COURSE STRUCTURE
This topic focuses on the relationship between ethnicity, sport, and physical activity. This is done initially by highlighting the problematic nature of race as an explanatory category. This leads to a discussion of ethnicity and ethnic difference as the categories constituted oftentimes through histories and experiences of race based discrimination. Illustrates the places of sport and physical activity within European American, Native American, and African American ethnicities. Highlights the relationship between ethnicity and social class, and the points to the relevance of Bourdieu’s theorising for understanding ethnic experiences of sport and physical activity.
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1. LECTURE
For six slides per page format (for printing) click : HERE
For one slide per page format (for viewing on computer) click: HERE
For Fall 2015, click here for a podcast that covers the information on this topic that would have been covered in lecture on Wednesday November 4 (remember there is no in-class lecture that day).
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2. REQUIRED READINGS
It is expected that you will complete these readings following Wednesday lectures and in preparation for discussion section tasks/assignments.
In addition, within the Module 2 exam, you should expect to be asked questions on the following readings:
Reading 1: Boeck, G. (2007, February 23). Native American athletes face imposing hurdles. USA Today.
Reading 2: Singer, J. N., & May, R. A. B. (2011). The career trajectory of a Black male high school basketball player: A social reproduction perspective. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 46(3), 299-314.
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3. VIDEO CLIPS
Some of these video clips will be viewed during lecture. However, you are expected to view those not shown in lecture in preparation for both the discussion section and exam related to this topic:
Video Clip 1: PBS documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion. This is 57 minutes long, but it is an excellent overview of the socio-cultural construction of race and racial difference (watch as much as you can, but note: YOU WILL NOT BE ASKED A QUESTION ON THIS VIDEO IN THE EXAM, it is here for your own personal interest).
Video Clip 2: Video from the "We R no race" ("Nós não temos raça") campaign, led by Brazilian geneticist Professor Sérgio Pena.
Video Clip 3: Brief clip from Aljazeera TV focused on the poverty and deprivation experienced by many Native American communities.
Video Clip 5: NY Times video feature, A Fighting Chance, focused on a young female boxer from the Lower Brule Sioux reservation, SD.
Video Clip 6: ESPN Outside the Lines segment on Native American baseball role models featuring Jacoby Ellsbury and Joba Chamberlain.
Video Clip 7: Brief excerpt from the Hoop Dreams documentary.
Video Clip 10: ESPN First Take Discussion of Michael Johnson’s 2012 comments on race and the “Superior Athletic Gene”.
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4. KEY CONCEPTS
The following key concepts represent the core knowledge related to this topic, and you should ensure that you develop a thorough knowledge and understanding of them in preparation for both the discussion section and exam related to this topic:
The Intersection Between Social Class and Race (Ethnicity)
The Illusion, Mythology, Yet Social Consequences of Race and Racial Difference
Race as a Social Construct
The Politics of Racial Typologies/Hierarchies
The Scientific and Genetic Basis of Race
Phenotypes and Genotypes
Ethnic Groups and Ethnicities as Cultural Constructs
The Experience and Performance of Ethnicity
Ethnicity as a Common Collective Response to Race-Based Privilege/Discrimination
Race and Income, Poverty, Education, and Crime
Native Americans and Ignoble Savagery
Racial Demonization and Manifest Destiny/Forced Removals
The Contemporary Native American Condition
Native American Ethnicity and Sport/Physical Activity
The Social Function of Sport within Native American Communities
Ethnically Indigenous and Euro-American Sport Practices
The Native American Sport Paradox
Incorporation and Resistance Within Native American Sport
American, Slavery, and Racial Ideology
The Black-White/Body-Mind Racial Binary and Classical Racism
Sport as Naturalized Expressions of Blackness
Hyperghettoization and Racial/Social Class Segregation
The Consequences of Hyperghettoization
Urban Basketball and Ethnic Underprivilege
Hoopdreams, Working Class Habitus, and African American Ethnicity
The Economic, Social, and Cultural Determinants of Basketball Involvement
Basketball and/as African American Expressive/Ethnic Culture
Ignoring Ethnicity and Fetishizing Black and White Athletic Bodies
Suburban Whiteness, Embodiments of Privilege, and Sporting Performance
The Persistence of Sporting Racializations
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5. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Following the lecture, and having read the assigned readings and watch relevant video clips, you are encouraged to answer a series of discussion questions related to this topic which can be accessed HERE.
These questions require that you engage and extend the information covered within each theme, in order to generate a better understanding of core concepts, knowledge, and issues.
These questions are intended as preparation for both the discussion section and exam related to this topic.
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6. ESSAY QUESTION #8 (this is an option for the Module 2 essay)
Critically examine the relationship between sport and ethnicity.
This essay should be a minimum of 1,500 words to answer it comprehensively.
You may find the following academic sources useful in completing this assignment. You do not have to use these sources, they are simply provided for you as an introduction to the literature, and you should use them where appropriate and/or relevant. Also, be warned, these readings do not count towards the THREE additional academic sources you are expected to use within your essays (however, they may direct you toward additional academic sources you could use):
Anderson, E. D. (2006). Using the master's tools: resisting colonization through colonial sports. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 23(2), 247-266.
Andrews, D.L., Silk, M.L., & Pitter, R. (2008). Physical Culture and the Polarized American Metropolis. In B. Houlihan (Ed.). Sport and society: A student introduction (Second edition). London: Sage.
Andrews, D. L., Mower, R. L., & Silk, M. L. (2011). Ghettocentrism and the Essentialized Black Male Athlete. In D. J. Leonard & C. R. King (Eds.), Commodified and Criminalized: New Racisms and African Americans in Contemporary Sports (pp. 69-94). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Bass, A. (2012, July 24). “Slave genes” myth must die: Michael Johnson links African-American sprinters to slavery, and revisits a particularly ugly pseudo-science. Salon.com.
Bloom, J. (2000). Native American athletics and assimilation. To show what an Indian can do: Sports at Native American boarding schools (pp. 1-30). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Dubrow, J. K., & adams, j. (2012). Hoop inequalities: Race, class and family structure background and the odds of playing in the National Basketball Association. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47(1), 43-59.
Herbert, S. (2012, August 14). As it enters the sporting spotlight, Brazil calls on the world to rethink race. The Guardian.
May, R. A. B. (2008). Race and hoops everyday. Living through the hoop: High school basketball, race, and the American dream (pp. 79-100). New York: New York University Press.
Rohrer, F. (2010, September 3). Why don’t black Americans swim? BBC News: USA & Canada.
If you choose to complete this essay, and in addition to the sources provided on this page, you need to identify and use (either through paraphrasing or direct quotation) interpretations, insights, or information from a MINIMUM OF THREE appropriate academic sources (in addition to those provided for you on this website).
The deadline for submitting (via the ELMS/Canvas website) your Module 2 Essay is 11.59pm ET on Friday November 27.
Important: The ELMS/Canvas website will not accept essays after the due time and date.
In order to receive feedback from your TA, you can submit a draft version of your essay up to and including 10.00pm ET Friday November 11.
Be sure to review the details on the module essay page. On that page you will find the EVALUATION CRITERIA for module essays (which you are strongly encouraged to read), you will also find links to the appropriate academic sources you should use when researching and writing your module essays, and the style and format guidelines you need to follow when completing module essays. All this information needs to be read, understood, and closely followed for you to succeed in this course.
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