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11
Journal of Sport
& Social Issues
Volume 31 Number 1
February 2007 11-24
© 2007 Sage Publications
10.1177/0193723506296829
http://jss.sagepub.com
hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com
The Construction of
Black Masculinity
White Supremacy Now and Then
Abby L. Ferber
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
How can a White supremacist nation, which subjects Black men to ongoing racism and
demonization, at the same time admire and worship Black men as athletes? The author
argues that key elements of White supremacy and the new racism are reinforced by pop-
ular representations of Black male athletes. In viewing far-Right White supremacist
and sports cultures, two sites representing seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum of
contemporary racism, the author examines the continuing significance of the historical
image of the buck and the obsession with controlling and “taming” Black male bodies.
The author examines four common themes that permeate the contemporary construction
of Black masculinity and work to justify color-blind racism and inequality: a continued
emphasis on Black bodies as inherently aggressive, hypersexual, and violent; concern
with taming and controlling Black males; inequality depicted as a product of a deficient
Black culture; and the naturalization of White supremacy and White male superiority.
Keywords: Black men; White supremacy; sport; masculinity
I
know very little about the world of professional men’s sports, but as a sociologist
thinking about the connections between sport and White supremacy, the gender and
racial dynamics are hard to ignore. In recent years, many athletes have made it beyond
the sports pages to the front pages, charged with physical and sexual assaults. Most
recently, the Duke lacrosse team made headlines when a number of players were
charged with sexually assaulting an African American female stripper they had hired
(for a full discussion, see Leonard, 2007 [this issue]). This case in some ways resem-
bles the numerous charges raised against members of the University of Colorado foot-
ball team in recent years. And as a Coloradoan, I have heard more than I ever wanted
to about Kobe Bryant, whose name I was not even familiar with before he was
charged with rape by a woman in Vail. And Kobe brings to mind Mike Tyson and
O.J. Simpson.
Kobe, Mike, and O.J., of course, are all African American. Although there have
been a number of incidents in recent years where Black male athletes have been
accused of violent and sexual crimes, it is also true that many White athletes and
coaches have faced similar charges. Discussing a variety of specific cases, Jackson
Author’s Note: The author gratefully acknowledges the feedback and assistance of Jay Coakley, Michael
Kimmel, Rich King, David Leonard, and the anonymous reviewers.
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Katz (2006) argues that “media coverage seems to increase when black males are the
alleged perpetrators” (p. 139). In fact, when I read through the list Katz compiles of
White and Black male athletes accused of crimes, I realized that I knew the names
of every one of the Black men (and not because of their athletic talent!) but had not
heard of a single one of the White men! This certainly suggests that the news cover-
age of such crimes is racially skewed.
Although, on the one hand, White audience members’ worship of Black male ath-
letes may seem a positive embrace of diversity, scholars including Bill Yousman and
bell hooks are careful to point out that this should not be equated with antiracism. The
mainstream media spectacle of sport does nothing to encourage an interrogation of
White supremacy and racism. Poet Essex Hemphill (1992) highlights this paradox in
his poem “American Hero”: “I scored thirty-two points this game / and they love me
for it / Everyone hollering / Is a friend tonight / But there are towns / Certain neigh-
borhoods / Where I’d be hard pressed / To hear them cheer / If I move on the block”
(p. 3). It is this conundrum I seek to examine: How can a White supremacist nation,
which subjects Black men to ongoing racism and demonization, at the same time
admire and worship Black men as athletes?
Black male bodies are increasingly admired and commodified in rap, hip hop, and
certain sports, but at the same time they continue to be used to invoke fear. Black men
are both held in contempt and valued as entertainment (Collins, 2005; Leonard, 2004).
Yet this is really nothing new. Black men have been defined as a threat throughout
American history while being accepted in roles that serve and entertain White people,
where they can ostensibly be controlled and made to appear nonthreatening.
