Book review: Race, sport and politics: the sporting black diaspora

The relationship between ‘race’ and sport is, and has been for some time, the subject of a quite staggering volume of academic output, chiefly in the spheres of sport-specific sociology and cultural studies. It is perhaps surprising, thus, that prior to the publication of Ben Carrington’s splendid volume, there had been no book-length study focused entirely upon the task of clearly elucidating the reflexive relationships between sport, social theory, colonial legacy, culture and racial identity. Hitherto, the academic community has instead been treated to a range of (often excellent) papers focusing in great detail on narrow aspects of a wide argument. Alternately, and particularly from an undergraduate perspective, the bulk of domain-relevant information has been provided by the obligatory broad, and necessarily general, ‘race and sport’ chapter in overview sport sociology books. As such, before one even opens the front cover of Race, Sport and Politics, the author should be applauded for the very project undertaken here. Carrington, centrally, works to provide a sustained and historically-grounded look into a broad phenomenon that has previously only really been captured in high-definition partial snapshots, or in sweeping gazes from afar.