{"id":421,"date":"2025-10-17T20:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/?p=421"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:49:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:49:02","slug":"from-mandingo-fights-to-modern-arenas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/2025\/10\/17\/from-mandingo-fights-to-modern-arenas\/","title":{"rendered":"From Mandingo Fights to Modern Arenas: The Commodification of Black Male Bodies in Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/491\/2025\/10\/Untitled-November-6-2025-13.21.13-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/491\/2025\/10\/Untitled-November-6-2025-13.21.13-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/491\/2025\/10\/Untitled-November-6-2025-13.21.13-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>From Mandingo Fights to Modern Arenas: The Commodification of Black Male Bodies in Sports<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:armond@usc.edu\">Jaden Armond<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">October 17, 2025<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 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xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The image of the powerful Black male athlete has long been celebrated, but also exploited. From football fields to boxing rings, the physical strength and endurance of Black men are often glorified, commercialized, and consumed by audiences, corporations, and institutions that profit from their labor and spectacle. This dynamic, while seemingly modern, has deep historical roots that stretch back to the Mandingo fights of the 18th and 19th centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In these brutal contests, enslaved Black men were forced to fight one another, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of white enslavers and their guests. These fights turned human suffering into spectacle and reduced Black men to instruments of violence and entertainment. Though the modern sports world is obviously different in structure and consent, the underlying logic of commodification, where Black bodies are valued primarily for their physical output, remains disturbingly familiar.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, professional sports are billion-dollar industries built largely on the performance of Black athletes. The NFL and NBA, for instance, rely heavily on Black labor, yet ownership and management remain overwhelmingly white. Athletes are scouted, measured, and analyzed in combines where their bodies are dissected statistically. Their speed, strength, and potential are quantified in a way that echoes the auction block and the slave market. The language of sports;\u00a0 \u201cdraft picks,\u201d \u201cfranchise players,\u201d \u201ctrading rights\u201d\u00a0 unintentionally carries the residue of a system that once bought and sold Black bodies as property.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even off the field, the Black athlete\u2019s image continues to be commodified. Media narratives often compliments Black athletes for their physical feats but less frequently praised for intellectual contributions or strategic leadership. When athletes like Colin Kaepernick or Muhammad Ali have dared to politicize their platform, they\u2019ve faced backlash for stepping outside the narrow expectations assigned to them. In both slavery and modern sports, Black men are celebrated for their strength, as long as that strength remains contained and profitable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The comparison between Mandingo fights and modern sports isn\u2019t about equating slavery with professional athletics; it\u2019s about tracing<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">continuities in the cultural imagination of the Black male bod<\/span><b>y<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In both settings, Black men have been projected as hyper-physical, superhuman, and therefore less human; admired for their bodies, but rarely respected for their agency. Reckoning with this legacy means asking difficult questions: Who profits from Black athleticism? Who controls the narratives of power and rebellion? And how do we honor the humanity of those whose bodies continue to fuel billion-dollar industries?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Black male athletes often earn millions and gain financial success, this profit comes at a significant cost. They face intense physical risks, including Career-Ending Injuries and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which can severely impact their long-term health and quality of life. Despite their on-field earnings, Black athletes rarely control the wealth or power generated by their performance, as team ownership and endorsement deals are overwhelmingly dominated by white individuals. Moreover, many Black athletes come from disadvantaged backgrounds and receive limited educational and financial support, making it difficult to manage sudden wealth or plan for life after sports. Even after Mandingo fights, white plantation owners sometimes rewarded the winners with privileges like special rooms or access to women but these rewards did not restore their humanity or status. Despite temporary benefits, the victorious man remained a Mandingo, understood as property and an instrument of violence and entertainment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ultimately, no one is suggesting that Mandingo fights and the NFL are directly comparable or the same. Rather, this article aims to inform and educate readers on the histories of Black oppression and how echoes of such systemic exploitation continue to influence contemporary life. By examining the brutal commodification of Black bodies during slavery, as well as the ongoing commodification and racialized portrayals of Black male athletes in today\u2019s sports industries, one can better understand the complex legacies of racial inequality.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1018,"featured_media":649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,33],"tags":[22,16,21],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-histories-and-modern-legacies-past-editor-blogs","category-past-editor-blogs","tag-black-histories-and-modern-legacies","tag-fall-2025","tag-jaden-armond"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From Mandingo Fights to Modern Arenas: The Commodification of Black Male Bodies in Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/2025\/10\/17\/from-mandingo-fights-to-modern-arenas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Past Editor Blogs: From Mandingo Fights to Modern Arenas: The Commodification of Black Male Bodies in Sports - 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