A Game of Offense: Understand How Media Blackballs Nonwhites in Sports View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Frederick Gooding, Jr.  

Sports and the field of sports media are America’s last remaining vestiges of a meritocracy a playing field whereby the rules are the same and apply to all equally and where individual merit and hard work is what separates the champions from the contenders. Not so. In this workshop, we will learn the six consistent image patterns that define and denigrate any non-white athlete in mainstream sports media. Further, we will deconstruct how such images are created, analyze their impact and then discuss the implications of such systematic portrayals and how they reinforce white privilege and messages of white male dominance -- all in the name of “competition” and “good sport.” With this dynamic at play, whereupon mostly black and brown players are generating considerable media attention and revenue particularly in the attention-dominating sports of basketball and football are critiqued and criticized by an overwhelming white male press corps, key questions evolve for examination. A key, underlying presumption within this presentation is that the assumed meritocracy of sports within mainstream media must be re-evaluated with new critical awareness insofar that members of the media and the subjects they cover are not isolated within social vacuums, but rather, are connected to larger issues of socio-economics and complex themes of political and historical natures. Hence attendees, by critically analyzing the relationship of race and sports within mainstream media, will examine and articulate the rights and responsibilities of individuals and groups in various political and social contexts. We promise to play hard.