Acknowledgements -- Notes -- Introduction -- The Scrappy White Leader -- He Got Brains: Whiteness and Intelligence on and off the Court -- Talking Trash (While White): A Betrayal of Tradition or a Sign of Competitive Leadership? -- White Thugs? Crime and the Culture of Innocence -- Getting High: The New Jim Crow and White Athletes -- Redemption and Character Building: Mistakes While White -- (White) Women and Sports: Selling White Femininity -- Driving While White: The World of NASCAR -- Playing the White Way: From the Cardinals to Badgers -- Sporting Cultures and White Victims -- Notes -- Work cited.
Summary:
"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 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"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.