Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Black boys and men do not gather to play basketball in U.S. cities in disproportionate numbers simply to be exploited. They are also there to discover their humanity, to demonstrate to themselves and others that they possess something intangible not subject to the decay of urban life. Especially during times of crisis, these men turn themselves into choreographers of the court, playing this game in order to express grief, find hope, and revel in community. In this paper, I argue that, while the practices of street basketball do express considerable symbolic violence, the actual experience of playing the game goes far beyond the simple enactment of stereotypical representations of black males as dumb jocks or uncontrollable animals. Religious studies in particular can speak to this deeper dimension of communal grief and agency on the asphalt, at the level of feeling, emotion, and the embodiment of what William James calls a “more.”