Revolting Black Athletes

Abstract

Many journalists, pundits, and fans celebrate athletic activism in the 1960s, while lamenting the purported political disengagement that rules sport today. This prevailing interpretive framework, we argue, reflects and reinforces accepted ideologies and established hierarchies. We attribute this conjunction of nostalgia and demonization to a romanticization of the historical legacies of the freedom struggles in sport, contemporary efforts, particularly through corporatization to blunt and brand political messages, and most importantly, to the resentment and retrenchment at the heart of ongoing reconfigurations of racial ideologies. Our analysis suggests that the discourses surrounding the revolt of the Black athlete emerge in the context shaped by new racism and the backlash against movements for equality, inclusion, and justice and bear the markings of an identity politics intent to defend, if not extend, hegemonic formulations of whiteness and masculinity, while demonizing blackness and opposition.