Furthermore, within the contemporary context of color-blind ideology, the embrace of
Black athletes helps White fans to assure themselves that America really is not racist
after all. In this article, I will provide a reading of sports popular culture through the
lens of historical and contemporary White supremacist ideology. Although seemingly
harmless entertainment, mainstream sports culture reiterates the common themes evi-
dent in White supremacist constructions of Black masculinity.
In this article, I begin by examining contemporary racial inequality and the con-
tours of what some scholars have called the “new racism.” I will then sketch an
historical overview of the construction of Black masculinity that will provide a
context for making sense of current constructions. Next, I examine organized, con-
temporary White supremacist discourse and identify four key themes that have
remained relatively constant. Finally, I examine the ways in which these four key
themes are evident, to even the most tuned-out observer, in popular cultural repre-
sentations of Black male athletes. Despite the ways in which Black male athletes
may work to subvert the dominant racist discourse, I argue that key elements of
White supremacy and the new racism are reinforced by popular representations of
Black male athletes.
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The New Racism
Racial oppression remains entrenched in the United States. Blacks and dark-
skinned racial minorities are 3 times more likely to be poor than Whites, earn 40% less
than Whites, and have one tenth the net wealth of Whites (Bonilla-Silva, 2003). Even
with the exact same levels of education, people of color are much more likely to face
unemployment and lower wages than Whites. Sociologist Joe Feagin has meticulously
documented ongoing discrimination in health care, the criminal justice system, hous-
ing, educational institutions, insurance industries, employment (including hiring,
career advancement, and pay), and in other institutions, leading him to conclude that
“being black means living with racial oppression from cradle to grave” (Feagin, 2001,
p. 173; see also Feagin, Vera, & Batur, 2001).
The situation for Black males is especially perilous. Recent research reveals that
Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by com-
mon employment and education statistics...and it has worsened in recent years ...the
pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the main-
stream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.
(Eckholm, 2006.)
In fact, the number of Black men without jobs has increased, as has the number in
prison. Black men are disproportionately arrested, tried, and sentenced, so that today
one third of all Black men between the ages of 18 and 39 can expect to be jailed,
imprisoned, paroled, or on probation at some point in their lives (Weathersbee, 2006).
The criminal justice system also treats Black women much more harshly than
White women. Research finds that in the adjudication process, Black women’s sexual
lives are interrogated in ways that White women’s are not (Joseph, 2006). African
American women face a double whammy—it is not only as perpetrators that they
experience discrimination but as victims as well. Although women of color are more
vulnerable to violent crimes against them, “how society responds to the victimization
of women is based on that woman’s status in society....Police, prosecutors, and the
courts often ignore or lightly punish rape, sexual abuse, and assaults against black
women” (Joseph, 2006, p. 304). Black women are less likely to have a rape case
brought to trial or to see their attackers convicted (Joseph, 2006, p. 305). Because
African American communities are constructed by the White media as violence prone,
violence against Black women is often accepted by the criminal justice system as “nor-
mal” (Joseph, 2006, pp. 3-4; see also Leonard, 2007).
Nevertheless, many people believe that discrimination against people of color is
a thing of the past (Spencer, 2004). For example, White people generally believe that
Whites are actually more likely to face job discrimination than people of color. The
reality, however, is that few Whites experience job discrimination (Pincus, 2003;
Reskin, 1998). Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins (2005) argues that
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recognizing that racism even exists remains a challenge for most White Americans, and
increasingly for African Americans as well. They believe that the passage of civil rights
legislation eliminated racially discriminatory practices and that any problems that
Blacks may experience now are of their own doing. (p. 5)
Central to this new racism, as Collins calls it, is the belief in a color-blind society. A
color-blind perspective assumes that discrimination is a thing of the past and the
playing field has been leveled; therefore, if anyone is not successful, it is a result of
his or her own poor choices. It is not racism but cultural differences between racial
groups, which is used to explain inequality. Any racial differences that exist are seen
as the result of naturally occurring processes rather than the product of social forces
(Bonilla-Silva, 2003).
