A Portrait of Marginality in Sport and Education: Toward a Theory of Intersectionality and Raced-Gendered Experiences for Black Female College Athletes

ABSTRACT

Scholarship focused on Black female athletes has recently grown and has important implications for all sport and education scholars. Said scholars have sought to wed critical race theory (CRT) with Black feminist thought (BFT), or critical race feminism (CRF), raising important questions about both who and what we study as researchers and how we conduct studies as well. Overcoming racism and sexism has had a profound impact on Black women’s sport participation, inspiring them to compete and achieve high recognition for their athletic performance. Yet little scholarship has examined the experiences of these professional athletes and their college athlete counterparts. By critically examining the existing literature, we identify a series of practices that both constrain and situate Black female athletes differently than others who actively participate in sport. Such intersectional analysis can aid in understanding the particular oppressions that result from the complex interactions of social identities.

KEYWORDS:

• raced-gendered
• intersectionality
• sport
• education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The literature we cite sometimes specifically uses Black, and sometimes specifically uses Black. We acknowledge that these terms can be used differently and the reasons for choosing one or the other can be nuanced. For the purposes of this article, we use these terms interchangeably and synonymously.

2. See the story of Bilquis Abdul-Qaadir, https://www.masslive.com/sports/2017/05/after_fiba_announces_end_of_hi.html.