Exploring the influence of Black liberatory theory on collegiate sport reform initiatives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2376-5267.2024.2.2.64-81Keywords:
Black politics, racial justice reform, collegiate sport activism, social movements, liberatory theoryAbstract
As the oppressions of U.S. collegiate sport persist, recent collegiate sport reform efforts have emerged to address the racial injustices and inequalities that remain in contemporary collegiate sport. Because racial justice reform efforts in college sport are intricately linked to broader visions and pursuits of Black liberation, it is necessary for these efforts to acknowledge the diversity of Black political perspectives and explicitly consider precisely which theoretical model underpins their pursuit of racial justice in college sport. The aim of this paper is to outline how racial justice initiatives within collegiate sport have been theoretically and strategically connected to broader Black social movements and the liberatory visions that accompany them. Specifically, I examine how some of the most common theories of Black liberation – Black Liberal Integrationism, Black Nationalism, Black Marxism, and Black Feminism – have shaped the tactical and utopian directions of key movements in the history of collegiate sport activism; such as the boycott efforts led by Dr. Harry Edwards in the late 1960s, the push for HBCU athletics throughout the late 1900s, and the recent University of Missouri football strike in 2015. In effect, I argue that exploring the implicit intra-Black political divergences and tensions of past Black social movements can reveal instructive insights for contemporary collegiate sport reformers that can aid in achieving a more collective, structurally focused, and intersectional vision for transforming collegiate sport.
References
Allison, R., Knoester, C., & Ridpath, B. (2022). Public opinions about paying college athletes and athletes protesting during the national anthem: A focus on race/ethnicity and political identities. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 19(1), 61-83. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1742058x21000229 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X21000229
Andrews, K. (2018). Back to Black: Retelling Black radicalism for the 21st Century. Zed Books. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350218574.0010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350218574
Bhattacharyya, G. (2018). Rethinking racial capitalism: Questions of reproduction and survival. Rowman & Littlefield International.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2014). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America, 4th ed. Rowman & Littlefield. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/choice.51.09.1531d DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/CHOICE.51.09.1531D
Briley, R. (2014). The nation’s strongest union: Marvin Miller, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and the labor movement in the 1970s. In W.M. Simons (Ed.), The Cooperstown symposium on baseball and American culture, 2019 and 2021 (pp. 258-273). McFarland & Company.
Bryant, H. (2018). The heritage: Black athletes, a divided America, and the politics of patriotism. Beacon Press.
Burden-Stelly, C., & Dean, J. (2022). Organize, fight, win: Black communist women’s political writing. Verso Books. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2267988 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2267988
Carmichael, S. (1971). Stokely speaks: From Black Power to Pan Africanism. Random House.
Collins, P.H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.
Collins, P.H., & Bilge, S. (2018). Intersectionality (key concepts). Polity Press.
Combahee-River-Collective. 1995 [1977]. A Black feminist statement. In B. Guy-Sheftall (Ed.), Words of fire: An anthology of African-American feminist thought (pp. 232-40). The New Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvf3w44b.63 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvf3w44b.63
Cooper, J.N. (2019). From exploitation back to empowerment: Black male holistic (under)development through sport and (mis)education. Peter Lang. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b14655
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139-167. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429500480-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429500480-5
Davis, A.Y. (1971). Women, race, & class (1st ed.). Random House.
Dawson, M.C. (2001). Black visions: The roots of contemporary African-American political ideologies. University of Chicago Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/344874 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/344874
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1935). Black reconstruction: An essay toward a history of the part which Black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-1880. Harcourt, Brace. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315147413 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315147413
Du Bois, W.E.B. (2005). The souls of Black folk. Pocket Books.
Edwards, H. (2018). The revolt of the Black athlete. Collier-Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5406/j.ctv80c99x
Foner, P.S. (2017). Organized labor and the Black worker, 1619-1973. Haymarket Books.
Foner, E. (2019). The second founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction remade the Constitution (1st ed.). W.W. Norton & Company. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cwe.2021.0017 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/cwe.2021.0017
Frazier, E.F. (1965). Black bourgeoisie: The book that brought the shock of self-revelation to middle-class Blacks in America. Free Press.
