A Level Playing Field? Media Constructions of Athletics, Genetics, and Race Author(s): MATTHEW W. HUGHEY and DEVON R. GOSS Source: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , September 2015, Vol. 661, Race, Racial Inequality, and Biological Determinism in the Genetic and Genomic Era (September 2015), pp. 182-211 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24541877 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms and Sage Publications, Inc. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The link between black athleticism and biological determinism has been wrought with debate. With the domination of black athletics over white challengers— such as boxer Jack Johnson or sprinter Jessie Owens— some began to assert that blacks possessed a biological A Level Playing Field? Media Constructions of Athletics, Genetics, and Race predisposition toward athletic excellence and that Darwinian winnowing during chattel slavery's harsh conditions magnified African American and West Indian athletic prowess. Despite biological and socio logical evidence to the contrary, recent mainstream journalism has collectively advanced the proposition that black athletic success is the product of little more than genetic traits. In this article, we examine the events and ideologies employed to reify a media dis course of "black brawn vs. white brains." We demon strate how such a thesis is empirically untenable. Through an examination of English-language newspa per articles (N = 292) published in the decade immedi ately following the completion of human genome mapping (2003-2014), we examine contemporary media discourse surrounding athletics, genetics, and race. We demonstrate how mainstream media narra tives construct and reinforce racial essentialism and provide a unique space for racist discourse in an age dominated by "postracial" and "color-blind" dialogue. Keywords: race; genetics; athletics; media; biological determinism % MATTHEW W. HUGHEY and DEVON R. GOSS On July 28,England, 2012, the gaze London, for worlds the Games of fell the on XXX Olympiad. Marketed far and wide, the Olympics, a modern tradition since 1896, is billed as a chance to view the world s best on a Matthew W. Hughey is an associate professor of sociol ogy at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on the relationship between dominant racial meanings and structures of racism and racial inequal ity. He is the author of White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race (Stanford University Press 2012). Devon R. Goss is doctoral student in sociology at the University of Connecticut. Her research examines the color line and racialization in family formation and processes. DOI: 10.1177/0002716215588067 182 ANNALS, AAPSS, 661, September 2015 This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL level gion PLAYING playing or race FIELD? 183 field—a may rear place their unhampered quest to perfo lated as "faster, higher, str marquee event (the mens 1 BBC-produced documentary questions about race, slaver Did the brutality of transmined the superior track s United States and the Cari Mass media Online wrote, answered "African its slave fittest were transported o Hurst wrote, "history supp process whereby only the s transportation process out 1501 to the 1800s" (Hurst 2 Caroline Frost stated, "it s stronger, All of more this testerone-fil seems a bit obv But what makes these cla not exist in a vacuum, but tions that black athletic suc posed traits. Recent mainst that genetics and genome m mine athletic performance dangerous and deceptive w stream media narratives a assumptions and beliefs th ing a nuanced media discus Black Brawn vs. Since at least the Enlighten tice, rested upon a shared a cal superiority The of canonical whites works ove of T Agassiz, George Gliddon, an natural, biological, and "fix a paradigm of "scientific ra African slave trade and Eu acceptance NOTE: of We prior are of Darwinian indebted versions of This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms this to W. C manuscr 184 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY published in 1859), many developed racist German biologist Ernst Haeckel's notion t ity was a consequence of evolution (Shipm By 1896, the very same year that the U. regation in Plessy v. Ferguson, statisticia Traits and Tendencies of the American Ne ity, the tendency of the Negro race has be to a still greater mortality. And in the e (Hoffman 1896, 176). The "extinction the physically inferior, and any attempt to impr thinkers, such as Herbert Spencer and Dar convinced of European physical superio selective interbreeding and a program of rior stock to save the white race from dec Charles Davenport put eugenics into prac Evolution (SEE) at Cold Spring Harbor, N Harry Laughlin formed the Eugenics Reco bied for racial segregation, immigration r many U.S. states (Graves 2002). From physical inferiority to athletic sup Despite the widespread acceptance of wh racial science were afoot. In December 19 boxer Jack Johnson as the heavyweight cham reconsideration of the assumption of non tenant of racial science. To reconcile the string of unsuccessful "Great White Hope ficial lamb in the early-twentieth-century 2005). Rather than argue for wholesale intellectual, aesthetic, and physical white dominance, racial scientists and eugenicists began to emphasize whites' moral and cognitive superiority in contrast to the supposedly vulgar, savage, and carnal physical characteristics of blacks—a scientific revival of the antebellum notion of the "black brute." The narrative of "black brawn vs. white brains" slowly emerged as a prevalent discourse in sports commentary around the world (cf. Carrington 2010). But such a shift was gradual.2 Many still held aloft the banner of white physical supremacy. By the 1930s, twelve of the twenty fastest 5,000-meter run ners in the world hailed from Finland (Sears 2001). In 1936 the German writer Jack Schumacher wrote a staunch defense of Aryan cultural and athletic superi ority, Die Finnen Das Grosse Sportvolk, in which he penned, "Running is cer tainly in the blood of every Finn.... Yes, hurry, light-footed through this northern scenery, for kilometers, for hours on end.... [They] are like animals in the forest" (cited in Bale 2004, 69). That same year, the Olympic Games were held in Berlin, where an ascendant Adolph Hitler intended to drive home the thesis of unfet tered white supremacy with the success of his Aryan athletes. Despite Germany's