Description
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS Playing While White Privilege & Power on and Off the Field by David J. Leonard
Playing While White argues that whiteness matters in sports culture, both on and off the field. Offering critical analysis of athletic stars such as Johnny Manziel, Marshall Henderson, Jordan Spieth, Lance Armstrong, Josh Hamilton, as well as the predominantly white cultures of NASCAR and extreme sports, David Leonard identifies how whiteness is central to the commodification of athletes and the sports they play.Leonard demonstrates that sporting cultures are a key site in the trafficking of racial ideas, narratives, and ideologies. He identifies how white athletes are frequently characterized as intelligent leaders who are presumed innocent of the kinds of transgressions black athletes are often pathologized for. With an analysis of the racial dynamics of sports traditions as varied as football, cycling, hockey, baseball, tennis, snowboarding, and soccer, as well as the reception and media portrayals of specific white athletes, Leonard examines how and why whiteness matters within sports and what that tells us about race in the twenty-first century United States. Introduction 1. The Scrappy White Leader2. He Got Brains: Whiteness and Intelligence on and off the Court 3. Talking Trash (While White): A Betrayal of Tradition or a Sign of Competitive Leadership?4. White Thugs?: Crime and the Culture of Innocence5. Getting High: The New Jim Crow and White Athletes6. Redemption and Character Building: Making Mistakes While White 1337. (White) Women and Sports: Selling White Femininity 8. Driving While White: NASCAR and the Politics of Race 9. Playing the White Way: From the Cardinals to the Badgers 10. Sporting Cultures and White Victims