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Hoop Dreams, Blacktop Realities
- The University Press of Kentucky
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HOOP DREAMS, BLACKTOP REALITIES Bernard Jackson Jr. BASKETBALL IS AN institution that can play a pivotal role in the construction of black manhood, and the philosophical dimensions of such a construction are quite complex. Philosophers of sport owe a debt of gratitude to feminist theorists, for they have done a great deal of important work in this area. Feminist theorists have convincingly argued, for instance , that “manhood” is not something that biological males are simply born with. No one doubts that men are male human beings, and their maleness is a biological given. But this notion of “givenness” obscures the process of identity formation in a dual-gender system. Naomi Zack, a leading feminist philosopher, makes this point clearly. No child would be capable of inventing and creating its identity as a man or a woman on its own, or even capable of typing itself as male or female, from its earliest days. [Female/male] identity starts out as a primary item of the social equipment of infant care, external to the child and imposed on her as instruction and management of mind, body, and behavior. Human infants are designated male or female at birth, and individual identities as men or women develop after that designation in a dual-gender system. The designation itself is merely a matter of words: “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” However, the words do more than note a biological fact. The words announce and direct the trajectory of the individual’s psychological and social development. A child that remained an “it” following birth could not become a recognizable social agent in a dual-gender system.1 Gender, of course, is not the only component that goes into the social construction of black male manhood. Race and class also play important roles, as do a host of other social and cultural factors. In this chapter, I Basketball’s Role in the Social Construction of Black Manhood 159 Hoop Dreams, Blacktop Realities focus upon the vital roles of love and toughness in this process. I shall argue that while love is critical to this construction, toughness is not. The Role of Love in Black Male Basketball Except in soaps, female mud-wrestling venues, and bad rollerball movies, the love that women have for one another is evident in all parts of our society. Despite this, however, the belief is widespread that there is a great deal of hate among women, that they are jealous and hypercompetitive with one another, especially when a man is involved. Fortunately, this characterization—reinforced by films such as Mean Girls (2004) and a spate of recent books such as Rachel Simmons’s Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls (2002)—is a caricature, for it masks what is quite obvious: women often have a great deal of affection for one another, and they are not afraid to show it. They kiss one another in public , hug warmly, and hold hands. No one sees this as problematic. In fact, our society has acknowledged that it is valuable for women to have “girlfriends .” And women who hang out with men exclusively are often derided by other women. In short, love among women is widespread, accepted, and encouraged in America today. Love among men, on the other hand, is a very touchy subject. While “hanging with the boys” is a ritual that is practiced and oftentimes encouraged —as long as “hanging’” doesn’t interfere with one’s duties, especially as a spouse or parent—few would think of this as “love.” We often refer to this activity as “male bonding,” but we typically have no idea what this bonding entails. Bonding involves more than just watching a game, getting drunk, ogling women, and seeing who can piss the farthest off a bridge: it involves sharing one’s most intimate thoughts and feelings. But men are still not encouraged to engage in this “real sharing ”—at least with other men. Professor Thomas McLaughlin comments that there is rarely any “explicit, verbal sharing of personal information and emotion” among the noontime regulars he plays with at his university . Although he feels affection for his hoops buddies and knows them intimately as players, he admits: “I don’t know much about their lives off the court, and we don’t tend to socialize, even though we live in a small community. In some cases, I don’t even know the last names of men I have played with for many years...