This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 185 overall success in the gam receipt of four gold meda Aryan athletic superiority. into the breach followin Olympic performance, Dea track team, said, "The Neg the primitive jump 1941, 5-6). was a than the white life-and-death The backlash against Nazi theories of Aryan supremacy in the post-World War II era, coupled with the increased frequency and quality of performances by black athletes in world competitions, provided ample opportunity for the discus sion of a "natural" or "superior" black athleticism. Moreover, biological and social scientific paradigms, still entrenched in many of the assumptions and methods of eugenics, easily refocused on the search for the core essence of physical superior ity that supposedly lay locked away somewhere within the black athlete s body (Graves 2005). Accordingly, the British physician James M. Tanner garnered attention with his book The Physique of the Olympic Athlete (1964); he con cluded, based on anthropometric measures of 137 athletes from the 1960 Rome Olympics and other British Commonwealth Games, that significant racial differ ences were natural. Tanner argued that such differences would enhance the athletic performance of blacks in sprinting and jumping (Tanner 1964). However, it was Martin Kane's words in 1971 that generated a firestorm. Then senior editor at Sports Illustrated, Kane wrote, "there is an increasing body of scientific opinion which suggests that physical differences in the races might well have enhanced the athletic potential of the Negro in certain sports" (1971, 74). One of Kane's strongest allies was James Counsilman, a former United States Olympic swimming coach, who stated that black athletes were superior to white athletes in sports that required speed and power because they had more "fast twitch" muscle fibers (Hoberman 1997). Soon the belief that blacks possessed differently suited muscles for sprinting, or the "speed gene," was married to social Darwinist theories about environment, selection, and slavery. Many began to postulate that the harsh conditions of slav ery supposedly eliminated weaker and less "fit" Africans and African Americans from genetic pools. For example, in 1988, CBS broadcaster Jimmy "The Greek" Synder stated to a local, Washington, D.C., reporter (which was later rebroadcast on national television), "The black is a better athlete to begin with because he's bred to be that way. . . . [The] slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he would have a big black kid" (in Goodwin 1988).3 The outcry over Snyder's words then prompted NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw to put forth a 1989 documentary (Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction) that claimed black ath letes "explode more efficiently off the ground." The producer and cowriter of Brokaw's documentary, Jon Entine, continued that line of thought in his 2001 book, Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk about It, which claimed that "black babies" have a faster maturation than infants of other racial groups "even when blacks are poorer and eat a less healthy This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 186 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY diet" (p. 250). It is within this context and hist porary works by Hoberman (1997), Epste lowed suit and resonate with beliefs about b prowess and whites' genetic predisposition f 2001; Hughey 2014a, 2014b; McCarthy, J Sigelman 1998). Between the Lines: Athletics, For many, sport represents the ultimate col ing field where only one's training and skil (e.g., Bucher 1957; Janofsky 1990; Ling 200 and prejudicial beliefs and phenomena are b bounds (cf. Love and Hughey 2015). Moreov activity that promotes racial harmony among such a claim is a bit simplistic. Racial discrimination and controversy in s Scholars have long challenged the content meritocratic institution (cf. Birrell 1989; Co Washington and Karen 2001). For example, that National Basketball Association (NBA) g ers by an opposite-race refereeing crew th crew, even when controlling for specific pla Schroffel and Magee (2012) discovered, even that NBA coaches give greater playing time League Baseball (MLB) umpires also express often if the umpire and pitcher are of the s pate racial bias by throwing pitches that all (e.g., fastballs over home plate) (Parsons et Moreover, public interpretation of athleti cer and rugby is rife with overt and virulent of racist epithets to the throwing of ba American basketball was recently rocked aft aired from both the owner of the L.A. Clipp Hawks general manager, Danny Ferry (C The National Football League (NFL) has rece name of the Washington Redskins—a racia discussions of the intersection of sport and ra racist interpretations: Steinfeldt et al. (2010 Dakota Fighting Sioux online forum contain toward American Indians, while Love and H stereotypes and assumptions guided how This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING disciplinary often drug Racial 187 infractions excused use FIELD? and of am wrongdoing violence. genetic beliefs amon Players and coaches also in field as the result of gen (2002); Ismond (2003); and C many athletes while believe nonwhite that success w is Coaches have also employed performance: they interpr facilities, and hard work; w come of natural speed, lon Turner 2005; Turner and J genetic explanations instance, "opt out" studies Baker of and sports indicate of like that at Horton track one s ath blacks performed better on physical ability than those whites showed the opposite Public opinion Broad hold Two public genetic polls found that on opinion traits in biologica the seems that make 1990s, one-third to one one- endowed with more "natur Price 1997). And in 2001, a sports ability was linked to a natural athletic advantage believed that East Africans (Gene Media Forum and Zog Photo elicitation studies sh speed, limb length, and mu whereas white athletes' succ and better coaching and tr Jackson, and Regoli 2006; J Butryn 2006). Morning (20 black presence in the NFL to socioeconomic factors (5 against white athletes (20 p This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 188 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY TABLE 1 White and Black Beliefs in Athleticism Group Group Athleticism Athleticism Whites Whites Overall Overall Male Male 9.36 9.36 9.33 9.33 Female Female NOTE: Significance Significance Test Test Blacks Blacks p < p.05 < .05 9.70 9.70 9.72 9.72 9.37 9.37 o 9.70 9.70 Data