In 2018, right-wing talking-head Laura Ingraham told basketball star LeBron James to "keep the political comments to yourselves [sic]" and told him to "shut up and dribble." The comments were intended to be insulting but they also betrayed a lack of historical understanding. Black athletes have always had to negotiate complicated political and racial issues, and this month historian Derrick White gives us a history of the racial politics of sports.