This is an outdated version published on 2020-12-29. Read the most recent version.
Playing Past Racial Silence
Cultivating Conversations on Racial Identity through Sports-Related Young Adult Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2376-5275.2020.4.2.1-30Abstract
Too often, classroom conversations and literature choices frame race in homogenizing terms, equating racial identity solely with the experience of marginalization. This can have a chilling effect on students whose cultural context has made race an inaccessible topic, positioning conversations about racial identity beyond their zone of proximal development. Leveraging reflections from student-athletes and an analysis of three YA texts, the authors argue that sports-centered YA literature, by normalizing depictions of race, might be leveraged to serve as a critical entry point for robust classroom conversations about the complexity of racial identity, adding nuance and accessibility to a taboo subject.
References
YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE CITED
Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York, NY: Little Brown.
de la Peña, M. (2008). Mexican White boy. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.
Luen-Yang, G. (2020). Dragon hoops. New York, NY: First second.
Reynolds, J., & Kendi, I. X. (2020). Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning. New York, NY: Little, Brown, & Company.
REFERENCES
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.
Ayón, C. (2016). Talking to Latino children about race, inequality, and discrimination: Raising families in an anti-immigrant political environment. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 7(3), 449-477.
Bolgatz, J. (2005). Teachers initiating conversations about race and racism in a high school class. Multicultural Perspectives, 7(3), 28-35.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2004). From bi-racial to tri-racial: Towards a new system of racial stratification in the USA. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(6), 931-950.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2018). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Borsheim-Black, C. (2015). " It's pretty much white": Challenges and opportunities of an antiracist approach to literature instruction in a multilayered white context. Research in the Teaching of English, 49(4), 407.
Boyd, T. (1997). Am I black enough for you?: Popular culture from the 'hood and beyond. Indiana University Press.
Branch, A. J. (2020). Promoting ethnic identity development while teaching subject matter content: A model of ethnic identity exploration in education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 87, 102918.
Brown, A. F., Bloome, D., Morris, J. E., Power-Carter, S., & Willis, A. I. (2017). Classroom conversations in the study of race and the disruption of social and educational inequalities: A review of research. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 453-476.
Bryant, H. (2019). The heritage: Black athletes, a divided America, and the politics of patriotism. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Bucholtz, M. (2010). White kids: Language, race, and styles of youth identity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Castro, A., Hawkman, A., & Diaz, J. (2015). Teaching race in high school social studies. Doing race in social studies. Critical perspectives, 127-149.
Coakley, J. (2011). Youth sports: What counts as “positive development?” Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 35(3), 306-324.
Cross, W. E., & Cross, T. B. (2008). Theory, research, and models. Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child, 154-181. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Darder, A. (2012). Culture and power in the classroom: A critical foundation for bicultural education. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction (Vol. 20). NYU Press.
DiAngelo, R. J. (2016). What does it mean to be white?: Developing white racial literacy. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Domínguez, M. (2018). Race, affect, and running: A decolonial reflection on school athletics. In I. Renga, & C. Benedetti (Eds.) Sports and K-12 education: Insights for teachers, coaches, and school leaders. Rowman & Littlefield.
Gonzales, R. G. (2011). Learning to be illegal: Undocumented youth and shifting legal contexts in the transition to adulthood. American Sociological Review, 76(4), 602-619.
González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2006). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. New York, NY: Routledge.
Gould, S. J. (1996). The mismeasure of man. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company.
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19-25.
Hall, S. (1996). What is this “black” in black popular culture? In D.K.-H.C. Morley (Ed.), Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 465-475). New York, NY: Routledge.
Hawkman, A. M., & Van Horn, S. E. (2019). What does it mean to be patriotic? Policing patriotism in sports and social studies education. The Social Studies, 110(3), 105-121.
Hernández, R. D. (2018). Coloniality of the US/Mexico border: Power, violence, and the decolonial imperative. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Hughes-Hassell, S. (2013). Multicultural young adult literature as a form of counterstorytelling. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, 83, 212-228.
Hylton, K. (2009). Race and sport: Critical race theory. New York, NY: Routledge.
Khan, A. (2014). Jackie Robinson, civic republicanism, and Black political culture. In B. Brummet, & A. Ishak (Eds.), Sports and identity: New agendas in communication (pp. 83-105). Routledge.
King, C. R., Leonard, D. J., & Kusz, K. W. (2007). White power and sport. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 31(1), 3-94.