from the Gener TABLE 2 White, Black, Male, Female Beliefs in Athleticism Overall Overall Athleticism Athleticism White WhiteMen Men Significance Significance TestTest White WhiteWomen Women White overall 9.05 9.57 Black overall 9.36 10.01 White Whitemale male 9.07 9.07 9.57 9.57 Black Blackmale male 9.35 9.35 10.03 10.03 White Whitefemale female 9.06 9.06 9.57 9.57 Black female 9.34 10.02 p < .05 ft ft 0 a NOTE: Data from the General Social Survey 2004; N = 2,611. used to explain white dominance in other sports: "only blacks' presence in a sport could be explained by biological characteristics, and even their absence from certain sports could be attributed to their ostensible physical capacities: e.g., lack of body fat to swim" (Morning 2009,1184). When we examine attitudes toward athleticism, environment, genetics, race, and gender from a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population, we observe striking patterns (see Tables 1 and 2; Figures 1 and 2). Table 1 and Figure 1 examine white respondents' attribution of black athleticism to environ mental factors compared to genetic factors. A 1 on the scale means that the respondent indicated that 100 percent of athletic ability is environmental; 21 on the scale means that the respondent indicated that 100 percent of athletic ability is genetic; and 11 means that the respondent indicated that environmental and genetic causes are equal. Figure 1 is broken down by overall athleticism and by gender for whites and blacks. Table 2 and Figure 2 are similar to the latter two, except that they include respondents' gender. There remain significant differences in the means (p < .05). In Figure 1, whites rated black male athleticism as significantly more genetically related, compared to white male athleticism. Figure 2 indicates that white This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 189 FIGURE 1 White and Black Beliefs in Athleticism i Whites ■ Blacks Female NOTE: Data from the General Social Survey 2004; N = 2,611. The figure only depicts the relevant comparison of data between 9.0 and 10.0 on the scale. FIGURE 2 White, Black, Male, Female Beliefs in Athleticism 1U. 1 I Jl JIJ » White Men ■ White Women : J I I M I I Ç q CEBbMHM , mHEHHHHI , 9HNMMMI , ^ 1 ^ j ^ 1 White Overall Black Overall White Male Black Male White Female Black Female Athleticism NOTE: Data from the General Social Survey 2004; N = 2,611. The figure only depicts the relevant comparison of data between 9.0 and 10.1 on the scale. This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 190 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY women rated black overall, black male, and genetically related than white men did. Ove belief among whites (especially white wome success compared to white athletic success. Other nationally representative data indica For example, Shostak et al. (2009) examined a series of broad domains: physical illness, personality, and success in life. Their analy tance of genetics for individual differences attitudes toward genetics-related policies, in other measures (cf. Leonard 2009; Carringt tists have long warned that beliefs about ge will promote "racial essentialism" (cf. Alpe Nelldn and Lindee 1995), and that black do most emotionally charged debate pertain (Washington and Karen 2001, 196). Common Assumptions Regardin There are four common assumptions that gene drives athletic performance—especially athl is a biologically distinct human group with resistance correlates with athletic performanc natural selection; and (4) biology trumps, a Byrd and Hughey 2015; Graves 2002; Love Yet each of these assumptions flounders scrutiny. 1. A race is a biologically distinct group with unique genetic traits The evidence that humans cluster into smaller clusters of genetic groupings has very little, if nothing, to do with race. The search for these genetic clusters— in the age of genomic research—is more an artifact of scientists' beliefs than an objective finding through unbiased research methodology (cf. Byrd and Hughey, this volume; Frank, this volume; Graves, this volume). For example, a recent article in Sociological Theory by Shiao et al. (2012, 67) argues for "the existence of genetic clusters consistent with certain racial classifications as well as the valid ity of the genomic research that has identified the clusters." However, this research is flawed at a conceptual level. It resurrects a "biologically essentialist" race concept without reference to the evolutionary dynamics that account for the distribution of the genetic variation we see in the human species. While Shiao et al. make the point that there are legitimate genetic clusters that are consistent with certain racial classifications, the problem with such a cluster analysis is that the findings can be consistent with any racial classification scheme one wishes to This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 191 find. That is, if we believ clusters of genetic materi if we believe there to be fif of genetic patterns that (2014) writes in reply to First, although it is true s S that population, the statistical gro subpopulations that scientists struct. As their makers readi on a variety of assumptions, in data sets used. Second, few pa seem to find "race" a useful a DNA-based clusters, (p. 203) Beliefs about the biologi "self-vindicating" (Hackin mary decision as to the nu the first place. Other research validates tific evidence for East Af (e.g., fast-twitch fibers, l levels), social variables (train factors (mental toughness finds that they are not u power. Vancini et al. (2014 in the superiority of Afr deoxyribonucleic acid, th (ACE), and the alpha actin that the genes most stud ance running (ACE and A letes. It seems unlikely th found in other parts of t foundation, the "existence sifications" (Shiao et al. 20 tialist 2. thinking Disease First, a than resistance genetic a tena make mutation t automatically faster, stro ticular disease necessarily to suggest that generation predetermined superior at populations that have adap against malaria—a trait African Americans hold This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 192 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY dominated any particular sport over any t sociologists or biologists, that clusters of hu to carry particular genetic information. Bu provide the basis for social distinctions of selected and defined phenotypes (Fujimura only makes sense if we forget that any typ consistent with any racial classification sch phenomes that allow a certain individual to correlate with disease resistance or suscept untenable. 