Just how widespread are these views? According to the National Opinion
Research Center, more than half of White respondents believe that Blacks are more
likely to prefer to live on welfare than support themselves. “A majority of whites still
stereotype black people as violence-prone, inclined to live on welfare, and disin-
clined to hard work, and a substantial majority still stereotype black Americans as
unintelligent” (Feagin et al., 2001, p. 188).
Color-blind ideology leads to the conclusion that we’ve done all we can. Bonilla-
Silva (2003) argues that color-blind racism “has become a formidable political tool
for the maintenance of the racial order [serving] as the ideological armor for a covert
and institutionalized system [of racial oppression] in the post-Civil Rights era”
(p. 3). Color-blind racism is part of the defense of a culture of privilege and con-
temporary White supremacy (Ferber, 2003). This culture of privilege seeks to natu-
ralize inequality and preserve race, gender, and class privilege. This new color-blind
racism is less overt and less biologically based than the racism and legally enshrined
inequality and segregation of the past. Nevertheless, this new racism shares much in
common with the old.
The Historical Context
Contemporary White supremacy and the new racism remain bolstered by the his-
torical constructions of race and gender on which this nation was founded. The
ongoing discrimination African Americans experience today is often rationalized or
justified in the minds of Whites by deeply rooted stereotypes of Black men and
women. Historically, African Americans were defined as animals, as property to be
owned by White men. Racist imagery took gender-specific forms. “Because black
men did hard manual labor, justifying the harsh conditions forced upon them
required objectifying their bodies as big, strong, and stupid” (Collins, 2005, p. 56).
This imagery possessed a sexual component as well. Fear of Black men’s sexuality
remained pervasive, and they were constantly depicted as a threat to White woman-
hood if not controlled. “White elites reduced Black men to their bodies, and identified
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their muscles and their penises as their most important sites” (Collins, 2005, p. 57).
This narrative, which defines Black males as hypersexual, animalistic, and savage, is
central to White American identity, and, as Houston A. Baker (1993) reminds us, “this
scene plays itself out...with infinite variation in American history” (p. 38).
Black men were also constructed as inherently violent.
This combination of violence and sexuality made black men inherently unsuitable for
work until they were trained by White men and placed under their discipline and con-
trol. To explain these relations, White elites created the controlling image of the buck.
Unlike images of African natives who roam their wild homelands like beasts untamed
by civilization (colonialism), the representation of the buck described a human animal
that had achieved partial domestication through slavery. (Collins, 2005, p. 56)
Black men were defined as beasts who had to be controlled and tamed to be put into
service.
Black women were also defined as hypersexual and denied any rights to control
their own bodies. They were defined as unrapable (Joseph, 2006; see also Leonard,
2007, for a fuller discussion). In the White imagination, both Black men and women
have been reduced to their physical bodies. These stereotypes were relied on to jus-
tify scores of rapes and lynchings and remain entrenched still. Examining news cov-
erage of contemporary rape cases, Susan Fraiman (1994) argues that narratives about
race, gender, and sexuality inform battles between racialized men over the bodies of
women. She identifies this “paradigm of American racism, available during slavery
but crystallized in the period following Reconstruction and still influential today,
in which White men’s control of Black men is mediated by the always-about-to-be-
violated bodies of White women” (p. 71).
In the past, these stereotypes were attributed to biology. Today, consistent with
the new racism, they are instead attributed to Black culture. In both the old and new
variations, they are used to justify inequality as a result of inherent characteristics of
Black people themselves, “[pointing] to the damaged values and relationships
among Black people as the root cause of Black social disadvantage” (Collins, 2005,
p. 180). Think more recently about the images of Willie Horton, thug-like rapsters,
or welfare queens. The images have changed very little. Collins (2005) argues that
these “controlling images” of Black men and women are so entrenched they have
“become common-sense ‘truths’” (p. 151) in many people’s minds.
