Abstract
This paper charts a theoretical path through the colonial systems of power that enable and perpetuate the commodification and domestication of Black bodies at two pertinent levels of the institution of sport: youth participation and intercollegiate athletics. The paper begins by providing a brief literature review of this nuanced intersection, specifically focused on the social conditioning of prospective and current Black athletes, and their subsequent commodification and bodily consumption—a process Hawkins describes as the conveyor belt (Hawkins, 2010). Hawkins (2010) argues the conveyor belt functions as a mechanism to remove Black children from their families and home communities to provide labor for White controlled institutions, like sport. This paper then situes the institution of sport within the global colonial matrix of power and the interlocking structural hierarchies based on race, gender, and sexuality from a global perspective (Mignolo, 2007). We argue that the institution of sport stems from the larger colonial project fueled by the predatory, neoliberal relationship between capitalism and the Black body, enabling our continued dehumanization (Robinson, 2002; Roy, 2007). Using the colonial matrix of power as a theoretical framework, we evaluate the political economy of sport and bodily taxation and propose an expanded understanding of civil death at this intersection. By using this framework, this paper ultimately calls for further empirical study that explicitly evaluates the impact of bodily taxation occurring simultaneously at each level of the institution.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Anti-Blackness, Colonial Matrix of Power, Bodily Labor, Athletic Industrial Complex
