A Different World: A BlackCrit Reconceptualization of Historically Black Colleges and Universities Athletics

Abstract

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have made notable social, cultural, and economic contributions to the African Diaspora, particularly since their inception in the United States. Being that HBCU athletic programs account for a small proportion of the intercollegiate athletic industry, these unique entities are often examined in the same vein as their Historically White Institution counterparts without a full account of the intergenerational adverse impacts of systemic racism. Since HBCUs are situated within the distinct context of Blackness, the researchers offer a reconceptualization through the theoretical lens of Black Critical Theory. This manuscript illuminates linkages across extant literature, while also presenting a budding theoretical framework in the study of sport, and sport organizations, that have deeply embedded relationships with communities, for example, HBCUs and the Black community, stickball and lacrosse within Indigenous communities, and the relationship between women and womens’ sports leagues. Implications of this work are centered on promoting more critical reconceptualizations of sporting spaces that reflect the full diversity of the societies in which they exist.

The Switch Up: BlackCrit, The Heritage, and the Wave of Athletic Racial Capitalism

“…When considering the juxtaposition of sport and entertainment (especially during this period). As Foster et al (2023) note,. .…”

“…Contemporary sport scholars have largely utilized critical race theory (CRT) for analyses related to the interrogation of Black athletes and ongoing battles for equality, equity, and legitimacy (see Edwards, 2017;B. J. Hawkins et al, 2016;Oshiro et al, 2021;Rhoden, 2006;Singer, 2005), but few (see Foster et al, 2023;Howe, 2023) have extended the analysis using Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit) as the method of analysis in relation to athletes. Although this hyper-reliance on CRT can be explained in a myriad of ways, there still exists a need to understand the experiences of Black athletes from the standpoint of the Black body-as opposed to the structures and systems that have been created to "control" the Black body.…”

“…(p. 3) League, franchise, and corporation owners have continually maintained power over Black athletes, impacting their presentations of self in regard to attire (see Jackson, 2022), media expositions (see Sciullo, 2015), and even activism (see Zirin, 2021). Coles and Powell (2020) have also noted the endemic nature of anti-Blackness contributed to organizational and structural unfairness wherein the structure itself does not allow for the full humanism of Black athletes as people (Foster et al, 2023). Athletes of the "racial capitalism wave" appeared to operate within the sociopolitical landscape of their time and as such, "allowed" the perception of freedom to impact their viewpoints on social activism because to be Black came with negative connotations and they now had the opportunity to (ideologically) live outside of that.…”

“…Although this hyper-reliance on CRT can be explained in a myriad of ways, there still exists a need to understand the experiences of Black athletes from the standpoint of the Black body—as opposed to the structures and systems that have been created to “control” the Black body. Although CRT has proven to be a useful framework to explain the racial undertones and dispositions related to law and policy, the usage of BlackCrit as a member of the family of critical theories that emerged from CRT allows for a more directed analysis centered around anti-Blackness as a whole (Foster et al, 2023). As Dumas and Ross (2016) note, BlackCrit becomes necessary precisely because CRT, as a general theory of racism, is limited in its ability to adequately interrogate what we call the “specificity of the Black.” That is, CRT is not intended to pointedly address how anti-Blackness—which is something different than White supremacy—informs and facilitates racist ideology and institutional practice.…”

“…Like CRT, BlackCrit does not include a specific fixedness to “tenets.” Instead, BlackCrit scholars work to leave space for expansion, scholarship, and collective deliberation (Dumas & Ross, 2016). In the theorization of BlackCrit , Dumas and Ross (2016) outline three framing ideas (instead of tenets) (Howe, 2023) that include (a) anti-Blackness is endemic and central to the creation of social, political, cultural, and economic spheres; (b) Blackness exists in tension with the neoliberal-multicultural imagination; and (c) create space for Black liberatory fantasy and resist a revisionist history that supports White Supremacy and dominance (Dummas & Ross, 2016; Foster et al, 2023).…”