3. Natural selection in 400 years Eliminating supposedly inferior traits throug slavery is quite difficult in light of the ma gene's frequency in a population. For examp which all variables (social and genetic) are he sive allele that resides in 50 percent of a g more than forty generations to reduce it t then take another ten generations to reduc 2002). The total time to reduce the presenc percent is approximately 1,500 years (Gr Atlantic slave trade lasted approximately brutally oppressive, the "peculiar institution" thus failing to provide a constant controlled se slavery are estimated at approximately 15 p the social behaviors of slaves and slavehold sum, the Western system of chattel slavery stant social conditions, or the amount of singu was slave rape and sexual coercion that int into the "gene pool") for a genetic selection 4. Biology trumps society Beliefs based on "natural selection" throug a static and fixed genetic correlation betw slaves' social histories. In moving from this sta biological explanation to the decidedly soci football, basketball, or sprinting, are simply Our contemporary moment of black domin largely by social and cultural reasons (C remarks, A slave could have left more offspring by being intelligent, loyal, and honest or by being sly and morally corrupt. These behaviors might have little to no genetic cause and might be completely independent of physiological or athletic performance. . . . Properly This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 193 understood, success has both natural selection alone is not tion of a given population occ In the end, the social rela workers, white slave holde competing interests, insti temporary social, cultural quick work of any argum genetic basis for superior Data and Meth To investigate the relation logically determinative ass of mainstream media nar cles that dealt with the in paper articles were gath (Historical Newspapers f through Proquest) and ten domestic circulation num Constitution, The Boston The New York Times, The USA Today, The Wall Stre We searched these databa approach: specific expressi sports. The terms were ch are thought to excel, as w to as "proof' of black dom mutations of at least one categories: (1) "black," "Afri "sprinting," "football," or egories resulted in forty (e.g., "black"-"athletic"-"ge frame is bounded by Janu sports discourse since the 2003 and the publication o Human History in May 20 The initial search returne eliminate articles that did n exclusion of 22,023 articl stories (usually from mul After the removal of 952 cles from a wide and vari This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 194 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY TABLE 3 Search Term Frequency Search Search Terms Terms Articles (n) African sports genetic 86 Black athlete genetic 63 Ethnicity sports biology 31 African athlete genetic 28 Jamaican athlete genetic 21 Ethnicity athlete genetic 10 8 African sports biology Black sports genetic 7 Black sprinting genetic 6 Ethnicity sports genetic 5 African athlete biology 4 African sprinting genetic 4 Black athlete genetic 4 Ethnicity athlete biology 4 African basketball genetic 2 Black athlete biology 2 Black basketball genetic 2 Jamaican sports genetic 2 Black sports biology 1 Ethnicity sprinting genetic 1 Ethnicity basketball genetic 1 Total 292 around the world. See Table 3 for an overview of the search term category frequencies. Once the population (N = 292) was established, a three-tier qualitative analy sis of the data was implemented. First, the newspaper articles were inductively examined to identify "sensitizing concepts" (Blumer 1954). Second, we applied a deductively generated framework based on the sociological literature on bio logical determinism and sports. This approach consists of reflexive movement between concept development, data coding, data analysis, and interpretation. Although categories derived from the literature on biological determinism, sports, racism, and stereotyping, others emerged throughout the study, leading to constant discovery and comparison. Hence, we did not seek to create a new theory relating to the study of race, sport, and genetics, but rather "to check and supplement as well as supplant prior theoretical claims" (Altheide and Schneider 2013, 26). Our approach remains similar to traditional quantitative content analysis in that it uses predefined categories of analysis in a systematic and ana lytic fashion. However, we do not seek to examine only the distribution of a sample across predetermined categories. We aim to uncover unknown but This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 195 relevant categories that i and meaningful represent play not as "static and inf to emerge throughout the Given this epistemologic applying our deductively coding scheme into first- "discourse" (Altheide and levels of meaning that w larly "common-sensed" a Altheide and Schneider (2 for discussing a particula themes or "the recurrin within the frames and th within themes). Each article served as th mately linked so that, in one at a time, each was ac scored a "1" to create over a total frequency distribu 520 discourse instances, or average of 4.66 codes Findings Racial outcomes are biological The most prominent frame (n = 203) of stories that intersect genetics, sport, and race is a decidedly racially essentialist narrative: "race" exists biologically. That frame employs three major themes to explain and justify racially stratified sporting performance: A "race" has specific genomes not shared by other racial groups. Second, harsh conditions provide "natural selection" by which certain racial groups are refined and become stronger through the destruction of weaker and "less fit" genomes from their population. Third, media accounts were pre sented as coverage that was supposedly objective and unhinged from political or ideological agendas. Real genetic differences. The first theme of real genetic differences (n = 191) relies on several discursive appeals to various causal mechanisms: fast/slow twitch muscles, body proportion, and testosterone. Fast/slow twitch muscles. Explanations for black sprinting success were often in = 63) attributed to biologically preconditioned dispositions for a higher pro portion of fast-twitch muscles than other racial groups. For example, the Liverpool Daily Echo [England] remarked that This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms