{"id":42677,"date":"2015-09-13T02:27:18","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T02:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42677"},"modified":"2016-06-10T16:14:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T16:14:27","slug":"in-its-focus-on-genetics-and-race-global-newspaper-coverage-of-athletics-is-far-from-post-racial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42677","title":{"rendered":"In its focus on genetics and race, global newspaper coverage of athletics is far from \u201cpost-racial\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In its focus on genetics and race, global newspaper coverage of athletics is far from \u201cpost-racial\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The LSE’s daily blog on American Politics and Policy<\/a>
\nThe London School of Economics and Political Science<\/a>
\nLondon, United Kingdom
\n2015-09-10<\/p>\n

Matthew W. Hughey<\/a>,<\/strong> Associate Professor of Sociology
\nUniversity of Connecticut<\/em><\/p>\n

Devon R. Goss<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology
\nUniversity of Connecticut<\/em><\/p>\n

With the years of racially segregated sports now long behind us, many would consider that sports coverage is color-blind and post-racial. In new research which examines newspaper coverage of race, sport and genetics from 2003 to 2014, Matthew W. Hughey<\/a> and Devon R. Goss <\/a>find that this is not the case. They write that the media persistently reinforces the notions that African American\u2019s athletic success is based on biology, while whites\u2019 comes from hard work and intelligence. They also debunk the ideas often seen in the media that race has a biological reality which can be defined by genes, and that the historic process of slavery somehow eliminated \u2018weaker genes\u2019 from the African American population, making them a more athletic race.<\/em><\/p>\n

For many, sport represents the ultimate color-blind space, affording a level playing field where only one\u2019s training and skills are the hallmarks of competition. Hence, racist and prejudicial beliefs and phenomena are both literally and figuratively, out-of-bounds. Moreover, sport has been understood as an activity that promotes racial harmony amongst both participants and observers. But such a claim is a bit simplistic.<\/p>\n

To make sense of the correlation between different racial groups\u2019 success and failures amidst different athletic events, many draw from the deep well of scientific racism to quench their thirst for explanatory knowledge. For instance, some research has found that many athletes believe that white sporting success<\/a> is attributable to intelligence, while nonwhite success is accredited<\/a> to genetically<\/a> predisposed bodies\u2014a longstanding cultural trope known as \u201cwhite brains versus black brawn\u201d\u2014that has been around for at least a century. After African American boxer Jack Johnson<\/a> became the heavyweight champion of the world in 1908, he precipitated a slow reconsideration of the assumption of nonwhites\u2019 physical inferiority<\/em>\u2014a central tenet of early 20th century racial science and eugenics. Fast forward to our contemporary moment and the banal ubiquity of this trope among sports commentators is well known, and was even recently panned by the comic duo Key & Peele<\/em><\/a>…<\/p>\n