It Was Always a Choice

May 1, 2022
Sports journalist Steele probes the long history of civil rights protest on the part of athletes in America. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick figures at the center of the story, though he is just one player in a rich heritage of athletic activism. The author begins with Paul Robeson, who began his career at Rutgers with letters in football, track, baseball, and basketball. "Sports had put him on the national radar," writes Steele, "but his many other pursuits throughout segregated America had kept him there." Part of the price Robeson paid for his activism was the loss of his passport, as happened to boxing great Muhammad Ali as he refused induction into the military. Steele notes that Kaepernick's protest began not by taking a knee but simply by refusing to stand for the national anthem, which might have gone overlooked had a reporter not asked about it; taking a knee added urgency to the issue while costing Kaepernick a spot on the roster. "The very nature of his protest, of course, lent itself to categorizing the reactions along racial lines," writes Steele. Many Black athletes came to his defense, such as Jim Brown and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while many White athletes insisted that Kaepernick was dishonoring the country by his actions. Yet race is not a monolith. As Steele writes, Tiger Woods has made a long career by going along to get along, palling around with Donald Trump--one of Kaepernick's most furious detractors--in his devil's bargain. At the time, "the bar of expectations for Woods was essentially on the floor." There it remains, while, Steele predicts, just as the nation came around to accepting Tommie Smith's and John Carlos' raised fists at the 1968 Olympics, in 50 years, Kaepernick will be commemorated as a warrior for civil rights. A closely observed, well-argued examination of how athletes have used their fame to advance civil rights.

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Starred review from June 1, 2022

In this well written and well researched book, Steele (who coauthored Olympic sprinter Tommie Smith's autobiography Silent Gesture, about his civil rights demonstration at the 1968 Games) directly takes on the issue of antiracist activism by athletes who make an active choice to thrust themselves forward and take a stand and refuse to "shut up and play." The book begins with a thorough and important examination of football player Colin Kaepernick's steps toward deciding not to stand for the national anthem in 2016. Steele next journeys back to the Olympics of 1968 and the story of Smith's and John Carlos's raised, black-gloved fists on the 200-meter dash medal stand in Mexico City; here he discusses how the runners, both of them Black Americans, came to the decision to make their statement about racism, for which they were excoriated by the IOC and expelled from the Games. Beyond these two iconic instances, Steele's book also shares stories of less well-known male and female athletes in American history who have taken stands on racism and police violence. VERDICT Highly recommended for all readers of all ages. Steele's work shares new insights on activism in American athletics and particularly keys in on the consequences of athletes' protests.--Amy Lewontin

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