Sport and Stereotype: From Role Model to Muhammad Ali

In: Race & class: a journal on racism, empire and globalisation, Band 36, Heft 4, S. 1-29

Abstract

Boxing, a sport reflecting the capitalist commodification of the body, has survived as a sport due to black boxers who have emerged as role models. The "level playing field," an egalitarian myth for black people denied opportunity in other fields, makes sports like boxing attractive, & can be seen as an opportunity to challenge the hierarchy. Jack Johnson & Joe Louis were early black boxers who demonstrated difficulties of black athletes: one challenged the hierarchy by winning; the other was seen as an "Uncle Tom." Coming after these two boxers, Cassius Clay was originally seen as a "great white hope"; but after his conversion to the Nation of Islam, Muhammed Ali became a symbol of independence. Ali was a leader in resistance to the Vietnam war & the draft, political actions that affected his boxing career, sometimes detrimentally. Ali consciously served as a representative of black people through his boxing career, which current sports stars are not doing. 8 References. A. Cole