Abstract
The authors combine their sociological understanding of systemic racism and their disciplinary expertise in the field of Sport Management to critically assess the sport industry. Drawing on the racialized framing of elite sport, they demonstrate how sport systemically serves the interests of the white American elite male. An examination of the history of US football shows how this particular sport responded to a white masculine desire to display superiority in the late 1800s. In addition to the racist framing of elite sport, the authors draw from a conference session at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport to discuss contemporary resistance to this dominant framing through a discussion of counter-framed efforts in research. They also explore how counter-framing manifests in the organizational setting.
Sport is one of those key institutions created, maintained, and run by the elite white male. 1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Benjamin Figgis, John. Manliness, Womanliness, Godliness. London, England: S. W. Partridge and Co., 1885.
Bourdieu, Pierre. “Sport and Social Class.” Social Science Information 17, no. 6 (1978): 819–840. doi:10.1177/053901847801700603.
Carrington, Ben. Race, Sport, and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora. London: Sage Publications, 2010.
Chalip, Laurence. “Assessing the Sociology of Sport: On Theory Relevance and Action Research.” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 50, no. 4–5 (2015): 397–401. doi:10.1177/1012690215574270.
Coakley, Jay. Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2015.
DeLorme, Joshua and John N. Singer. “The Interest Convergence Principle and the Integration of Major League Baseball.” Journal of Black Studies 4, no. 2 (2010): 367–384. doi:10.1177/0021934709354456.
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (Boston: Beacon Press, 2014).
Farrell, Leslie D. and William C. Rhoden. “The Journey of the African-American Athlete.” HBO (1996). Film.
Feagin, Joe R. 10 February 2016. Personal Communication.
Feagin, Joe R. and Kimberley Ducey. Elite White Men Ruling. Who, What, When, Where, and How. Forthcoming. New York: Routledge, 2017.
Feagin, Joe R. How Blacks Built America: Labor, Culture, Freedom, and Democracy. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Feagin, Joe R. Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Feagin, Joe R. The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Hawkins, Billy J. The New Plantation: The Internal Colonization of Black Student-Athletes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
Lyras, Alexis and Jon Welty Peachey. “Integrating Sport-for-Development Theory and Praxis.” Sport Management Review 14, no. 4 (2011): 311–326. doi:10.1016/j.smr.2011.05.006.
Nite, Calvin and John N. Singer. “Qualitative Inquiry: Quality Research for Connecting With and Affecting Change in Sport Populations.” Qualitative Research Journal 12, no. 1 (2012): 88–97. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14439881211222750.
Nunn, Kenneth B. “Law as a Eurocentric Enterprise.” Law and Inequality (Spring 1997).
Osborne, Barbara. “The Myth of the Exploited Student-Athlete.” Journal of Intercollegiate Sport 7, no. 2 (2014): 143–152. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jis.2014-0136.
Regan, Michael. “The Racial Divide in College Football Coaching: Gatekeepers Dictating the Winners and Losers.” PhD Dissertation. Texas A&M University, 2014. http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/153401/REGAN-DISSERTATION-2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Reviere, Ruth. “Toward an Afrocentric Research Methodology.” Journal of Black Studies 31, no. 6 (2001): 709–728. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2668042.
Riess, Steven A. editor. Major Problems in American Sport History: Documents and Essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
Roosevelt, Theodore. “The American Boy.” The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses. New York: Century, 1900.
Singer, John N. “Addressing Epistemological Racism in Sport Management Research.” Journal of Sport Management 19, no. 4 (2005): 464–479. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsm.19.4.464.
Smith, Earl. Race, Sport and the American Dream. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2007.
Ture, Kwame and Charles Hamilton. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. New York: Random House, 1992.
Warfield-Coppock, Nsenga. “Toward a Theory of Afrocentric Organizations.” Journal of Black Psychology 21, no. 1 (1995). doi:10.1177/00957984950211004.
Wegner, Christine et al., “Black Girls Run: Facilitating a Connection for Black Women to the “White” Sport of Running.” Journal of Sport Management 30, no. 4 (2015): 382–395. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2015-0242.
Wilson, Woodrow. “Football or No Football: The Question Discussed by Profs. Wilson and Wilder.” New York Times. 18 February 1894. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9500E3DB1F39E033A2575BC1A9649C94659ED7CF.
Zezima, Katie. “How Teddy Roosevelt Helped Save Football.” Washington Post. 29 May 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/05/29/teddy-roosevelt-helped-save-football-with-a-white-house-meeting-in-1905/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Weems, A.J., Singer, J.N. (2017). Racial Barriers in Eurocentric Sport(ing) Institutions Countering the White Racial Frame. In: Thompson-Miller, R., Ducey, K. (eds) Systemic Racism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59410-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59410-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59409-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59410-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)