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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).
| Colourblindness: In terms of perception, colourblindness is a lack of ability to perceive differences in colours due to damage to the retina and/or visual cortex of the brain. However, in terms of racism, colourblindness is the “inability” to distinguish between different races. Someone that is colourblind believes that there are no true differences between people of different races in terms of their personality and other factors. Many say colourblindness is one of the best ways to remove racist behaviour and treat everyone as equals.
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B) Representing Race
Test your knowledge and understanding of Hylton’s article by answering the questions below!
FIFA was heavily criticized for imposing a £15,000 fine on Croatian football authorities for racist chanting at an international game against England.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) argues for gradual, incremental changes in addressing racism rather than a transformative approach.
The concept of “non-performativity” refers to actions that publicly declare a commitment to anti-racism but lack real, substantive change.
Long and McNamee (2004) argue that all forms of racism have an equal impact and should be treated with the same severity.
According to CRT, racism is often isolated to individual acts of prejudice and can be fully explained by personal agency.
In CRT, the focus on “racism without racists” highlights how individuals who do not explicitly identify as racist can still contribute to racial inequalities.
The “everyday racism” discussed in the article is about large, overt acts of discrimination that are easy to spot and address
Critical Race Theory suggests that colorblind ideologies and meritocratic approaches often perpetuate racial hierarchies and fail to address systemic inequalities.
Microaggressions, though subtle, can have a profound emotional and psychological impact on marginalized groups.
The article supports the idea that anti-racism strategies should focus only on individual acts of racism, ignoring structural and institutional dynamics.
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.
| This is not the stance that I take; however, I feel like the achievements of black people are generally overlooked and as such, people feel that an explanation for the success is important as people view it as a rare event, compared to when a white person experiences success. An example of this could be for NBA players and people saying that they can jump higher and are taller because they are black, a myth that has been debunked over and again. I believe that these successes should be attributed to their intense training, practicing and their determination instead of their heritage.
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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?
| The first strategy that they point out is self identification and complicating their identity in the eyes of the media. This helps demonstrate that identities are not mutually exclusive, but can be complementary to each other. Another strategy is taking to social media and other ICTs to push back against mysogynoir. For instance, Osaka uses it to emphasize her mixed culture, often posting about her Haitian background as well as her blasian background, emphasizing her dad’s side of the family, to demonstrate her immediate connection to Haiti. These are starting to push back against misogynoir, where mainstream media attempts to push the simplified narrative that Osaka is Asian, a victim of unfair treatment of other black athletes such as Serena Williams. She consistently reminds the media not to effectively erase half of her heritage, by considering her as only Japanese, but not as her strong ties to Haiti. Despite the pressure Osaka frequently experiences to choose one heritage or another, on the alleged grounds that she cannot be from multiple cultures, she continues to celebrate all her different heritages, despite having Japanese as her “chosen heritage”. Another strategy they point out that Osaka uses is to forego the traditional white tennis uniforms, and instead choosing uniforms that might align more with her views, using African designers to come up with different uniform concepts instead. Overall, these strategies help push back against her oversimplified heritage by the media.
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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.
I think that athletes are in a great position to raise awareness and act on social injustices, but their responsibility to do so is no more, or no less than the average person’s. Athletes tend to have very large followings on social media. I believe that everyone has a responsibility to use social media for a good cause, no matter their follower count, because every voice, no matter how small, can have an impact on this fight for justice. Lebron James, one of the most influential athletes and activists mentioned on a podcast that he “gets” to relay his message to his millions of followers, and that as a athlete of that status, can easily have his voice heard by many people. As Galily points out, athletes can use their platforms to help bridge the political divide and can have a voice that will be followed by fans just because they admire athletes and are more tolerable to what they say. However, while athletes with their large followings can have an immense impact on social justice protests, it is not their sole responsibility to do so, as the responsibility falls on to everyone else as well even though many choose to, such as LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, and Serena Williams.
B) Athlete Activism & Feminism
Exercise 4: Complete the activities
Drag the words into the correct boxes
Intersectional feminism is often
than other kinds of feminism. It identifies
. It argues that inclusion alone does not
. Intersectional feminism attempts to address (structural forms of inequality
simultaneously
gender, race, social class, sexuality*.
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.)
| They want the sports media to tell stories differently which allows different perspectives to be taken and have more information released about women’s sports. For example, this could include the use of sources that are not necessarily viewed as “sport media” which means there are more people writing about the issue and more activism taking place.
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C) Corporate social justice
Exercise 6: Padlet Poll
| Against
While I do fully support BLM and other social justice movements, and I do see the benefit of sports leagues supporting them, I do not think that sports leagues themselves must remain, but support the athletes’ views on the situation. While sports have a large following, I’m not sure if it is okay for the league to speak on behalf of all of its players, but they should help the players to speak for themselves instead. I think athletes should be able to choose how much they want to invest themselves in a given movement and be okay with choosing instead to focus on their passion. Additionally, I feel like sports leagues could end up dividing people more than bringing them together about an issue since if one team has a differing opinion from another, then it would put their fans at odds over the same issue, just because the sports teams, which are idolized by the fans have differing opinions and people tend to take the same side as their teams on issues. |
Section Three: Taking a shot
Module Assignment (submit as part of notebook and separately through Blackboard mini assignment #1 portal)