per 196 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY TABLE 4 Frames, Themes, and Discourse Theme Theme Frame Frame Discourse Percentage Racial outcomes are bio 14.5% logical (n = 203) 13.6% Real genetic differences (n = 191) Fast/slow twitch muscles 4.5% (n = 63) 2.9% Body proportion (n = 41) Testosterone (n = 24) 1.7% Natural selection 5.9% (n = 83) 4.6% Slavery (n = 65) African descent (n = 43) 3.1% 3.1% Science and political correctness (n = 44) Taboo evidence in = 30) 2.1% Accusations of racism 1.6% (n = 23) Racial outcomes are 5.1% environmental (n = 72) Natural environment 3.6% (n = 50) Altitude (n = 48) 3.4% Diet (n = 30) 2.1% Weather (n = 19) Resources (n = 43) 1.4% 3.1% Training facilities 1.7% (n = 24) Drugs/doping (n = 22) 1.6% Coaching (n = 21) 1.5% 2.8% Pride and ethic (n = 40) National reputation 2.4% (n = 34) Hard work (n = 33) 2.4% 1.6% No genetic evidence (n = 22) 0.6% Exploitation (n = 9) Race is a social construct 3.6% (n = 51) 1.7% Race is still socially consequential (n = 24) Frame total: 326 Race is imaginary (n = 8) Theme total: 514 0.6% Discourse total: 520 This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1,360 (100%) A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 197 Jamaica's sprint success is all researchers at the University o found that 70 percent of Jamaic A, compared to only 30 percent seems to be a strong, underlyin to perform like this. (19 Augus Additionally, the Cape Arg the dominance of Jamaicans an world class sprinting has spark push the limits of what is hum twitch to slow twitch muscles is for each contraction as slow mu more rapidly - making them bet Body proportion. sporting was not Other simply a as symmetry of knees, force (n = 41). The Cape could help to explain why m ma a c Tim Jam that has found a possible re sprint events for both men China not Morning only them in are these terms says cited athletes of circumferences, height," Post body [so] Adrian getti type their a an centre Bejan, one longer torsos, so their centres o the researchers calculated that whites have the same advantage And in a rare Independent biologically on d Saturday Afrikaans rugby players of freakish genetic make-up" packs have down the years of not just black players, bu Testosterone. Many papers ing levels of testosterone (n to whether testosterone ma recounted that "white spor black rivals have higher level Independent claimed, "But i Africans have some extraord outstanding athletes" (5 Oc Telegraph [England] wrote t who had survived the tran This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 198 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY testosterone, thicker skin and better musc toughest slaves [who] made it as far across a from Africa. The tiny country won five gol Olympics" (6 July 2012). Natural selection. Dovetailing with the latt theme of "natural selection" (n = 83) comm athletic success derived from a selection p weaker genes from (2) a superior racial gen Slavery. Many journalists appealed to the the weaker genes so that a fast, "slave gene descendants of slaves, compared to the offsp instance, The Irish Daily Mail wrote, The theory speculates this gene has been concent ancestors journey from captivity in West Africa to conditions. Only the toughest survived. (4 July 20 Three days later, The Daily Telegraph [Aus of-factly that the reason black sprinters will dominate in London next month is because they are descendants of slaves. Winner of four Olympic and eight world athletics championship gold medals, [Michael] Johnson said descendants of slaves taken predominantly from west Africa possessed "a superior athletic gene" which enables them to excel at the sprints, hurdles and horizontal jumps in particular. . . . Whether there is a "slave gene" as Johnson infers has yet to be proven, but history supports the notion that there was an inadvertent culling process whereby only the strongest survived. (7 July 2012) African descent. The question of whether slavery resulted in a Spencerian "survival of the fittest" culling process hinged on the belief that Africans are or were somehow more connected to a physically primordial and robust species of homo sapiens (n = 43). Other racial groups' supposed biological proximity to "the African," then, was used to explain their fit for athleticism. Accordingly, the Weekend Australian wrote, "The body form of Aboriginal players is, for evolu tionary reasons, very close to that of West African peoples (most African Americans and Jamaicans are of West African ancestry) - the fastest runners in the world" (4 June 2011). This primordial fitness of African peoples was often connected to a variant of emotion or spiritual fortitude, in which African people and slaves were in posses sion of an "inner strength" lacking in other racial groups. For instance, the Sydney Morning Herald [Australia] maintained that the Caribbean island [Jamaica] was the final stop on the Middle Passage leg of the Atlantic slave trade and the West African men and women who came ashore had some sort of inner strength, for they survived outrageously high death rates, amoebic dysen tery, scurvy, smallpox, measles and other diseases that spread through the close-quarter compartments during the six-month voyages. (11 August 2012) This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING Science and FIELD? 199 political cor stated as "common-sensed" tific method. Journalists o than political correctness and insinuated that their app were (2) brave enough to w Taboo evidence. These new coverage of the genetic bas ship because of the topics dered connotations of raci Daily Mail [London] claime descendants of slaves from W in the Caribbean to slavery dati ... Such talk is controversial, ala propounded by Nazi scientists in of people deemed genetically in Less than faster 2012). than a week white later, rivals Accusations of racism. Journalists, opinion-editorial writers, and scientists interviewed for these stories often claimed that they were the victims of racist "witch-hunts" for simply stating the truth (n = 23). In this vein, the Sunday Express [England] wrote in a cheeky tone, Guess what? You can now say that black footballers are better than white players because they are. You could never say white players were superior to blacks because that would have been called racist and have implied notions of inferiority. . . . We can go further still. It is now acceptable to explain the athletic superiority of black athletes by pointing out that it is as a result of genetic