Lewis, T. (2010). Ballers of the new school: Race and sports in America. Chicago, IL: Third World Press.
Mahiri, J. (1998). Shooting for excellence: African American and youth culture in new century schools. National Council of Teachers of English.
Matias, C. E. (2016). Feeling white: Whiteness, emotionality, and education. Boston, MA: Brill Sense.
Matias, C. E., & Mackey, J. (2016). Breakin’ down whiteness in antiracist teaching: Introducing critical whiteness pedagogy. The Urban Review, 48(1), 32-50.
Pettigrew, A. (2012). Confronting the limits of antiracist and multicultural education: White students’ reflections on identity and difference in a multiethnic secondary school. Sociological Research Online, 17(3), 1-11.
Puar, J. K. (2018). Terrorist assemblages: Homonationalism in queer times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of power and Eurocentrism in Latin America. International Sociology, 15(2), 215-232.
Roberts, R. A., Bell, L. A., & Murphy, B. (2008). Flipping the script: Analyzing youth talk about race and racism. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 39(3), 334-354.
Sánchez, S., Domínguez, M., Greene, A.C., Mendoza, E., Fine, M., Neville, H., & Gutiérrez, K. (2015). Revisiting the collective in critical consciousness: Diverse sociopolitical wisdoms and ontological healing in sociopolitical development. The Urban Review, 47(5), 824-846.
Sierlecki, B. (2014). “Grit and graciousness”: Race and rhetoric in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In B. Brummet, & A. Ishak (Eds.), Sports and identity: New agendas in communication (pp.106-126). New York, NY: Routledge.
Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23-44.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C, Nelson, & L. Grossberg (Eds.). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (pp. 66-111). Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Stoddart, B. (2004). Sport, colonialism and struggle: C.L.R. James and cricket. In R. Giulianotti (Ed.). Sport and modern social theorists (pp. 111-128). New York, NY: Palgrave-McMillan.
Tatum, B. D. (2017). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?: And other conversations about race. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Tuck, E. (2009). Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409-428.
Van Sterkenburg, J., & Knoppers, A. (2004). Dominant discourses about race/ethnicity and gender in sport practice and performance. International review for the sociology of sport, 39(3), 301-321.
Wertsch, J. V. (1984). The zone of proximal development: Some conceptual issues. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1984 (23), 7-18.
Willinsky, J. (1998). Learning to divide the world: Education at empire's end. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Yoshino, K. (2007). Covering: The hidden assault on our civil rights. New York, NY: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York, NY: Little Brown.
de la Peña, M. (2008). Mexican White boy. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.
Luen-Yang, G. (2020). Dragon hoops. New York, NY: First second.
Reynolds, J., & Kendi, I. X. (2020). Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning. New York, NY: Little, Brown, & Company.
REFERENCES
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.
Ayón, C. (2016). Talking to Latino children about race, inequality, and discrimination: Raising families in an anti-immigrant political environment. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 7(3), 449-477.
Bolgatz, J. (2005). Teachers initiating conversations about race and racism in a high school class. Multicultural Perspectives, 7(3), 28-35.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2004). From bi-racial to tri-racial: Towards a new system of racial stratification in the USA. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(6), 931-950.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2018). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Borsheim-Black, C. (2015). " It's pretty much white": Challenges and opportunities of an antiracist approach to literature instruction in a multilayered white context. Research in the Teaching of English, 49(4), 407.
Boyd, T. (1997). Am I black enough for you?: Popular culture from the 'hood and beyond. Indiana University Press.
Branch, A. J. (2020). Promoting ethnic identity development while teaching subject matter content: A model of ethnic identity exploration in education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 87, 102918.
Brown, A. F., Bloome, D., Morris, J. E., Power-Carter, S., & Willis, A. I. (2017). Classroom conversations in the study of race and the disruption of social and educational inequalities: A review of research. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 453-476.
Bryant, H. (2019). The heritage: Black athletes, a divided America, and the politics of patriotism. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Bucholtz, M. (2010). White kids: Language, race, and styles of youth identity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Castro, A., Hawkman, A., & Diaz, J. (2015). Teaching race in high school social studies. Doing race in social studies. Critical perspectives, 127-149.
Coakley, J. (2011). Youth sports: What counts as “positive development?” Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 35(3), 306-324.