An Intersectional Approach
As this brief historical synopsis reveals, gender is central to the workings of
racism. In this article, I use an intersectional approach that sees race and gender as
interacting and inseparable. Gender is constructed through race, and race is con-
structed through gender; they are intersectional and mutually constitutive.
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In response to the advances of women during the past half century, many scholars
have observed a “crisis of masculinity.” Because gender identities are relational, mas-
culinity is defined in opposition to femininity. As definitions of femininity have been
changing, many men have been left wondering what precisely it means to be a man. It
is within this cultural context of struggles over racial and gender meanings that a dis-
cussion of contemporary cultural constructs of Black masculinity must be situated.
I examine two specific cultural sites where these battles are taking place: in far-
Right White supremacist and sports cultures. These two sites represent seemingly
opposite ends of the spectrum of contemporary racism: White supremacist dis-
course, defined as an extreme form of racism and hatred, and professional sports,
fully mainstream and central to American popular culture. Both sites reveal the con-
tinuing significance of the historical image of the buck and the obsession with con-
trolling and “taming” Black male bodies. Despite the shift from the old to the new
racism, much remains unchanged.
In the following sections, I will examine these common themes:
1. A continued emphasis on Black bodies and essential racial differences. African
Americans continue to be defined as aggressive, hypersexual, threatening, and
potentially violent.
2. A concern with taming and controlling Black males.
3. Inequality is depicted as a product of a deficient Black culture.
4. White supremacy, and White male superiority, are naturalized.
These four themes permeate the contemporary construction of Black masculinity
and work to justify color-blind racism and inequality.
Although more covert, coded, and cultural, the new racism continues to uphold
the same White supremacist suppositions of the past, rearticulating and churning out
anew the very same constructions of Black masculinity so prevalent throughout
American history and cultural expression. Considering mainstream sports culture
alongside historical and contemporary White supremacist discourse reveals just how
entrenched these images are.
Organized White Supremacist Movement
The number of hate groups in the United States has been rising steadily.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, in 2005 there were 803, a 33%
increase since 2000. (Although this number includes all groups classified as hate
groups, they count 179 KKK, 157 Neo-Nazi, 56 racist skinhead, 56 Christian
Identity, and 99 Neo-Confederate.) White supremacist organizations increasingly
turn to the Internet to spread their hate, through bulletin boards and World Wide
Web sites such as Stormfront or White Aryan Resistance. The Internet has become a
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valuable new tool in the White supremacist arsenal. It is easy, cheap, instantaneous,
and highly accessible. It provides international connections and virtual anonymity
for its participants and audience. The rise of the Internet has allowed organized
White supremacy to permeate mainstream culture. According to Don Black, creator
of the Stormfront Web site, they are now able to reach potentially millions of people
whom otherwise would never have attended a meeting or rally or subscribed to a
racist publication (in Swain, 2002, p. 155). The Southern Poverty Law Center (2006,
p. 59) documented 522 U.S.-based hate Web sites in 2005.
Contemporary White supremacist discourse relies on both cultural and biological
justifications for racial inequality. The emphasis on essential racial differences has
remained unchanged over time. According to David Duke, in an interview conducted
for Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America,
Science has been uncovering these differences dramatically over the last few decades.
They exist in physiological areas, cultural areas, and in actual physical areas. We have
these great differences between the races, and knowledge of these differences has been
suppressed. (Swain, 2002, p. 173)
In this discourse, the White race is seen as responsible for civilization. The
Thunderbolt (1975) proclaims:
The White Race has created and developed most of the world’s present and past civi-
lizations...responsible for almost all of the scientific, engineering and productive
know-how that has raised the world’s standard of living...the only race which has
been able to maintain a free democratic government. Liberty, justice and freedom only
exist in White nations . . . [as do] culture, art, humanities....The charity and goodness
of the White Race have time and again saved the non-White peoples of the world from
famine and plague. The White Race in the past has established moral codes, rules and
laws, and educational systems for the advancement of society that have been unsur-
passed by any other race in the world. (p. 8)
On the other hand, African Americans are depicted as responsible for most crime
in the United States. For example, an article entitled “Never Blame the Genes”
warns, “Even when the other minorities are on the same or lower economic level,
blacks still outkill, outrape, outassault and outburglarize other nonwhites three or
four to one” (“Never Blame the Genes,” 1997, p. 19). If racial and gender differences
are inherent and immutable, then it is fruitless to attempt to change them, and this is
precisely what organized hate groups argue.