differences. . . . They are only stating what we have always known but have not been allowed to say for fear of being accused of dealing in stereotypes or of being racist, prosecuted even. (5 January 2003) While the article claims that those appealing to objective science are now protected from labels of racism, the author took the debate further: Can we ask why the whites are usually better swimmers than blacks? Can we, moreover, articulate some other, less palatable truths: Can we acknowledge that black youths are responsible for the majority of gun and street crime and that it is they who ought there fore to be targeted without feeling the necessity to point out that the majority of burglars and conmen are white? All we want is the tmth. It is the only currency that holds its value and that is good for all time. (5 January 2003) As was typical of the claims of suffering under the onus of "anti-intellectual ism," the author then expanded the argument to other racial, genetically driven "truths." Accordingly, when biologically essentialist and racist claims were made, the common discursive tactic was to paint society as opposed to the truth, and the media messenger as the beleaguered prophet of true news. For example, in This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Th for 200 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY referencing Epsteins biologically essentialis Examiner [Ireland] wrote that the book "delv success, but references to the role of genetic lighting the fuse on accusations of racism. Epst for trouble" (6 May 2014), while the Wester that the discussion of the biological reality o would be marginalized because: "Quite simply not allow their core prejudices to be challeng trovertible" (10 March 2005). Racial outcomes are environmental The second most prominent frame (n = 72) of race as defined by environmental variab themes: First, racial differences in sports are d ences. Second, various types of resources to wh access are understood as providing the ability accounts pointed to national pride and hard lighted the exploitative elements within the ath groups to participate and excel in athletics. understood that genetic explanations did not discounted genetic evidence in favor of an en Natural environment. The first theme of n three discursive techniques to highlight sup play: (1) altitude, (2) diet, and (3) weather. Altitude. Explanations for black athletic attributed to altitude conditions under whic the Belfast Telegraph [Ireland] explained, On the environment issue a high proportion of th ing those in Belfast today, originate from the high a stretching north into Ethiopia where, training at 2capacity as an athlete's body must get used to the th with a significant advantage when competing at se Diet. Articles also called attention to the r within racialized athletic success (n = 30). Th discussing Jamaican dominance in sprinting [Canada] pointedly asked, Does Jamaican sprinting success lie in yams? Posin backyard in Sherwood Content, a small town in Tr at the sensation he caused when the world came calli to his son's brilliance. It is the yams: the Trelawny y ing blog posts, web chatter and rumours that the I investigating if the Jamaican staple of the poor man 2012) This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 201 In this example, yams are compared to illegal and illic Weather. Dovetailing with altitude training in athlet weather that racialized gro comes (n = 19). Summing up ment in understanding and Daily Dispatch [South Afric there are factors racial, that race, at work in fact, which does factors such as geography (Eas distance mnning), diet, weath 2010) Resources. Related to the last discursive strategy of uncovering environmental factors at work within athleticism, a number (n = 43) of newspaper articles pointed to the importance of resources as environmental variables. These resources include (1) training facilities, (2) access to performance enhancing drugs, and (3) excellence in coaching. Training facilities. The newspaper articles (n = 24) understood access to superior training facilities as an essential component of athletic success. Therefore, racial athletic performance stratification was explained by superior training regimes being more easily available to members of a racialized group over others. The New Zealand Herald made this argument, stating, Jamaica does an outstanding job of identifying promising sprinters and nurturing them. Tellingly, Usain Bolt and his teammates have not moved overseas for training, preferring to remain with their Jamaican coaching team. A recent documentary on Usain Bolt showed the quality of the Jamaicans' training regime and the excellence of their coaches. Explanations for success need to focus on social and organisational factors, such as train ing regimes and investment of resources, not only financial but also social and cultural. (8 August 2012) The heart of this argument lies in the organizational and structural compo nents to success, with articles suggesting that economic investment into facilities and training grounds has a direct bearing on athletic success. The New Times [Rwanda] makes this point rather bluntly: The economic rise of China seems to have directly correlated with her sporting upsurge. This dominance at the medals table is because of the investments these countries make in sport. If you don't build swimming pools, you will not have a Michael Phelps to har vest the swimming medals. . . . Investment is the surest winning way if the medal tally by China and the U.S. are anything to go by. (10 August 2012) Drugs/doping. Newspaper articles (n = 22) also suggested that performance enhancing drugs could be an obvious resource in athletic success, a resource that had been suspiciously left out of many conversations about racially stratified athletic performance. The Sunday Business Post [Ireland], discussing David This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 202 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY Epstein's book The Sports Gene, stated, What goes into the making of a truly world-cl crazed, hype-powered global sporting milieu? We tempted to reply along the lines of: drugs, drug or two, plus an unscrupulous coach, a few dozen h of good luck. That's why, impressive as David E you can't help feeling tbat there's a gaping hole a Coaching. Dovetailing with the importanc environmentally based racial athletic outc called attention to coaching. Describing w ming, The Sunday Times [England] point porary