Commodified and Criminalized

New Racism and African Americans in Contemporary Sports

Contributions by David L. Andrews, C.L Cole, Lisa Guerrero, Samantha King, Kyle W. Kusz, Stacy L. Lorenz, Anoop Mirpuri, Ronald L. Mower, Rod Murray, Jared Sexton, Michael L. Silk, Nancy E. Spencer Edited by David J. Leonard, C. Richard King

Publication date:

27 January 2012

Length of book:

272 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442206786

Commodified and Criminalized examines the centrality of sport to discussions of racial ideologies and racist practices in the 21st century. It disputes familiar refrains of racial progress, arguing that athletes sit in a contradictory position masked by the logics of new racism and dominant white racial frames. Contributors discuss athletes ranging from Tiger Woods and Serena Williams to Freddy Adu and Shani Davis.

Through dynamic case studies, Commodified and Criminalized unpacks the conversation between black athletes and colorblind discourse, while challenging the assumptions of contemporary sports culture. The contributors in this provocative collection push the conversation beyond the playing field and beyond the racial landscape of sports culture to explore the connections between sports representations and a broader history of racialized violence.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Celebrities, Commodities, and Criminals: African American Athletes and the Racial Politics of Culture
Chapter 1: America's New Son: Tiger Woods and America's Multiculturalism
Chapter 2: Sister Act VI: Venus and Serena Williams at Indian Wells: "Sincere Fictions" and White Racism
Chapter 3: Ghettocentrism and the Essentialized Black Male Athlete
Chapter 4: Why Can't Kobe Pass (the Ball)? Race and the NBA in an Age of Neoliberalism
Chapter 5: One Nation Under a Hoop: Race, Meritocracy, and Messiahs in the NBA
Chapter 6: Much Adu About Nothing? Freddy Adu and Neoliberal Racism in New Millennium America
Chapter 7: Me and Bonnie Blair: Shani Davis, Racial Myths, and the Reiteration of the Facts of Blackness
Chapter 8: The Dennis Rodman of Hockey: Ray Emery and the Policing of Blackness in the Great White North
Chapter 9: Contesting the Closet: Sheryl Swoopes, Racialized Sexuality, and Media Culture
Chapter 10: "Life with no hoop": Black Pride, State Power
Postscript: American's Son? Tiger Woods as Commodification and Criminalization
Index
Contributors

Commodified and Criminalizedis timely and provocative—a direct assault on anti-Black racism in the contemporary moment. In chapters ranging in focus from Tiger Woods to Serena Williams, the collected authors challenge us to rethink the racial politics of sport and the cultural logics of its production, consumption, and representation. It is a must-read for anyone seeking to better understand the complex and contradictory discourses at work in the simultaneous celebration and demonization of Blackness and Black athletes.