Welcome to the Sociology of Sports (SOC 94-07)

Whether a casual player, volunteer coach, a die hard or bandwagon fan, a conscientious objector, antagonistic, or simply disinterested in sports, sports influence essentially everyone's lives however differently.  These dynamics are shaped through historically situated zones of contact across race, gender, class, ethnicity, language, sexuality, body, and mass media, both on and off the field (Carrington 2010).  Sports have developed into one of America’s most pervasive and influential social institutions. Professional and amateur sports teams unite and divide spatially proximate and distal communities of fans who passionately support their teams and brands (Sandvoss, 2003). 

The rituals, routines, and practices of fandom create cultural vibrancy around professional sport and its athletic stars. One of the ingenuities of capitalism has been to draw on the “collective effervescence” that sport can bring into being (Durkheim 1912/2001, cited in Serazio, 2012). Corporate America has harnessed the discursive branding potentialities that lie in catalyzing “moments of intense social unity and reaffirmed group ideals that interrupt the prosaic goings-on of anonymous everyday life in a big city” (Serazio, 2012, p.2). Sporting organizations have flourished in this high-profiting industrial complex, as the consumption of sport has attained immense proportions (Humphries & Howard).  Elite sport is “one of the key contemporary sites where the expression of strong emotions is translated into the generation of substantial capital” (Rowe, 2004, p. 73). The beautiful game, be it basketball, football, baseball, or soccer, deepens the market potential that lies in the public’s fascination, and at times obsession, with professional athleticism. 

Alongside course readings (William C. Rhoden's Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete; CLR James' Beyond A Boundary; and journal articles & chapters), we will unpack current events and controversies, using social theory to help explain the everyday and the public spectacle of sports.  This year was a particularly active and curious one in the politically contested terrain of elite sports...  We'll discuss athletes involvement in the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and meme, against institutionalized & racialized police violence, and the systematic lack of prosecutions of police officers.

Derrick Rose warms up in protest t-shirt (nydailynews.com)

LeBron and the Cavs followed suit (espn.com)

washingtonpost.com

   


























St. Louis Rams' Kenny Britt, Tavon Austinat, Stedman Bailey, Jared Cook & Chris Givens in “hands up don’t shoot” gesture before home game. The St. Louis Police Officer's Association demanded the NFL discipline the players.  The NFL handed down no punishment, though there were some questions about whether or not the Rams organization made an apology...

The first athlete to take the stage and protest that #BlackLivesMatter though, was Ariyana Smith, a Division-III basketball player in her junior year.  Smith was initially suspended by Knox College, after she silently performed a "hands up, don't shoot" gesture during the National Anthem at start of a game (video link to cell phone footage from stands). After laying 4 minutes on the ground, Smith stood up, made a Black Power salute, and walked out of the gym.  After indefinitely suspending the student-athlete, Knox College reversed the decision and reinstated Smith some days later, releasing the statement:

"Upon review of the situation and discussion with the team, and in recognition of the larger national context, the decision was made to reverse the suspension, and the player has been invited to resume all basketball activities. The college deeply appreciates the many viewpoints expressed by the women’s basketball team and their thoughtful dialogue as we sought to arrive at a resolution that considered all perspectives" 

These and other athlete activists challenge a central assertion in Rhoden's book that today's professional and collegiate athletes are largely ideologically  and ethically lost in pursuit of corporate branded wealth and stardom in a white-controlled industry.  He argues that the majority of young black athletes have lost their  “sense of mission... being part of a larger cause... and have "dropped the thread that joins them to that struggle” for civil and human rights.  The extent and degree to which elite athletes continue to use the performative and public stage of sports as a space for protest is uncertain, and the industrial

We will also examine symbolic and physical violence against women through sport.  We'll deconstruct the public fervor surrounding TMZ-leaked elevator footage of Ray Rice knocking out his then fiancée, now wife Janay, and the subsequent political and public relations' maneuvering of Roger Goodell and the NFL, a league and leader with long record of sweeping domestic violence under the rug or looking the other way.

We'll talk about Donald Sterling's overt racist remarks caught on tape and the elusive dance of institutionalized racism.

We will discuss Michael Sam and other elite athletes who have come out, changing the public perception of sexuality and contact sports just as coaches, owners, and analysts express thinly veiled concerns about “distractions” stemming from media hype over gay players.

The course will explore these and other issues surrounding sports in society.  I invite you to write regularly, and to use course readings & discussion as a means to expand the sociological imagination.  I will regularly share writing and research on this blog.  I hope you will read, reflect, and share your thoughts here as well.