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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) Keywords
Exercise 1:
Briefly (in 100 words or less) define one of the keywords in the padlet (including one that you. may have added yourself).
| Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a term that encompasses how race, power and systematic oppression all intersect within society and in particular institutional structures.
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B) Representing Race
Exercise 2: Notebook Prompt
In about 50-70 words, consider Joel Bervell’s question: why do we feel the need to extrapolate the athleticism of one Black athlete to all Black people when we do not do the same for white athletes?
Try to think of examples when this happens, making sure to reflect on your own positionality.
| Joel’s question gave an insight how within sports there is racial sterotyping where physical ability is recognized more than the skills and hard work involved within sports.
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C) Gender, Race & Sport
Exercise 3: Notebook Prompt
What are some strategies for resistance that Rajack and Joseph identify in their article as a means of pushing back against and resisting misogynoir?
| Rajack and Joseph highlighted several areas for resisting “misogynoir” with a focus on questioning the mainstream narratives on the biased portayls of black women and those of mixed racial backgrounds within sports, as was described in the article where there was crituqes on how Serena Williams anger had been exaggerated, and where Osaka’s identity of being haitian had been erased. Furthermore, where individuals’ identities are intersecting for race and gender are intertwined with one another openly and publically. In all having inclusive representation s and protraylas of those in sports that are accurate without colonial, and traditional media displays.
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Section Two: Making Connections
A) Athlete Activism
Exercise 3: Padlet Prompt
Do athletes have a responsibility to use their platform for social change? Why or why not? Please remember to record your response in both the padlet below and in your Notebook.
B) Athlete Activism & Feminism
Exercise 4: Complete the activities
Exercise 5: Notebook Prompt
What do the authors of the article call for as a way of challenging how mainstream sports journalism privileges neoliberal feminist concerns? (100 words max.)
| Cooky and Antunovic call attention to the need to change sports journalism that challenges the privileging of neoliberal feminism. They advocate for greater visibility of women athletes, especially women of color, through active narrations in which the media is pushed to recognize that their contributions should be alongside athletes, not against them, like the example of Kaepernick. The argument is that mainstream coverage needs to go above their commercialization influences where the portrayals of females athletes is the highlight alongside their roles within collective social movements.
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C) Corporate social justice
Exercise 6: Padlet Poll
| I believe that influences form culture, leadership, and the fan audience are all critical aspects that affect sports leagues. An example where a sports league has embraced and reflected athlete activism is the NBA, where it can allow players to wear messages on their jerseys as a display to promote racial equity for their players in wearing social justice. However, there are still challenges as with the example from Kaepernicknick being blackballed when they kneeled during the national anthem on the filed to demonstrate a protest. It shows there is still a great need to change where gestures of activism can be actively supported within sports leagues policies while addressing issues such as systematic racism .
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Section Three: Taking a shot
Module Assignment (submit as part of notebook and separately through Blackboard mini assignment #1 portal)
A recent television show I have started to watch is the series called “Colin in Black & White (2021). Colin Kaepernick’s activism is depicted through a narrative that intertwines with his experiences as a biracial athlete and intersects with broader themes of racial injustices within America. The series of the show is about Kaepernick’s journey as a talented quarterback who advocates against police brutality, with a focus on his decision to kneel during the national anthem as a form of protest. Kaepernick showed a nonviolent way of protesting while utilizing his popularity within the public audience to challenge the racial inequalities within and outside of sports. His kneeling, which was originally inspired by a military veteran, Nate Boyer, exemplifies that an athlete can use themselves as embodied resistance in speaking out. The show illustrated that his actions were met with resistance. Kaepernick framed his activism within historical black athlete activists such as Muhammad Ali. Additionally, Kaepernick used social media as a form to bypass traditional gatekeepers of athletes who use mainstream control over such independent narratives (Galily, 2019).
The series of Colin in Black & White is an example of sports activism and the tensions within it regarding race. Kaepernick is depicted as a direct challenge to the “shut up and dribble” rhetoric that further relates to the discussions within Galily’s (2019) article on the social media platform of Twitter having a role in athletes’ activism. In this instance, social media was used to amplify his message, but it also came with backlash. As a result, it reinforced further the political expressions within sports and the tensions between them. This is an example highlighting the themes that intersect with feminism and athlete activism, from how leagues and media platforms are forms of commodifying black athletes. At the same time, there are ongoing attempts to silence their voices (Antunovic, 2020).
Race and identity all play vital roles in significantly shaping the representation of Kaepernicks activism. As a biracial man whom white adoptive parents raised, the show expresses his awareness of consciousness in race, where it’s a central component within the show. His experiences of systematic racism underscore a more significant challenge of black identity within a predominately white space, which aligns further with Razack and Josephs’s (2021) discussion of misogyny within women’s sports media. The intersection of Kaepernicks identity, having both privilege and marginalization, gives the complexity within his portrayals and his activism. Additionally, the show gives insight into how black athletes are often framed as either entertainers or threats, a binary limiting free agency within political discourse (Razack, Joseph, 2021).
References
Cooky, C., & Antunovic, D. (2020). “This isn’t just about us”: Articulations of feminism in media narratives of athlete activism. Communication and Sport, 8(4-5), 692-711. https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy1.lib.trentu.ca/doi/full/10.1177/2167479519896360
Galily, Y. (2019). “Shut up and dribble”? Athlete activism in the age of Twittersphere: The case of LeBron James. Technology in Society, 58, 101109. https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy1.lib.trentu.ca/science/article/pii/S0160791X1830229X?via%3Dihub
Razack, S., & Joseph, J. (2021). Misogynoir in women’s sport media: Race, nation, and diaspora in the representation of Naomi Osaka. Media, Culture & Society, 43(2), 291-308. https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy1.lib.trentu.ca/doi/full/10.1177/0163443720960919
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