Playing with Lynching: Fandom Violence and the Black Athletic Body

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-183
Author(s):  
Poe Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Fan Studies ◽  
Black Athletes ◽  
Common Occurrence ◽  
White Supremacist ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
Parallel Development ◽  
Sports Fandom ◽  
Shared History ◽  
Jack Johnson ◽  
The Relationship

This article traces the parallel development of lynching culture and the fandom surrounding the black athletic body. While only recently have fan studies scholars started to theorize the relationship between racism, sports, and fandom activity, their shared history goes back to at least Jack Johnson, the first black boxer to win the heavyweight championship. From this first encounter with the black athletic body, sports fans with white supremacist leanings have employed lynching iconography and rhetoric to discipline athletes who challenged the general perception of how a public black figure out to behave. I argue that not only is racialized fan violence directed toward black athletes a common occurrence, but that the logics of lynching culture are deeply and perhaps irrevocably intertwined with those of sports fandom writ large.

Exploring the Relationship Between Sports Fandom and the Black Criminal Stereotype

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren C. Anderson ◽  
Arthur A. Raney
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Black Athletes ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Race And Crime ◽  
Sports Fandom ◽  
The Relationship

In news media, one stereotype that has continually been perpetuated is the overrepresentation of Blacks as criminals, leading to what many refer to as “the Black criminal stereotype.” Although research suggests that distorted portrayals of criminals in news affect social reality judgments regarding race and crime and provoke stereotypical responses in viewers, limited evidence exists that connects these effects to sport media. However, recent instances involving issues related to race and crime in sport have prompted us to consider the prevalence of a Black criminal stereotype among sport fans. With increased media attention given to off-field transgressions—particularly, violent ones perpetuated by high-profile Black athletes—we are left wondering how such attention may influence fans’ attitudes and beliefs. We explored these issues in an experimental study ( n = 234). Our findings not only revealed evidence of a Black criminal stereotype among sports fans but also that sports fans differ from nonfans in basic attitudes and beliefs about crime and violence in sport. More specifically, the more a participant claimed to be a fan of sports and (more so) combative sports, the more she or he viewed an athlete charged with domestic abuse in a favorable light.

Destabilization, adaptation and the long-term fan object: The search for continuity in later-life sports fandom

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Andrew Smith
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Process ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Body ◽  
Fan Studies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
The Third ◽  
Sports Fandom

Whilst there is a growing literature in fan studies on the ageing fan, there is a distinct lack of engagement with the body of work already established within the ‘ageing sciences’, such as gerontology. This article begins to address such issues by applying the gerontological notion of continuity theory to the study of later-life, long-term sports fandom. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 35 retired or semi-retired sports fans, all of whom are in the third and fourth ‘life ages’, this article argues for a theory of fan continuity whereby the fan adapts their relationship to the fan object in response to various challenges to their fandom. These challenges to the fannish status quo are destabilizations, which, upon an adaptation on behalf of the fan and ultimate re-stabilization of the fandom, result in an outcome which can be assessed on a positive‐negative experiential continuum. This is a continuous process as the later-life adult looks for consistency of self, and continuity in fandom.

scholarly journals Batting Outside the Field

2022 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
Perceived Knowledge ◽  
Sports Fandom ◽  
Premier League ◽  
Cognitive Awareness ◽  
Social Media Engagement ◽  
Digital Engagement ◽  
The Relationship

This study examines the relationship between cognitive awareness and perceived knowledge of sports fans’ social media engagement behaviors. Data were collected through an online survey of 236 adults from India who identified as Indian Premier League (IPL) fans. The findings of the study suggest that perceived knowledge and cognitive awareness of sports are precursors to social media engagement behaviors of sports fans. Further, sports fandom mediates links between perceived knowledge and cognitive awareness with social media engagement. The findings hold special significance for contemporary COVID scenarios because physical engagement is being substituted by digital engagement.

A Shared History of Successes and Excesses

2019 ◽  
pp. 39-75
Author(s):  
Damien Van Puyvelde
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intelligence Community ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Shared History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Large Period ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter provides an in-depth account of the relationship between the U.S. intelligence apparatus and its private outriders, from the earliest days of the Republic to the end of the Cold War. Covering such a large period sheds light on the deep roots, the broad evolution, and the multiple opportunities and risks accompanying intelligence outsourcing. In the United States, the legitimacy of the federal government has always been entwined with the private sector and this is related to the values underpinning American political culture. As a result, the private intelligence industry continued to thrive, deepen and diversify its involvement in national security affairs when the federal government established itself more firmly in this realm. The institutionalization of intelligence in the twentieth century was accompanied by the diversification and formalisation of the ties between the intelligence community and its contractors. Contractors and their government sponsors share the responsibility for some of the greatest achievements and controversies in U.S. intelligence history, from the success of the U2 spy plane to the excesses of Project MKUltra. The history of U.S. intelligence is characterized by successive movements of expansion and regulation through which outsourcing and accountability have become increasingly intertwined.

