The Activist Athlete
Professional Sports and the US Partisan Culture Wars: Popular Viewpoints toward Donald Trump and the NFL National Anthem Protests
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session James Rhoads, Dennis F Kinsey, Dan B Thomas
In this research we employ Q methodology to examine subjective appraisals of President Donald Trump's public criticisms of mostly African-American NFL players who have "taken a knee" during the pre-game national anthem as a form of protest against the prevalence and prominence of acts of racial injustice, particularly instances of violence by white police in the treatment of non-white suspects. Whether by virtue of presidential persuasion or not, attendance at and television viewing of NFL games was down during the 2017 season, leading owners to ban the practice by team members for the forthcoming season. Critics of Trump have accused the President of race-baiting, targeting highly paid, primarily African-American athletes as "unpatriotic SOB's" who deserve to be fired for their antics. (Trump has also engaged in similar attacks of well-known NBA stars, including Steph Curry and LeBron James, due to the pair’s refusal to attend White House ceremonies honoring team championships so long as Trump remains in office.) In this study we generate a Q sample on the matter and ask ordinary sports fans of differing political views to use the items to model their viewpoints. The results will permit us to assess the possibility that Trump's actions vis-a-vis prominent sports figures is as effective means of expressing a sense of collective grievance, thereby serving as a further bond of unity among his primarily white political base
Patriotism and African American Athletes
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jessica A Johnson
African American athletes have historically used their influential status in professional sports to advocate for justice and equality. The social activism mantel has been passed from pioneering visionaries that include Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Wilma Rudolph, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Today’s new generation of black athletes speaking out against systemic racism and economic, educational, and health disparities include Philadelphia Eagles’ safety Malcolm Jenkins, former San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and former Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver Anquan Boldin. We are in a political era now in the US where these athletes and many of their peers are not going to stay silent, and the polarizing debates regarding the infusion of sports and politics during the Trump era has fueled a compelling social consciousness. This civic engagement has included the controversial no-shows for Super Bowl and NBA championship team photo-ops at the White House to meetings on Capitol Hill that have focused on the strained relationship between minority communities and law enforcement. “Patriotism and African American Athletes” will provide an insightful analysis on what this current movement means to the ongoing national conversation on race, civil rights, and criminal justice reform in America.
Athlete Activism and Intersectionality: Narratives of Love, Liberty, and Loss
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tiara A. Cash, Nika Gueci
The purpose is to illuminate narratives of underrepresented voices in sport who participated in activism during their athletic career and examine how intersectionality played a part within each athlete’s life on and off the field. At the height of controversy over Colin Kapernick's kneeling protest during the national anthem, parallels can be observed with the protest 50 years ago from Olympic champions Tommie Smith and John Carlos. These voices are seen and heard, however, many other marginalized communities in the past 50 years have stories that go untold. This study aims to uncover untold stories within this population – delving into athlete activism, and how identities intersected within the Sport Industrial Complex. This study will use the intersectionality framework in accompaniment with the Athletic Identity theory in aims to explore athlete voices. This exploratory study will use a phenomenological approach through qualitative data collection. Results: The results of this study will be presented during the Sport & Society Conference.
Situating Race and Celebrity in Sporting Social Activism: The 21st Century and the Culture Wars
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Graeme Metcalf
This paper examines the intersection of sports and politics and does so while employing Social Conflict theory, Critical Race theory and Erving Goffman’s ideas on stigma, deviance and master status. The central focus of this paper considers sports-based sporting activism in the 21st century and looks to Lebron James and Colin Kaepernick as two of its leading voices. Additionally, this paper looks to social media as an ally of this social activism, but also as platform hosting dissenting voices wherein social media agitators, or the colloquially regarded “troll”, actively seeks to disrupt legitimate social activism and in doing so employs consciously inflammatory language, racism, race-baiting and mischaracterizations of history in seeking to stall, rupture or delegitimize what this paper refers to as New Sporting Celebrity Social Activism. Lastly, this paper positions New Sporting Celebrity Social Activism as a key and influential voice amidst the culture wars wherein discordant views on race, gender and sexuality are increasingly debated. For example, the voices of James and Kaepernick are contested via oppositional and reactionary political commentators, including US President Donald Trump, as they take to traditional conservative media and social media to forward and entrench the retrograde belief that sports and politics are to be inherently sealed off from each other.
