Sporting culture: two authors start at the same place--race and sports--and end up with very different conclusions.(Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports)(Book review)

TERRORDOME: THE PAIN, POLITICS, AND PROMISE OF SPORTS

By David Zirin

Haymarket Books, 258 pages

SOULED OUT? AN EVOLUTIONARY CROSSROADS FOR BLACKS IN SPORTS

By Shaun Powell

Human Kinetics Publishers, 320 pages

DAVE ZIRIN BEGINS and ends his progressive examination of today's sporting culture with a discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its connection to the American sporting landscape. The appropriateness of Katrina serving as a bookend for his discussion of the NBA dress code, the injustices surrounding the death of Pat Tillman and the witch-hunt against Barry Bonds transcend the symbolism of the Superdome and the exhibition of terror before, during and after the storm. Katrina reveals the pain so often obscured by sporting cultures and the paradoxes of a society that invests in domes (stadiums) rather than healthcare and education. The storm illuminated the downside of sports politics, with media and politicians focused on investigating steroid use rather than dealing with the injustices of the Gulf Coast. But Katrina also illuminated the promise of sports, as various athletes stepped up with critiques and activism in the wake of the government's failure to respond. Zirin doesn't simply offer insight into "the athletic industrial complex" and those athletes "who defy the box," but elucidates the ways in which sports provide a window into the broader injustices, inequalities and paradoxes that define contemporary American life.