Frederickson, G.M. (1995). Black liberation: A comparative history of Black ideologies in the United States and South Africa. Oxford University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim110090115 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_SIM110090115
Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. Harvard University Press.
Gilroy, P. (2000). Against race: Imagining political culture beyond the color line. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/joc/51.3.620 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/51.3.620
Hall, S. (1980). Race, articulation, and societies structured in dominance. In P. Gilroy & R.W. Gilmore (Eds.). Selected writings on race and difference (pp. 195-245). Duke University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hhj1b9.15 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hhj1b9.15
Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora. In P. Gilroy & R.W. Gilmore (Eds.). Selected writings on race and difference (pp. 257-271). Duke University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9781478021223-016 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478021223-016
Hall, S. (2021). Chapter title. In P. Gilroy & R.W. Gilmore (Eds.). Selected writings on race and difference. Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478021223
Hartmann, D. (2003). Race, culture, and the revolt of the Black athlete: The 1968 Olympic protests and their aftermath. University of Chicago Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sof.2005.0062 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2005.0062
Harvey, J., Horne, J., Safai, P., Darnell, S., & Courchesne-O’Neill, S. (2014). Sport and social movements: From the local to the global. Bloomsbury Academic. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781472544995 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472544995
Hawkins, B., Carter-Francique, A., & Cooper, J. (2016). Critical race theory: Black athletic sporting experiences in the United States. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60038-7_1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60038-7
Haywood, H. (1978). Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American communist. Liberator Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/ahr/84.2.581 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/84.2.581
Heideman, P.M. (Ed.). (2018). Class struggle and the color line: American socialism and the race question, 1900-1930. Haymarket Books.
Ingraham, C. (2020, Sept. 7). NCAA rules allow White students and coaches to profit off labor of Black ones, study finds. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/09/07/ncaa-student-athletes-pay-equity/
Isaac, L. (2008). Movement of movements: Culture moves in the long Civil Rights struggle. Social Forces, 87(1), 33-63. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0086 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0086
James, J. (1999). Shadowboxing: Representations of Black feminist politics. St. Martin’s Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-06751-7
Johnson, G.T., & Lubin, A. (Eds.). (2017). Futures of Black radicalism. Verso.
Kelley, R.D.G. (2003). Freedom dreams: The Black radical imagination. Beacon Press
Kelley, R.D.G. (2015). Hammer and hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (25th anniversary). University of North Carolina Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469625485.001.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469625485.001.0001
Kendi, I.X. (2017). Stamped from the beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America. Bold Type Books. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/194277861801100309 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/194277861801100309
King-White, R. (Ed.). (2018). Sport and the neoliberal university: Profit, politics, and pedagogy. Rutgers University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2018.1545659 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2050wq3
Kleen, B. (2021, December 6). American public supports NIL rights for college athletes but is unsure of how they should work in practice. Global Sport Matters. https://globalsportmatters.com/research/2021/12/06/american-public-supports-nil-rights-college-athletes-poll-results/
Lebron, C.J. (2017). The making of Black Lives Matter: A brief history of an idea. Oxford University Press.
Ling, P.J., & Monteith, S. (2004). Gender and the Civil Rights Movement (1st ed.). Rutgers University Press.
Marable, M. (2015). How capitalism underdeveloped Black America: Problems in race, political economy, and society. Haymarket Books.
Matlon, J. (2022). A man among other men: The crisis of Black masculinity in racial capitalism. Cornell University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501762864.001.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501762864.001.0001
McAdam, D. (1982). Political process and the development of Black insurgency, 1930-1970. University of Chicago Press.
McLellan, D. (1979). Marxism after Marx (1st ed.). Harper & Row.
Mills, C.W. (1997). The racial contract. Cornell University Press.
Mills, C.W. (2017). Black rights/White wrongs: A critique of racial liberalism. Oxford University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190245412.003.0003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190245412.001.0001
Moraga, C., & Anzaldúa, G. (Eds.). (2015). This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color (4th ed.). SUNY Press.
Morris, A. (1984). The origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black communities organizing for change. The Free Press.
Newton, H.P. (2019). The New Huey P. Newton reader. Seven Stories Press.
