Asians and Pacific Islanders in American Football

Historical and Contemporary Experiences

Joel S. Franks

This book sheds light on experiences relatively underrepresented in academic and non-academic sport history. It examines how Asian and Pacific Islander peoples used American football to maintain a sense of community while encountering racial exclusion, labor exploitation, and colonialism. Through their participation and spectatorship in American football, Asian and Pacific Islander people crossed treacherous cultural frontiers to construct what sociologist Elijah Anderson has called a cosmopolitan canopy under which Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and people of diverse racial and ethnic identities interacted with at least a semblance of respect and equity. And perhaps a surprising number of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have excelled in college and even professional football before the 1960s. Finally, acknowledging the impressive influx of elite Pacific Islander gridders who surfaced in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, it is vital to note as well the racialized nativism shadowing the lives of these athletes.

Lexington Books

Pages: 306 • Trim: 6½ x 9⅛

978-1-4985-6097-9 • Hardback • May 2018 • $122.00 • (£94.00)

978-1-4985-6099-3 • Paperback • September 2020 • $45.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-4985-6098-6 • eBook • May 2018 • $43.50 • (£33.00)

Series: Sport, Identity, and Culture

Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Asian American Studies, Social Science / Minority Studies, Social Science / Sociology / General

Asians and Pacific Islanders in American Football

Historical and Contemporary Experiences

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This book sheds light on experiences relatively underrepresented in academic and non-academic sport history. It examines how Asian and Pacific Islander peoples used American football to maintain a sense of community while encountering racial exclusion, labor exploitation, and colonialism. Through their participation and spectatorship in American football, Asian and Pacific Islander people crossed treacherous cultural frontiers to construct what sociologist Elijah Anderson has called a cosmopolitan canopy under which Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and people of diverse racial and ethnic identities interacted with at least a semblance of respect and equity. And perhaps a surprising number of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have excelled in college and even professional football before the 1960s. Finally, acknowledging the impressive influx of elite Pacific Islander gridders who surfaced in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, it is vital to note as well the racialized nativism shadowing the lives of these athletes.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 306 • Trim: 6½ x 9⅛

978-1-4985-6097-9 • Hardback • May 2018 • $122.00 • (£94.00)

978-1-4985-6099-3 • Paperback • September 2020 • $45.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-4985-6098-6 • eBook • May 2018 • $43.50 • (£33.00)

Series: Sport, Identity, and Culture

Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Asian American Studies, Social Science / Minority Studies, Social Science / Sociology / General

Author

Joel S. Franks teaches Asian American and American studies at San Jose State University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Community Football
Chapter 2: Playing Well with Others: Hawai'i
Chapter 3: Hawaiian Gridders, Mainland Teams
Chapter 4: Playing Well with Others: The Mainland
Chapter 5: Asian American Mainlanders and College Football
Chapter 6: The Pros
Chapter 7: Pacific Islanders

Reviews

Weaving a tale of outsider (and in this case Asian and Pacific Islander) participation in this uniquely American mainstream sport was little short of a brilliant stroke. Against the often shortsighted and error-filled back/white sport binary, this study is an absolute essential read for anyone who champions the human spirit.
— Joel Nathan Rosen, Moravian College

Joel S. Franks has crafted a well-researched and engaging narrative that should appeal to scholars and sports fans alike. While the long presence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on the gridiron will surprise many, all readers will benefit from reading this study, especially because it provides an insightful analysis of ethnic identity and racism in the United States as it traces the history of American football.
— C. Richard King, Washington State University