Abstract
This paper reflects a current shift in the direction of sport studies, moving away from the triumphal narratives that often situate sport uncritically as a site of racial progress toward critical sport studies that complicate histories that are celebrated and even cherished. Specifically, I explore the fraught relationship between race, sport, and health equity through the prism of the NFL’s concussion settlement and the controversial practice of race-norming, that is, “using a person’s racial classification as a factor in adjusting the results of medical, neurological, psychological, or other similar assessments and tests.” My paper examines how the NFL built race-norming into its concussion settlement, thereby permitting race to become a crucial factor in determining which dementia claims were considered to be valid and in dictating the eligibility of a former professional football player to receive a payout for his declining mental and physical health. In so doing, I reveal the centrality of race-norming to dementia diagnoses, emphasizing how the practice discriminated against African Americans who were kept from securing payments through the landmark NFL concussion settlement that had been acclaimed as a major victory for former players. Aside from exploring the intersections of race and science in relation to the utilization of race-norming within the NFL, I also demonstrate how such practices are rooted in the legacy of scientific racism, which has long guided the development, perpetuation, and structuring of racialized stereotypes and tropes about African Americans and their fitness for full participation in society and sport.
Presenters
Tyran StewardAssistant Professor, History, Williams College, Massachusetts, United States Theresa Runstedtler
Associate Professor, History and Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies, American University, Maryland, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Race-norming, Concussions, Health Equity, Lawsuits, Dementia, Disability, Scientific Racism
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