stratification: British swimming certainly recognises the need t supported grassroots initiatives. Jo Melchior, th sentative for Lewisham, says: "The statement tha For the ethnic minorities there has been a lack teachers and a lack of decision-makers in impo 2008) Pride and ethic. A number (n = 40) of newspaper articles pointed to the importance of pride and ethic as environmental variables. This category includes (1) national pride and reputation alongside (2) a hard work ethic. National reputation. A number of newspapers (n = 34) moved away from specific environmental components as explanations and pointed to the larger and more abstract idea of national reputation as an environmental cause for racial athletic success. For example, The Ottawa Citizen [Canada] stated, Visitors to the Jamaican Amateur Athletic Association website are greeted with a reggae song featuring the lyrics, "We've been running ever since we came here, many years ago. Now the whole world wanna know how we running so. They say there must be something in the air, down there in Jamaica, that Jamaicans run like the wind." Sprinting is to Jamaicans what hockey is to Canadians and what football is to Americans. (21 August 2008) In this explanation of athletic difference, national pride is seen as an essential motivating factor that is able to push some racialized athletes toward success. This assumption is shared by The New Times [Rwanda]: The moral support from the home crowd is definitely a decisive factor in the brilliant performance of the host countries. We saw it in China's Beijing performance; and we are seeing Britain post her best performance yet in London. Let the psychologists decipher the details but the motivation that comes with home ground advantage is enormous. (10 August 2012) Hard work. Although national pride was seen as important, some newspaper articles (n = 33) placed this feeling of national superiority into a narrative of hard work and perseverance that allows some athletes to excel. For example, The Pioneer [India] explained, This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 203 The 26-year-old policeman howe play a major part in the success country can attain required. "No, it is success if they nothing genet and train. That is November 2011) the only sec No genetic evidence. A num evidence and pointed general tors into account when tryin example, The Times [London Finding genetic variation between Small populations have distinct t their natural environments. Suc lump together all the diverse po tion? (11 August 2008) Similarly, The Sydney Morn Kathryn North, of the Institute at Westmead and the University o in the fast-twitch muscle gene a cent of European populations an form of this single "sprint gene ground and almost all Africans. Exploitation. Finally, newsp reasons that underlie athleti imposed on athletes. For exa "Whenever we talk of India's spo ber of boys who actually go on to boxing, it is even smaller than a participation in sports is volunt China. The boys are trained from similar system of training." (8 O Race is a social construct The final frame (n = 51) esc tions for differences in rac social construct. Yet the soc edged and understood by som Race is imaginary, but soci articles (n = 24) utilized a soc social consequences that unde cles came closest to a sociolo This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 204 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY they embodied the "Thomas theorem": "If real in their consequences" (Thomas and T The Herald [Scotland] penned that results of ongoing research could revolutionise absolutely confounds the notion that African en have genetic advantage. It suggests environm these regions can be used by Caucasians who hav 2009) In this overview, the scientific accounts were highlighted to emphasize that Welsh (and white) associations with rugby propel that country (and other "rugby nations") to succeed, alongside African endurance runners and Jamaican sprint ers. Put another way, the San Jose Mercury News [U.S.] wrote, "I remain con vinced that most good white athletes are conditioned to believe at an early age they'll have a much better chance of becoming a pro football or pro baseball player, or going far in golf or tennis, than of rising to NBA stardom. As the movie title said, 'White Men Can't Jump'" (11 June 2004). Race is imaginary. A second subset of articles (n = 8) denied the prevalent biological and environmental explanations outlined in the previous two frames. These articles did more than just supply alternative explanations to genetic dif ferences; they also challenged popular and taken-for-granted notions of race and racial identity. The New Straits Tunes [Malaysia] explained, We simply cannot go around saying that any race is destined by God or nature to be violent, lazy or backward, no matter what the evidence says. We must believe that eve ryone has the ability to be peaceful, to be workaholics and to advance in life. . . . Race is thus a constructed social and political reality. (10 March 2003) Similarly, The Australian stated, When we say "blacks" are better at sprinting, we are indulging in an unstated generalisa tion. "Black" is a term that contains all sorts of variety. To watch a tiny subset of dark skinned people succeed in a particular event and to infer that this superiority is shared by all dark-skinned people is to go beyond the available evidence. Even if we were to redefine sprinting supremacy as a West African trait, we will still confront obvious prob lems. Not a single sprinting medal has been won at the Olympic Games or the world championships by Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Niger, Benin, Mali, Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Gabon, Senegal, Congo and Angola. Yet these are all West African states. . . . What is certain is that the very notion of "black" athletic superiority is deeply misguided. (10 August 2012) Discussion and Conclusion We demonstrate how mainstream media narratives construct and reinforce var ied understandings of race, racial essentialism, genomics, and racialist, if not This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 205 racist, understandings study is limited by of a t rel research could reveal how, tives about race and sport a grounds. Also, future exam the search terms and news Moreover, the we did discussion not of take race ot tow include terminological and nicity, race, and nation; us both fears ciplinary tinue of sporting fields along this event such line as of ep inqui The aforementioned limit vide a unique space for rac "color-blind," and supposed these global media account dominated the discussion. newspapers for instances o drastically add frequency t ing of the newspapers fou "Lexis Nexis News," and "N hailing from England and half (55.14 percent) of the discussion stemmed from (n = 25), and Australia (n = Newspapers of the Unit Australia clearly dominat Table 6). However, many o of racial outcomes ter. Many as homage the as envir of the U.S.