Heavyweight: Black Boxers and the Fight for Representation

By: Jordana Moore Saggese

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Synopsis: In Heavyweight, Jordana Moore Saggese examines images of Black heavyweight boxers to map the visual terrain of racist ideology in the United States, paying particular attention to the intersecting discourses of Blackness, masculinity, and sport. Looking closely at the “shadow archive” of portrayals across fine art, vernacular imagery, and public media at the turn of the twentieth century, shedemonstrates how the images of boxers reveal the racist stereotypes implicit in them, many of which continue to structure ideas of Black men today. With a focus on both anonymous fighters and notorious champions, including Jack Johnson, Saggese contends that popular images of these men provided white spectators a way to render themselves experts on Blackness and Black masculinity. These images became the blueprint for white conceptions of the Black male body—existing between fear and fantasy, simultaneously an object of desire and an instrument of violence. Reframing boxing as yet another way whiteness establishes the violent mythology of its supremacy, Saggese highlights the role of imagery in normalizing a culture of anti-Blackness.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 304 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9781478030638
Related ISBNs:: 9781478026402
Publisher:: Duke University Press
Date of Addition:: 08/23/24
Copyrighted By:: Carl Fischer.
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Sports, Art and Architecture, Social Studies
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.