In White Man Falling: Race, Gender and White Supremacy (Ferber, 1998), I
examined the White supremacist obsession with interracial sexuality. For example,
The Turner Diaries, a futuristic novel considered the blueprint for the Oklahoma
City bombing, presents a picture of society where White women and young girls are
constantly raped and attacked by Black men. The novel depicts the case of Elsa, a
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young White girl harassed and attacked by the Black boys in her integrated school.
As the narrator explains, “Even when gangs of Blacks took their children away or
raped their women before their eyes, they offered no significant resistance...many
of them seem to be convinced that any effort at self-defense would be ‘racist’ ”
(Macdonald, 1978, p. 152)
Later in the novel, once the race revolution is under way and the military and
police are out in full force, Turner describes the following scene: “Two grinning
Black soldiers forced their way through the throng in front of the tent and went
inside, dragging a terrified, sobbing White girl about 14 years old between them. The
raping queue moved forward another space” (Macdonald, 1978, p. 187).
The image of a White woman with a Black man has been relied on throughout
White supremacist discourse to motivate White men to join the movement. It is
the threat of Black masculinity that they mobilize against. A Thunderbolt (no. 297)
article proclaims, “Let us warn our young White women of the great danger inher-
ent in socializing with black males” (p. 3). And another article asserts, “Lust...may
be too gentle a word for the maelstrom in the black male’s brain” (National
Vanguard, 1979, p. 11).
This ideology has led to continuing violence aimed at interracial couples and
mixed-race families (Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, 1988). The construc-
tion of White masculinity is central to this obsession. Continuing the historical con-
struction of White male entitlement, to be a male in this discourse is to have control
over women and other men. Interracial sexuality represents the loss of this control.
White men are assumed to have natural rights to White women. The threat to this
right is summarized in this White supremacist article:
White men are discovering that some of their rightful biological partners are becoming
hideous to behold. The skin of these women still gleams like ivory, their bodies as volup-
tuous as ever. The hideousness comes from the male hand intertwined with one of theirs.
The hand is black. (National Vanguard, 1979, p. 11)
This discourse suggests that interracial sexuality threatens White masculinity and
privilege.
Despite the seriousness of this threat in White supremacist ideology, Black men
are still ultimately seen as capable of being tamed by White men; the only impedi-
ment is the Jew. Almost every discussion of race mixing, whether it is school busing
or intermarriage, attributes the problem to Jews. A multitude of articles, found
throughout all of the various periodicals, attempts to demonstrate that Jews are
responsible for race mixing and interracial sexuality. For example, The Thunderbolt
has published articles with titles such as “Jewish Leaders Supporting Race-Mixing,”
“Jews Finance Race-Mixing Case,” and “Why Do Jews Support Race-Mixing?”
According to the NSV Report, Aryans are facing “an organized mutiny of biologically
inferior people, led by the Jews against the White race” (NSV Report, 1983, p. 5).
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According to this ideology, Jews are trying to race mix Whites out of existence,
and Black men are their most dangerous tool. Because Jews are consistently pre-
sented as the driving force behind race mixing, it is assumed that if Jews were out of
the picture, White men could tame Black men and ensure the separation of Blacks
and Whites. Jews are repeatedly depicted as puppeteers, controlling the Black men’s
actions and using their natural violence, hypersexuality, and aggression against
Whites (Ferber, 1998). As an article in The Thunderbolt explains, “When misled lib-
erals and Jews constantly tell negroes that they are equal to (or better) than Whites,
hatred and violence erupts when they are unable to compete” (The Thunderbolt,
1979, p. 8). Although the Black man is frequently presented as a dangerous threat,
whether as a criminal or a rapist of White women, it is often suggested Black men
could be brought under the control of White men and tamed if Jews were out of the
picture. Relentless anti-Semitism and the underlying focus on Jews as the driving
force behind threats to White male hegemony are perhaps the greatest differences
between White supremacist ideology and more mainstream forms of racism.