Norrell, R.J. (2009). Up from history: The life of Booker T. Washington. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/ahr.114.5.1474 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.114.5.1474
Powell, R. (2003). Black art: A cultural history. Thames & Hudson.
Robinson C.J. (1984). Black Marxism: The making of the Black radical tradition. Zed. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/25142575
Roediger, D.R. (2017). Class, race, and Marxism. Verso.
Ross, R.B. (2016). The great baseball revolt: The rise and fall of the 1890 players league. University of Nebraska Press.
Runstedtler, T. (2018). More than just play: Unmasking Black child labor in the athletic industrial complex. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 42(3), 152-169. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0193723518758458 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723518758458
Schuessler, J. (2021, November 9). Bans on critical race theory threaten free speech, advocacy group says. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/arts/critical-race-theory-bans.html
Shawki, A. (2006). Black liberation and socialism. Haymarket Books.
Singer, J.N. (2019). Race, sports, and education: Improving opportunities and outcomes for Black male college athletes. Harvard Education Press.
Slobodian, Q. (2018). Globalists: The end of empire and the birth of neoliberalism. Harvard University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18800/anthropia.2020.004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674919808
Spence, L. (2015). Knocking the hustle: Against the neoliberal turn in Black politics. Punctum Books. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/rep.2016.9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2016.9
Sporting Experiences in the United States. Palgrave Macmillan.
Strauss, B. (2015, Aug. 17). N.L.R.B. rejects Northwestern football players’ union bid. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/sports/ncaafootball/nlrb-says-northwestern-football-players-cannot-unionize.html
Táíwò, O.O. (2022). Elite capture: How the powerful took over identity politics (and everything else). Haymarket Books. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2g591sq.5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2g591sq
Taylor, K-Y. (2021). From #Blacklivesmatter to Black liberation. Haymarket Books.
Ture, K., & Hamilton, C.V. (1992). Black power: The politics of liberation in America. Vintage Books.
Van Rheenen, D. (2013). Exploitation in college sports: Race, revenue, and educational reward. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 48(5), 550-571. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1012690212450218 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690212450218
Vogan, T. (2011). Review of The Fab Five by Jason Hehir. Journal of Sport History, 38(3), 489-491. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jsporthistory.38.3.489 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5406/jsporthistory.38.3.489 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5406/jsporthistory.38.3.489
Wallace, B. (2022). Commodifying Black expressivity: Race and the representational politics of streetball. Communication and Sport, 10(6), 1053-1069. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2167479520945222 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479520945222
Wendling, Z. (2021, July 26). NU athletes create petition against proposed critical race theory resolution. The Daily Nebraskan. https://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/nu-athletes-create-petition-against-proposed-critical-race-theory-resolution/article_f0aac09c-edb3-11eb-972a-f7f47fafd987.html
West, C. (1994). Race Matters. Vintage Books.
Wheeler, R.F. (1978). Organized sport and organized labour: The workers’ sports movement. Journal of Contemporary History, 13(2), 191-210. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002200947801300202 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/002200947801300202
White, M. (2016). The end of protest: A new playbook for revolution. Alfred A. Knopf Canada.
Wynter, S. (1982). Beyond liberal and Marxist Leninist feminisms: Towards an autonomous frame of reference. [Conference presentation]. American Sociological Association San Francisco, CA, United States DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/clrjames201911760 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/clrjames201911760
Wynter, S. (2001). Towards the sociogenic principle: Fanon, identity, the puzzle of conscious experience, and what it is like to be ‘Black.’ In M. Durán-Cogan & A. Gómez-Moriana (Eds.), National identities and sociopolitical changes in Latin America, (pp. 30-66). Routledge. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315052717-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315052717-8
Yan, G., Watanabe, N.M., & Pegoraro, A. (2018). Student-athletes’ organization of activism at the University of Missouri: Resource mobilization on Twitter. Journal of Sport Management, 32(1), 24-37. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2017-0031
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2017-0031 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2017-0031
Zamalin, A. (2019). Black utopia: The history of an idea from Black nationalism to Afrofuturism. Columbia University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7312/zama18740 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/zama18740
Zinn, H. (2003). A people’s history of the United States: 1492-Present. Harper Collins.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Brandon Wallace
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.