Sport Fan Consumption

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Michele Johnson ◽  
Wen-Hao Winston Chou ◽  
Brandon Mastromartino ◽  
James Jianhui Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
Sports Teams ◽  
Developmental Trends ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
Sports Fandom ◽  
Sport Fan ◽  
Or Team

Sports fans are individuals who are interested in and follow one or more sports, teams, and/or athletes. These fans reinforce their identity as a fan by engaging in supportive and repetitive consumption behaviors that relate to the sport or team they are so passionate about. This chapter will provide an overview of the history and cultural heritage of sports fandom, discuss the significance and functions of fandom, underline what motivates individuals to consume sports, examine the consequences and results of fandom, and highlight contemporary research and developmental trends. This chapter would allow for a good understanding of where research on sports fandom is headed and the important issues affecting sports fans.

Supremacy and the Origins of American Slavery

2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 754-758
Author(s):  
Michael Guasco
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Atlantic World ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
Connective Tissues ◽  
White Supremacist ◽  
American Slavery ◽  
Protestant Christianity ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

Katharine Gerbner has provided readers a much-needed treatment of the relationship between Protestant Christianity and the emergence of White Supremacist racial ideology in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Scholars have long perceived the general outlines of the story that unfolds in Gerbner's book, but no one has highlighted the connective tissues with as much care and detail. With her book, it is now much easier to see what we once could only imagine to be there: Christians (Protestants in this telling) played a singular role in the articulation of a racial ideology that would eventually become a widespread rationale for slavery throughout much of the Atlantic world. There are surprises in this tale, such as the seemingly paradoxical role played by historical actors who scholars often credit with being on the right side of history—the Quakers and Moravians, for example, who are typically cast as characters intent on destabilizing slavery. Not so, according to Gerbner. In this way, she does marvelously well to show how Protestant Christianity was never really above the fray and that those we might like to imagine were the progenitors of an eventual antislavery critique were also critical conduits in the development of modern-day racism.

Introduction: The Reactionary in the Fan and the Fan in the Reactionary

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mel Stanfill
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Fan Studies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Relationship

This special issue explores the intersection of reactionary politics and fandom. Fandom has traditionally been thought of as progressive, but this has been limited and limiting. Moreover, considerations of the relationship between politics and fandom have especially focused on democratization and new media–enabled participation. However, it is important to expand our understanding to other aspects of politicization. This introduction situates the issue in relation to foundations of fan studies, examinations of political fandom and fannish politics, and growing recognition of inequality and conflict in fandom. These considerations are important in an era in which fandoms have increasingly overtly embraced reactionary politics and reactionary politics has increasingly taken fannish forms. It is this intersection of the reactionary and the fannish that this special issue seeks to unravel.

“It Will Ruin His Career”: Does Violence Against Women Really Damage the Careers of NBA Players?

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052090919
Author(s):  
Daniel Sailofsky ◽  
Eran Shor
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
National Basketball Association ◽  
Professional Sport ◽  
Professional Athletes ◽  
Common Occurrence ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
Career Longevity ◽  
Annual Salary ◽  
Significant Difference

Arrests for acts of violence against women are a common occurrence for professional athletes, including National Basketball Association (NBA) players. Many sports fans, players, and those involved in professional sport believe that arrests for acts of violence against women, whether they result in a conviction or not, are highly detrimental to an athlete’s career. We matched all 30 NBA players arrested for acts of violence against women between 2000 and 2016 with similar players who were not arrested and examined the effects of the arrest on postarrest average annual salary and career longevity. We found no significant difference between arrested players’ careers and the careers of nonarrested counterparts. From a social learning perspective, this lack of punishment or loss of reward could be an important factor in continued acts of violence against women among NBA athletes.

Sexual Assault Disclosure Recipients’ Experiences: Emotional Distress and Changes in the Relationship With the Victim

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Milliken ◽  
Lisa A. Paul ◽  
Sapir Sasson ◽  
Abigail Porter ◽  
Jemi Hasulube
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Common Occurrence ◽  
Formal Support ◽  
Assault Victims ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Psychoeducational Interventions

Sexual assault victims are more likely to disclose their experience to friends and family than formal support sources (e.g., police, counselors). As such, disclosure receipt is a relatively common occurrence, but little is known about the recipients’ disclosure experience. This study examined predictors of recipient emotional distress and positive and negative changes in the victim–recipient relationship postdisclosure among 69 female undergraduates at 3 universities. Predictors of distress included greater self-rated closeness to the victim and greater confusion about how to help. Positive changes were predicted by greater closeness and less responsibility attributed to the victim, and negative changes were predicted by less closeness, greater assigned responsibility, and greater perceived ineffectiveness of one’s help. Implications for improving the disclosure experience via psychoeducational interventions are presented.

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