Heavyweight

Jordana Moore Saggese closely examines depictions of Black boxers at the turn of the twentieth century in order to reveal the racist stereotypes implicit in them that continue to structure ideas of Black men.

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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 their portrayals across fine art, vernacular imagery, and public media at the turn of the twentieth century, Saggese demonstrates 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 somewhere between fear and fantasy, simultaneously an object of desire and an instrument of brutal 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.