Introduction to Intercollegiate Athletics by Eddie Comeaux

Author:Eddie Comeaux
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2015-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

15

FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED BLACK FEMINIST THOUGHT WHEN FEMINIST DISCOURSE and TITLE IX WEREN’T ENOUGH

Robin L. Hughes

KEY TERMS

African American females

African American female athletes

black feminist thought and athletics

African American female athletes and Title IX

A growing body of research explores the experiences of African Americans who participate in sports. While somewhat rich in quantity, too frequently the focus tends to lean toward negative and deficit models of what it means to be both an African American and an athlete (Hatcher, 2004). This is particularly true for the exploration of African American males who participate in sports. Much of the research focuses on athletic exploitation, inadequate role models, and black males’ “so-called” incessant emphasis on sports rather than schooling (Edwards, 1984). Other literature about black athletes tends to overemphasize their athletic prowess and achievement, while at the same time underemphasize the importance of their academic success (Hughes, Satterfield, & Giles, 2007). Because such research articles are so frequently published, they may serve to reinforce and shape how university faculty, administrators and students might view athletes of color and their athletic ability in general (Comeaux, 2010; Comeaux & Harrison, 2007; Hughes et al., 2007).

Media also plays a role in what the world learns and purports to “know” about sporting and sport participation. Media’s often myopic, somewhat naive, and negative depictions of black athletes can serve to reify what the rest of the world, which rarely encounters athletes, actually understands about athletes, athletics, and sporting (Hughes et al., 2007). Media’s often narrow focus on dismal graduation rates, violence, and drugs in sports can leave a lasting and persistent, yet misleading construction of athletes, athletics, and sport participation general.

More recent literature, however, tends to use more critical and reflective lenses from which to study the experiences of athletes of color (Comeaux, 2010; Comeaux & Harrison, 2011). There are a number of studies that use critical race theory, constructivism and critical theory to more accurately describe the experiences of black athletes and how they are socially constructed (Comeaux, 2010; Hughes et al., 2007; Singer, 2005). Those studies in particular take into consideration the importance of cultural, historical, and racial contexts in order to better understand social and political influences in athletics and how naive knowledge about particular groups may be socially constructed. Nevertheless, when we (scholars in general) do inform the intellectual works and the academic field about athletes, those contents tend to place an overwhelming focus on African American males who participate in revenue-generating sports (i.e., football and men’s basketball in most regions of the country). This is troubling for a number of reasons. First, when data are collected and reported in such a way that excludes women, it may increase the likelihood that stakeholders make assumptions about how the experiences of both groups may be identical. Second, if we assume that the experiences are similar or identical, there may be little interest and greater inclination to overlook women who participate in collegiate athletics.

This chapter focuses on African American women, what it means to participate in athletics in American society, and the intersectionality between race and gender.

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