However, the construction of Black masculinity is remarkably similar. The depiction
of Black men as inherently inferior, violent, and hypersexual and the need to control
Black men remain common and central across the spectrum. Does the success of
Black men in the arena of sports challenge this White supremacist construction of
Black masculinity?
Mainstream Constructions of Black Masculinity
Sport is a particularly powerful institution, “a cultural text” central to American
identity (Leonard, 2004, p. 285). According to Mary Jo Kane (1996), “Sport consists
of a set of ideological beliefs and practices that are closely tied to traditional power
structures....Sport has become such a bedrock of our national psyche that sport
figures often come to symbolize larger pressing social concerns” (pp. 95, 97).
Sporting events are more than simply entertainment; “they’re also sites where racial
and ethnic relations happen and change” (Coakley, 2006, p. 282).
Successful women and Black athletes may be seen as potentially threatening to
the notion of White male superiority (Duncan & Messner, 1998; Kane, 1996).
However, depictions of African American athletes may also reinforce the traditional
hierarchy by reifying stereotypes of their animal-like nature, emphasizing their sex-
uality, aggressiveness, and physical power. Just as we observed in far-Right racist
ideology, there is a similar naturalization of racial difference in sports discourse,
where Black men are often assumed to be naturally more athletic. This assumption
follows from the historical stereotype of physically aggressive Black male bodies.
Despite much evidence to the contrary, the myth that Blacks have more natural ath-
letic ability is hard to dispel (Coakley, 2006; Graves, 2004). To understand how
widespread this view is, just recall the recent claims of the Air Force Academy coach
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who rationalized his team’s loss as a result of the disproportionate number of Black
men on the opposing team. As Collins (2005) argues, the actual work of Black male
athletes is made invisible—so that they are constructed as naturally athletic.
Although one might hope that the success of Black male athletes might help to
undermine racism, sports represents an arena where Black men have historically
been allowed to succeed—in the entertainment and service industries (Coakley,
2006). Although African American men have been very successful in certain sports,
they are rarely found in positions of power and control—as coaches or owners.
Within the industry, they are largely under the control of White men. Success in the
field of athletics also does nothing to undermine the historical propensity to reduce
Black men to their bodies. As Jay Coakley (2006) argues, Black men’s talent is often
attributed to nature, whereas the accomplishments of White athletes are instead char-
acterized as “fortitude, intelligence, moral character, strategic preparation, coacha-
bility, and good organization” (p. 288). Thus, the success of Black men in sports is
entirely consistent with White supremacist ideology.
Collins (2005) argues that there is a traditional family script in place in sports that
works to minimize the threat of Black masculinity. The coach is similar to the White
male father figure, whereas Black male athletes are like the children, under the
father’s control and subject to his rule. It is only when they accept and play this role
that they are fully embraced and accepted and seen as nonthreatening. Their bodies
can be admired as long as they are perceived as controlled by White males. These
athletes are then defined as the “good Blacks.”
At the same time, the demonization of certain Black male athletes as “bad boys”
is used as a tool to exert control over those men who do not so easily submit to White
male authority. According to Collins (2005), “The contested images of Black male
athletes, especially ‘bad boy’ Black athletes who mark the boundary between admi-
ration and fear, speak to the tensions linking Western efforts to control Black men”
(p. 153). The negative depiction of bad boys works to reinforce efforts to tame their
“out of control” nature.
