Devon R. Goss

A Level Playing Field? Media Constructions of Athletics, Genetics, and Race

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 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 sociological 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 discourse of “black brawn vs. white brains.” We demonstrate how such a thesis is empirically untenable. Through an examination of English-language newspaper articles (N = 292) published in the decade immediately following the completion of human genome mapping (2003–2014), we examine contemporary media discourse surrounding athletics, genetics, and race. We demonstrate how mainstream media narratives construct and reinforce racial essentialism and provide a unique space for racist discourse in an age dominated by “postracial” and “color-blind” dialogue.

Du Bois and Weber: a scholarly relationship denied?

As established in Morris’ book, The Scholar Denied (2015) Du Bois’ influence and contributions have often been ignored within mainstream sociology. When not completely snubbed, historiography has o...

“People’s Heads Do Not Even Go There”: Public Perceptions to Transracial Familial Intimacy

ABSTRACT U.S. culture uses phenotypical resemblance as the primary way that family ties are legitimized and authenticated. Transracial adoption challenges this type of kinship authentication because of the lack of resemblance among family members. This article explores how transracial family members experience and perceive interactions and conversations regarding family acknowledgment, belonging, and resemblance. This study finds that transracial family members must contend with being both hypervisible and incomprehensible as a family formation due to normative assumptions of which family members “belong” together. Transracial family members use specific strategies to challenge and reinforce these assumptions. To examine this phenomenon, 30 in-depth, life-story interviews with transracial family members are employed.

Exploring the mechanisms of racialization beyond the black–white binary

ABSTRACT Racialization plays a central role in the creation and reproduction of racial meanings, and its inclusion enriches the study of race and ethnicity. While the popularity of the term continues to skyrocket, defining precisely what is meant by racialization can be a daunting task, let alone identifying how, when, where, why, and under what conditions it operates. However, it is essential to recognize the processes of racialization in order to develop a more complete understanding of racial practices, particularly within these increasingly turbulent racial times.

“You’re Either One of Us or You’re Not”: Racial Hierarchy and Non-Black Members of Black Greek-Letter Organizations

Colleges and universities across the United States tout the importance of racial diversity, yet highly public racialized incidents persist. Historically, Black Greek-letter organizations (BGLOs) were created in the early twentieth century in response to the racism Black students experienced on college campuses. While previous literature provides evidence for the positive effects of BGLOs for Black members, less is known about if and how these effects of BGLO membership extend to non-Black members. Drawing on 34 in-depth interviews with non-Black members of BGLOs, we seek answers to three yet unasked questions: First, why do non-Blacks come to identify with BGLOs? Second, what are the responses and reactions to this identification process and experience? And finally, how does this identification relate to larger shifts in the United States’s racial hierarchy? We find that campus racial climate acts as a catalyst for BGLO membership and that BGLOs continue to serve their purpose as a necessary counter-space but that also, non-Blacks come to identify with these organizations in order to develop meaningful interracial solidarity and oppose their hostile campus climates.

All men free and brethren: essays on the history of African American freemasonry

connection between historical racism and the current status of people of colour in the USA; white racism is pathologized and blamed on a small group of people, while the Civil Rights Movement is framed as an angry and inappropriate social movement worthy of critique and a modern white backlash. In chapter 5, Foster analyzes the contractions of WRD when defending white supremacy. Importantly, WRD conflates ‘racism’ with any mention of race, while eliminating the possibility of addressing racial inequities. Accordingly, Foster found that respondents’ allegiance to WRD disallowed their ability to recognize white supremacy while ironically protecting white supremacists-coded racetalk. In the last section, Foster focuses on the moments when his respondents moved away from the dominant forms of WRD and other ‘colour-blind’ rhetoric. Occasionally, respondents had epiphanies and recognitions of how racial inequality is discursively hidden. Especially when discussing their own personal experiences in terms of unearned privileges, respondents were able to, albeit briefly, recognize racial inequality and grasp a few of the mechanisms that reproduce it. Foster argues that these instances could be a glimmer of hope for the future of race relations. In sum, White Race Discourse illumines the inner workings of WRD, such as rules of avoidance, conversation terminators, semantic moves and bailouts. While the book paints a stark and gloomy picture of the future of race relations, Foster argues that ‘the odds are high that WRD will remain with us for some time, though it simply cannot last forever, given the inability to turn the tide against the more globalized and racially diverse society in which we live’ (183).