the past century and a half. The exhibition also looked at the origins of the sport and the history of baseball and race relations in Oregon.