Cross, W. E., & Cross, T. B. (2008). Theory, research, and models. Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child, 154-181. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Darder, A. (2012). Culture and power in the classroom: A critical foundation for bicultural education. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction (Vol. 20). NYU Press.
DiAngelo, R. J. (2016). What does it mean to be white?: Developing white racial literacy. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Domínguez, M. (2018). Race, affect, and running: A decolonial reflection on school athletics. In I. Renga, & C. Benedetti (Eds.) Sports and K-12 education: Insights for teachers, coaches, and school leaders. Rowman & Littlefield.
Gonzales, R. G. (2011). Learning to be illegal: Undocumented youth and shifting legal contexts in the transition to adulthood. American Sociological Review, 76(4), 602-619.
González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2006). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. New York, NY: Routledge.
Gould, S. J. (1996). The mismeasure of man. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company.
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19-25.
Hall, S. (1996). What is this “black” in black popular culture? In D.K.-H.C. Morley (Ed.), Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 465-475). New York, NY: Routledge.
Hawkman, A. M., & Van Horn, S. E. (2019). What does it mean to be patriotic? Policing patriotism in sports and social studies education. The Social Studies, 110(3), 105-121.
Hernández, R. D. (2018). Coloniality of the US/Mexico border: Power, violence, and the decolonial imperative. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Hughes-Hassell, S. (2013). Multicultural young adult literature as a form of counterstorytelling. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, 83, 212-228.
Hylton, K. (2009). Race and sport: Critical race theory. New York, NY: Routledge.
Khan, A. (2014). Jackie Robinson, civic republicanism, and Black political culture. In B. Brummet, & A. Ishak (Eds.), Sports and identity: New agendas in communication (pp. 83-105). Routledge.
King, C. R., Leonard, D. J., & Kusz, K. W. (2007). White power and sport. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 31(1), 3-94.
Lewis, T. (2010). Ballers of the new school: Race and sports in America. Chicago, IL: Third World Press.
Mahiri, J. (1998). Shooting for excellence: African American and youth culture in new century schools. National Council of Teachers of English.
Matias, C. E. (2016). Feeling white: Whiteness, emotionality, and education. Boston, MA: Brill Sense.
Matias, C. E., & Mackey, J. (2016). Breakin’ down whiteness in antiracist teaching: Introducing critical whiteness pedagogy. The Urban Review, 48(1), 32-50.
Pettigrew, A. (2012). Confronting the limits of antiracist and multicultural education: White students’ reflections on identity and difference in a multiethnic secondary school. Sociological Research Online, 17(3), 1-11.
Puar, J. K. (2018). Terrorist assemblages: Homonationalism in queer times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of power and Eurocentrism in Latin America. International Sociology, 15(2), 215-232.
Roberts, R. A., Bell, L. A., & Murphy, B. (2008). Flipping the script: Analyzing youth talk about race and racism. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 39(3), 334-354.
Sánchez, S., Domínguez, M., Greene, A.C., Mendoza, E., Fine, M., Neville, H., & Gutiérrez, K. (2015). Revisiting the collective in critical consciousness: Diverse sociopolitical wisdoms and ontological healing in sociopolitical development. The Urban Review, 47(5), 824-846.
Sierlecki, B. (2014). “Grit and graciousness”: Race and rhetoric in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In B. Brummet, & A. Ishak (Eds.), Sports and identity: New agendas in communication (pp.106-126). New York, NY: Routledge.
Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23-44.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C, Nelson, & L. Grossberg (Eds.). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (pp. 66-111). Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Stoddart, B. (2004). Sport, colonialism and struggle: C.L.R. James and cricket. In R. Giulianotti (Ed.). Sport and modern social theorists (pp. 111-128). New York, NY: Palgrave-McMillan.
Tatum, B. D. (2017). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?: And other conversations about race. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Tuck, E. (2009). Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409-428.
Van Sterkenburg, J., & Knoppers, A. (2004). Dominant discourses about race/ethnicity and gender in sport practice and performance. International review for the sociology of sport, 39(3), 301-321.
Wertsch, J. V. (1984). The zone of proximal development: Some conceptual issues. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1984 (23), 7-18.
Willinsky, J. (1998). Learning to divide the world: Education at empire's end. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Yoshino, K. (2007). Covering: The hidden assault on our civil rights. New York, NY: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Downloads
Published
2020-12-29
Versions
- 2021-10-15 (2)
- 2020-12-29 (1)
Issue
Section
Critical Studies
