When I think of the black athlete I feel both pride and discomfort. In America, where blacks are still politically and economically disenfranchised, it seems that athleticism is the realm in which blacks excel and dominate. The discomfort arises from the observation that “domination” is only viable when the black male body is harnessed in a way that does not challenge white supremacy in other realms (Collins, 2005). His body is controlled by contracts of powerful owners, regulated by standardized rules and statutes of sports associations, and placed in physical spaces where his bodily performances are a spectacle for a largely white audience. There is something historic and normal about sporting performance that attracted and isolated me at the same time. I wasn't sure why. Ben Carrington's work Race, Sport and Politics helps me understand that these boundaries and meanings mark and define "the black athlete" and that they can be understood as sites of political struggle. From the beginning, I was fascinated by his careful and in-depth analysis of various social frameworks in order to use sport as a lens to understand the "intra-relationship" between racial discourse, sports performance and politics in making the athlete black '. In this article I will explore the various concepts and theses that Carrington uncovers as they apply to Black males as he seeks to formulate a framework for understanding the complexities of race and sport and the politics created within them. I will focus on the key concepts essential to creating his theoretical framework specifically, “the black athlete,” the “white colonial structure,” and the “sporting black Atlantic.” The black athlete is a political entity and a s... ...middle of paper ...of course of black humanity. This actor has performed feats of brute, physical, endurance, and “natural” skill that would place him in a category of animalistic subhumanity. The all-body, no-mind position taken by many of the African diaspora. However, in the sanctuary of modern sport, these feats have become exceptionally superhuman; a show of raw masculinity and rational dexterity. As a political act, Johnson's defeat of his white component sent ripples around the world and attacked the foundations on which the very system that subordinated him was built. Using Carrington's sense of the black and sporty Atlantic. We can fully understand the significance and ramification of this undertaking. We can come to understand the global implications of this victory for blacks and see Jackson's "diasporic politicization" and his rise as an "anti-white supremacist figure" (p.. 18)”.