“Elite but not elitist”: Negotiating race, place, class, and culture in public physical activity spaces

ABSTRACT

This study critically examines issues related to race, place, class, and culture within public physical activity spaces. Drawing on Fairclough’s (1992) three-dimensional framework for analyzing discourse and Neckerman et al.’s (1999) minority culture of mobility, we examined the historical narratives of founders and leaders at ALL4ONE (n=7), a free, Black, Indigenous, People-of-Color-led (BIPOC) fitness community based in San Francisco, CA (the original name has been changed for purposes of anonymity). The analysis revealed that ALL4ONE allowed members to navigate race and class-based tensions by discursively constructing a refuge to share cultural norms and experiences, strengthen in-group networks, and politically mobilize; nonetheless, its social space reproduced unintended discursive barriers in situations when in-group members wanted to engage lower-income co-ethnics, limiting the effectiveness of the organization’s missionary ethos—particularly regarding its ability to implement social justice initiatives and assert embodied power in dominant cultural spaces. Study findings highlight important nuances in how BIPOC communities navigate public physical activity spaces and challenge monolithic framings of race and culture in physical activity interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical activity
• minority culture of mobility
• sport spaces
• critical discourse analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. In this paper we capitalise Black to denote shared common ancestry of people who are a part of the African diaspora.

2. Freerunning is the art of expressing oneself in his, her, or their environment without limitation of movement. Parkour is a holistic training discipline that uses movements developed from military obstacle course training.

3. 70% of participants in the study reported an annual income of over $200,000/year.

4. Allied BIPOC communities in this context refers to other BIPOC extended communities who lived in the region, but did not share a formal network or connection with ALL4ONE.

5. The term ‘buycotting’ is the practice of deliberately purchasing a company’s products in support of their policies, or to counter a boycott.

6. Descriptive representation is a form of political representation where representatives have similar backgrounds to others in the group. Substantive representation is a form of political representation where representatives prioritise the issues and values of a particular group, even if they do not share similar backgrounds.

7. Neoliberal theory is the idea behind free trade and open market economics. Central tenets of neoliberalism deregulation, trade liberalisation, and the privatisation of state enterprises and public services.

8. Philanthrocapitalism is a type of philanthropy which draws on capitalist, market-based logics to solve social problems.

9. Expansive gentrification is a type of gentrification that emerges from several locations within a city, which are often connected with one another to create larger gentrified areas. Cities such as San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Seattle – often marked by a pre-World War II traditional street grid system and smaller historical BIPOC populations – are common examples.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew Carter

Andrew Carter is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Recreation and Director of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at San José State University. His research interests include health disparities, critical food studies, community-based participatory research, and intercultural communication.

Michael Dao

Michael Dao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at San José State University. His research centered on sport for development in Vietnam and Vietnamese physical cultures.

Adam Alexander

Adam Alexander is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Stephenson Cancer Center.

Vicky Gomez

Vicky Gomez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Recreation in the College of Health and Human Sciences at San José State University, and the Master of Public Health Campus Format Coordinator and Graduate Advisor.