When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide tells the story of Brandon Davies' dismissal from Brigham Young University's NCAA playoff basketball team to illustrate the thorny intersection of religion, race, and sport at BYU and beyond. Author Darron T. Smith analyzes the athletes dismissed through BYU's honor code violations and suggests that they are disproportionately African American, which has troubling implications. He ties these dismissals to the complicated history of negative views toward African Americans in the LDS faith. These honor code dismissals elucidate the challenges facing black athletes at predominantly white institutions. Weaving together the history of the black athlete in America and the experience of blackness in Mormon theology, When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide offers a timely and powerful analysis of the challenges facing African American athletes in the NCAA today.

Introduction1.The Meaning of Sport in the Popular Imagination: The Collision of Race, Religion and Sport2.The Origins of Racism and Framing: Setting the Stage for the History of Blacks in Sport3.The White Racial Framing of Blacks in Mormon Theology4.Black Student Revolts and Political Uprising in the Late Sixties and Early Seventies: Fanning the Flame of Black Student-Athlete Revolts5.Mormon Attitudes toward Civil Rights: It¿s God¿s Law, We¿re Not Racist!6.No Honor in the Honor Code: The Suspension of Brandon Davies and the Incompatibility Nexus between Blackness and Mormonism7.Colorblindness and the Health Consequences to Black Male Student-Athletes through the Illusion of a Free Education8.Pipeline to a Pipedream: The Elusiveness of Change in the Era of ¿Black Lives Matter¿Notes