- and to being "fair an interplay of genetic dive cultural pride are reduced equal attention to appear e Additionally, media covera set up the "racial outcomes struct" frame, which illum normism" phenomenon in against one another (every does-not-exist-genetically) status quo—which for mos ture" (recall Tables and Fig In terms of the qualitative nate amount of mainstream frames (14.5 percent in com This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 206 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY TABLE 5 National Origin Newspaper Article Frequency Country n 85 USA England 76 South Africa 28 Canada 25 Australia 24 Ireland 16 Scotland 14 India 5 New Zealand 5 China 3 Malaysia 3 Japan 2 Cayman Islands 1 Kenya 1 Nigeria 1 Pakistan 1 Rwanda 1 1 Singapore Total 292 that racially unequal sporting outcomes are biologically derived. The claim that races exist biologically is based mainly on genetic sampling of geographically distant populations. This technique demonstrates genomic clustering into spe cific groups by gene variants known as alleles. If we sample geographically distant parts of a continuum and ignore areas between the samples, we will find only the alleles in the groups for which we searched—which is more of an artifact of the groups we construct in our methodological technique than proof of the existence of discrete racial groups. When this mistake is coupled with outmoded beliefs and assumptions about natural selection and the primordial construction of "African" bodies, it promotes a seductive and easy explanation for contemporary black success in sports, such as sprinting, or even Dutch-descended Afrikaners' domination of rugby in South Africa. With these assumptions, the causal mecha nism of such racial difference is hidden away in the genes. Protection of this narrative then is evidenced in a media tone whereby journalists are the defenders of inconvenient, scientific truths against a cabal of Left-leaning academics who obfuscate reality with their political and ideological desires for the social con struction of race. Unfortunately, the aforementioned media themes that con struct race as biological are either ignorant of the actual data and diversity of research, or engage in willful avoidance. This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? 207 TABLE 6 Frame Coding Frequency by National Origin Newspaper Racial Racial Outcomes Are Biological Race Is a Social Outcomes Are n USA 54 England 63 Environmental Construct n n USA 33 USA 21 England 19 England 10 South Africa 19 South Africa 6 South Africa 3 Canada 17 Canada 2 Canada 3 Australia 20 Australia 2 Australia 4 Ireland 8 Ireland 2 Ireland 4 Scotland 9 Scotland 2 Scotland 5 India 2 India 1 India New Zealand 2 New Zealand 1 New Zealand China 2 China Malaysia 2 Malaysia Japan 1 Japan Cayman Islands 1 Cayman Islands 1 Nigeria Pakistan Kenya Pakistan 1 Pakistan 1 Rwanda 1 Rwanda Singapore 1 Singapore 203 Japan Cayman Islands Nigeria Nigeria Rwanda Total Malaysia 1 1 Kenya Kenya China Singapore 72 The second frame showcases the positioning of mainstream media accounts away from biological explanations for racially stratified athletic outcomes. As biological accounts for athletic difference have failed to be supported by evi dence, particularly in the post-human genome era, environmental factors have become supported as the new deterministic answer—the articles that rail against the genetic explanations for sporting differences certainly evidence this shift. Within these environmental explanations, however, the mechanisms of race are recoded as cultural traits. Regrettably, the aforementioned media themes that construct racial differences as environmental in nature often failed to recognize either the social underpinnings of the environment or the social construction of race itself. Accordingly, this absence enabled an overreach of the environmental explanation for racialized sporting outcomes, which often recreated and reified "race" as either a biologically or culturally essentialist group. The final frame utilizes a social constructionist understanding to interrogate biological and environmental explanations for racial sporting success. While this frame was most in line with both sociological and biological evidence, it was by far in the minority in that the frame appeared in only fifty-one articles, and often appeared in only a line or two that offered up as a counterpoint to race as a This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:47:41 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1 51 208 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY biologically extant category whose genetic t and failure. These findings indicate that we cannot isola "race" concept as only an issue of nonwhite of "black brawn and white brains" indicates posedly high-functioning white cognitive abi would only invite and enable more symbolic we rationalize and reproduce inequality in a Notes 1. The title borrows from Herbert Spencers phrase "surviv 2. It is important to note that after Johnson lost the heav 1915, another black boxer was not allowed to fight for the t 3. Jimmy "The Greek" Synder's comments received acc ologies across the spectrum. For example, on the San Fr Talking on January 15, 1988, Huey P. Newton (cofounder o "reeling on the comments of Jimmy the Greek last Friday," I thought the comments were pretty accurate. I think th reproductive survival success, you have to reproduce in or four hundred years of slavery, given the worst food, the would select out the weaker gene lines. And that's why we just about every area we are given an opportunity to part 4. Scholars estimate a range of 350 to 600 slaves per ship, r Americas, thus ranging from 25,000 to over 42,000 voyag among all demographic categories, young adults experienc males died at about twice the rate of females (Graves 200 behavior, of both slaves and slaveholders (rather than the of slaves), is a much better explanation for morality rates. 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