The Historical and the Present Day Acts in What My Name, Fool - Book Report/Review Example

The Historical and the Present Day Acts in What My Name, Fool? The book's title “What's My Name fool?” is a phrase from Ali, as he famously taunted opponent Floyd Patterson, who refused to recognize his name change from Cassius Clay. Ali pummeled Patterson for nine rounds, at one point shouting: "Come on America! Come on white America ... what's my name? Is my name Clay? What’s my name, fool?" Citing both the historical and the present day acts of resistance by athletes, in national spot-light sports, DC area socialist Dave Zirin, challenges it with clear and crisp writing. From football to baseball to soccer to tennis to boxing to the Olympics, Zirin digs into the history and shines a light into the dark corners that the major leagues would prefer remain unexplored. Zirin discusses racism, classism, sexism and homophobia, and also profiles uplifting examples of athletes fighting the power and speaking the truth. Focusing on the United States over the last century, the book connects past struggles with contemporary injustices, and calls on readers to challenge the militarism, homophobia, racism and sexism, the greed, myths, freeloading, cover-ups, censorships, and consumer and taxpayer gouging that continue to tarnish our country. Professional sports are intertwined with American socio-politics, including the historic movements for civil rights and to counter imperialist war. Dave Zirin's examines this history with a progressive's eye. Zirin serves a hard look at “class” as the fundamental prism through which to view sport. He also charges the net, and volleys the themes of sport as mass entertainment for profit, the "success myth," the myth of meritocracy. Glaring examples in the book include the domination of a Nazi boxer by Joe Lewis, the smashing of the color barrier in baseball with years of organizing by members of the Negro leagues and communist sports writers, the Black Power salute given after winning the gold and bronze medals by the American Olympic Track Team to protest apartheid and segregation, and current day examples of antiwar women's college hipster Toni Smith or all-star slugger Barry Bonds criticizing racism and the war in Iraq and then being targeted by the Bush administration as anti-American or pro-bowl Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams refusing to be used anymore to sell tickets. Zirin points out another recent example: John Dennis, a WEEI host, commented on a photo of an escaped gorilla standing near a city bus stop. He said it was "probably a Metco gorilla waiting for a bus to take him to [the affluent white suburb] Lexington." Metco is a program for inner city kids, mostly black students, to attend public schools in the suburbs. Taken together with flyovers by military fighter jets and military flag-bearers, this amounts to pro-war propaganda for the consumption of sports fans. When these games are broadcast nationally, by media companies like Fox or Disney/ABC/ESPN, the companies are promoting war and patriotic nationalism to millions of fans watching TV. These displays are perhaps a way of further selling their product as "truly American," or buying favor with an administration whose business is war. As Zirin puts it in the book's introduction, "In many cities, the average Sunday NFL game contains more patriotic overkill than a USO show in Kuwait”. In fact, the all-sports network ESPN (owned by Disney) broadcast its popular Sports Center program for an entire "Salute to Our Troops Week," from a military base in Kuwait during the summer of 2004. War is the metaphor most often used in describing football, when quarterbacks throw "bullet passes" and "bombs," and linemen "battle in the trenches." Zirin cites many contemporary examples of athletes, like baseball player Carlos Delgado, who have spoken out and resisted the war in Iraq. The book also features fascinating, Studs Terkel-style interviews with past players who resisted the Vietnam War. Zirin criticizes the sports industry by taking solid aim at the ownership who make it their goal to exploit athletes who are mainly working class people of color, sacrificing their bodies in order to bring their families out of poverty. He does a good job at pointing out that athletes are not the dumb idiots that society encourages them to be, but instead many use their fame for good causes. For every Michael Jordan being silent on the issues like sweatshops, there is a Kareem Abu Jabar who the right wishes would just shut up and go away. I also believe it is a huge mistake to dismiss all sports fans, possibly because of classism and some of the best organizing can be done amongst sporting events. As Zirin explains, ". . . the very passion we invest in sports can transform it from a kind of mindless escape into a site of resistance. It can become an arena where the ideas of our society are not only presented but also challenged. Just as sports can reflect the dominant ideas of our society, they can also reflect struggle. The story of the women's movement is incomplete without mention of Billie Jean King's match against Bobby Riggs. The struggle for gay rights has to include a chapter on Martina Navratilova. When we think about the Black freedom struggle, we picture Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali in addition to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. And, of course, when remembering the movement for Black Power, we can't help but visualize one of the most stirring sights of our sports century: Tommie Smith and John Carlos's black-gloved medal stand salute at the 1968 Olympics." But Zirin has neither sacrificed his ideals to be a sports fan, nor quit cheering to clear his conscience. To the contrary, he is a passionate sports fan and activist who fights for the integrity of sports while enjoying the comradery of rooting for teams, delighting in the breathtaking artistry of athletes, and admiring the intricate strategy of coaches and players that make spectator sports so appealing. Zirin mourns the passing of "The Greatest," the brash, beautiful and politically radical Ali who slowly decayed with age and Parkinson's disease. Today's Ali is a shadow of his radical self, a man who has in recent years succumbed to the will of others who want to use him as a symbol of all that he stood against in the 60s. Ali agreed to appear in a government-sponsored commercial aimed at selling the Afghan war to Muslims in 2002, and appeared at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games to light the ceremonial torch, 36 years after he threw away his gold medal in protest of segregation. From the efforts of ballplayers to organize into labor unions, to the struggles of minorities and women to be treated fairly, Zirin makes clear in this gem of a book that the playing field is not any more even in sports than it is in our society as a whole. The fact that young black men and women can make millions of dollars as professional athletes is no compensation for the racism and sexism that endures in the United States. The book offers hope, however, that change is possible, when brave individuals and collections of individuals risk everything to resist injustice. References http://www.powells.com/biblio/9781931859202?&PID=32318 http://www.uta.edu/english/sla/br060809.html http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/18/070411.php http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0806-24.htm Read More