When Latrell Sprewell choked his coach in 1997, Collins (2005) argues that
Sprewell’s media coverage symbolized the larger depictions of Black masculinity as
overly physical, out of control, prone to violence, driven by instinct, and hypersex-
ual. The disproportionate media coverage focused on violent or sexual assault
charges brought against Black male athletes, compared with similar charges against
White male athletes, reifies this stereotype of Black men as inherently dangerous and
in need of civilizing. The message is that all Black men are essentially bad boys but
that some can become “good guys” if tamed and controlled by White men.
Collins (2005) notes that fans display a certain amount of ambivalence toward
Black male athletes, whom many fans seem to “love to hate” (p. 155). Sprewell,
Allen Iverson, Charles Barkley, Dennis Rodman, Barry Bonds, and Terrell Owens
are all seen as unruly and disrespectful, but at the same time, this bad boy image may
enhance their reputation and media coverage. As Coakley (2006) argues,
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Many whites in the United States have grown up fearing the power of Black male bod-
ies, being anxious about their sexual capacities, and being fascinated by their move-
ments. Ironically, this aspect of racial ideology has created circumstances in which
black male bodies have come to be valuable entertainment commodities...on athletic
fields. (Coakley, 2006, p. 296; see also Spencer, 2004)
Collins (2005) argues that athletes like Sprewell and Iverson are examples of Black
males who refuse to assimilate and play by the rules, unsettling “prevailing norms of
race and gender” (p. 156). At the same time, however, they reinforce the stereotype
of Black men out of control and feed into racist White supremacist definitions of
Black masculinity.
The stereotype of Black men as sexual predators, especially as threats to White
women, is central to the good-bad dichotomy (Leonard, 2004). The White suprema-
cist obsession with the dangers of interracial sexuality is relied on and reinforced by
the mainstream media as well. This historical narrative informed perceptions of the
O.J. Simpson arrest and trial. The darkening of Simpson’s face on the cover of a pop-
ular magazine reinforced the correlation between blackness and danger, and a Gallup
poll found that 39% of White respondents and 43% of African American respondents
claimed that they would be less interested in the Simpson case if it did not involve
an interracial relationship (or, we might surmise, if the man were White and the
victim an African American woman).
Katz and Kimmel discuss an interesting exception in the Bryant case, where
Lakers fans gave him a standing ovation after he had been charged with raping a
White woman in Vail, Colorado, in 2003. Rather than attacking Bryant, White fans
came to his defense. What made this case different?
Clearly race is a central factor, but not in the way some might assume. Kobe Bryant’s
trial offers a revealing glimpse into one of the historical characteristics of White
American racism. Try a little experiment. Suppose that instead of Kobe Bryant stand-
ing accused of sexual assault, it was Allen Iverson or Latrell Sprewell. Would there be
a comparable outcry in their defense, and a comparable unleashing of rage against their
alleged victims? It seems unlikely, because Iverson and Sprewell are already seen by
much of White America as caricatures: street thugs who happen to be talented basket-
ball players. (In fact, both have been involved in assaults, and neither got anything close
to the public expressions of sympathy that Bryant has received.) Now, try a different
example. Imagine if it were Reggie Miller or Allen Houston in the defendant’s chair.
Millions of fans—including millions of Whites—would instantly rise to their defense.
Why? Because in the eyes of many White fans, they’re not like those “other” Blacks.
They’re “our” Blacks, “good” Blacks, the kind of Blacks that White fans love to cheer
for. (Kimmel and Katz)
On the other hand, David Leonard (2004) argues that White fans have not contin-
ued to come to Bryant’s defense, and he sees Bryant now moving from good guy to
bad boy in many White people’s minds. Leonard demonstrates that the “discursive
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field surrounding the rape allegations has transformed Kobi Bryant from Uncle Tom to
Gus, from an acceptable, harmless ‘Negro,’ to a dangerous ‘nigger,’ [who] now embod-
ies a hypersexual brute accused of raping a young White girl” (p. 298).
