Constucting Banality

This chapter explores Jackie Robinson’s early twenty-first-century reputation. It argues that while Robinson is enjoying a remarkable as well as posthumous admiration, the cost is often obscured by the false and often disingenuous promotion of racial tolerance and acceptance through the Robinson saga. Rather than viewing the ubiquitous characterizations of Robinson as indicative of the triumph of democracy and progress, the Robinson mystique should be viewed as being trivialized by virtue of its continued trumpeting of duty and comportment that belie the range of complex premises that lay beneath the unabashed cheerleading.