This division between the good guys who have been tamed and know their place
versus the bad boys who refuse to submit to control reflects the historical and ongoing
construction of Black masculinity in White supremacist culture and limits the ways in
which Black men are seen in our culture. It reinforces the old presumption, widespread
as slavery declined, that Black men are safe and acceptable only when under the con-
trol and civilizing influence of Whites. However, they have an inherently violent,
aggressive nature lying just beneath the surface, threatening to spring forth at any time.
At the same time, the good guy space reinforces color-blind racism. By embracing the
successful good guys, Whites can tell themselves they are not racist, and they can
blame African Americans for their own failures (Leonard, 2004).
Conclusion
The four racist themes evident in both cultural sites produce the illusion that
White male supremacy is the natural result of Black men’s inherently inferior, vio-
lent, aggressive, and hypersexual natures. Black men are defined as responsible for
their own failure to succeed, and they must be controlled for their own good and that
of society. These four themes directly support and reinforce the new racism. They
underscore the assumption that we now live in a color-blind nation and that racism
is a thing of the past. Any inequality is now seen as the result of natural and cultural
differences or African Americans’ own poor choices. Although the construction of
Black masculinity has remained virtually unchanged from slavery through the pre-
sent, it has been malleable enough to reinforce both the old and new racisms.
These steadfast images of Black men naturalize and reinforce racial inequality.
They reinforce the message that Black men are naturally aggressive, are violent, can-
not succeed on their own, are not suited for professional careers, are not good
fathers, and need to be controlled by White men. This imagery justifies in many
people’s minds the disproportionate imprisonment of Black men today. Black men
continue to be reduced to their physical bodies and defined as inferior to White men.
Images of successful Black athletes also provide a “bootstraps” story, sending the
message that these Black men have succeeded; therefore, there is no reason other
Black men can’t. This story allows White folks to see themselves as nonracist and
imagine that we now live in a color-blind nation. As Leonard (2004) argues, “One of
the most powerful discursive spaces in which colorblindness is employed and
deployed is the arena of sports” (p. 287). The vast reality of discrimination and insti-
tutionalized racism is erased from view. Athletics and entertainment are the two
primary realms in which we actually see Black men presented as successful in our cul-
ture, and they are consistent with the historical stereotypes and limited opportunities
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available to Black men. Furthermore, these images continue to limit the aspirations and
role models for young Black boys. According to Collins (2005), “Most Black
American boys will never achieve the wealth and fame of their athletic role models
through sports. Keeping them mesmerized with sports heroes may actually weaken
their ability to pursue other avenues to success” (p. 157). As Yousman (2003) argues,
White adoration of Black entertainers “allows Whites to contain their fears and
animosities toward Blacks through rituals not of ridicule, as in previous eras, but
of adoration...[nevertheless] the act is still a manifestation of White supremacy”
(p. 369).
As poet Hemphill argues, the fact that White Americans accept Black men on the
court has not lead to a similar acceptance off the court. Although White folks may
be willing to embrace Black men as athletes, they still do not embrace them as neigh-
bors. Segregated housing and schools result in many White people having very little
opportunity to get to know people of color in their daily lives. Only 2% of White
people have a Black neighbor (Williams, 1997).
Clearly, the success of Black men as athletes does little to challenge the system-
atic and institutionalized system of White supremacy. Instead, within a White
supremacist culture, even this success is manipulated and rearticulated to support
White supremacy and hegemonic White masculine privilege.
The sheer pervasive nature of this imagery means that more extremist forms of
White supremacy will be more likely to resonate when encountered by White folks.
In today’s high-tech world, where children and adults are likely to stumble on White
supremacist Web sites at some point, it is more important than ever that we interro-
gate our more mainstream discourses of race and present a conscious antiracist
agenda. Instead, the range of racist imagery to which we are all exposed normalizes
racism and naturalizes inequality.
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Abby L. Ferber is an associate professor of sociology and director of women’s studies and of The Matrix
Center at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. She is the author of White Man Falling: Race,
Gender and White Supremacy and Home Grown Hate, the coeditor of Privilege: A Reader, and coauthor
of Making A Difference: University Students of Color Speak Out.
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