Jacco van Sterkenburg

Dominant Discourses about Race/Ethnicity and Gender in Sport Practice and Performance

Although it is generally assumed that the (sport) media play an important role in the meanings readers/viewers give to gender and race/ethnicity, relatively little is known about the way ‘the public’ deals with hegemonic (media) representations about race/ethnicity and gender. The purpose of the present study is to describe the dominant discourses concerning race/ethnicity and gender and sport performance used by white and black Dutch students. We explore the extent to which their discourses overlap with each other and with dominant media discourses. The results are placed and discussed in a broader societal context.

Race, ethnicity, and content analysis of the sports media: a critical reflection

Opinions about and attitudes towards the constructs of race and ethnicity in contemporary Western society are not only influenced by institutions such as those of academic institutions, politics, education, family or paid labour, but also by the media. Popular forms of media culture, varying from news broadcasts and talk shows to soap operas and music videos, can be highly influential in structuring ideas about race and ethnicity. Entman contended that the media ‘call attention to some aspects of reality while obscuring other elements’ (1993: 55). The media create dominant interpretations of reality that appeal to a desired or anticipated audience. According to Hall (1995, 1997), the media are not only a powerful source of dominant ideas about race and ethnicity, but should also be considered as sites of constantly shifting meanings and struggles over meaning. This is evident in the way that the media on the one hand celebrate successful African-Americans like Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan, while also confirming and reinforcing racist stereotypes. According to Jessica Rhodes, a scholar in ethnic studies and mass communication, racist stereotypes have been embedded in the US mass media since the 18th century, whether it be ‘the benign and happy slave figure’, ‘the black brute who rapes white women’ or the ‘promiscuous black woman’ (1995: 36–7). This stereotypical and one-dimensional framing of

Sport as a contested racial/ethnic discourse: Processes of racialization in Dutch sport media and sport policy

Abstract In this article, we draw on key concepts from cultural studies, post-colonialism, whiteness theory, and sport media studies to search for and discuss shared processes of racialization/ethnization in three sport-related cultural practices – soccer commentary, sport media viewing, and sport policy making. Our analysis reveals how discourses surrounding race/ethnicity in Dutch society are reflected in these sport-related cultural practices and how these sport-related cultural practices can reinforce but also challenge societal discourses surrounding race/ethnicity. We discuss the main, overlapping findings from the three case studies and attend to the operation of whiteness, color blind racism, and the use of so-called ‘sincere fictions’ by White sport media professionals and policy makers. We conclude by offering some suggestions to sport policy makers and sport media professionals for alternative, more inclusive ways of dealing with race/ethnicity.

Constructing Racial/Ethnic Difference in and Through Dutch Televised Soccer Commentary:

The purpose of this study was to expand on current research about ways in which race and ethnicity are socially constructed through popular media culture. In this article we explore to what extent broadcast commentary of televised soccer in the Netherlands reproduces and challenges hegemonic discourses about race/ethnicity and is congruent with findings of similar research in other contexts. We used a layered approach toward race/ethnicity instead of the frequently used Black/White dichotomy in research on sports commentary. Our findings suggest that current Dutch soccer commentary displays a number of dominant racialized/ethnicized themes that at times resonate with colonial discourses, are in part congruent with racialized/ethnicized sport media representations found in other contexts and also challenge popular Dutch discourses about ethnicity. We place these findings in a broader historical and internationally comparative perspective.

National bonding and meanings given to race and ethnicity: watching the football World Cup on Dutch TV

In this article, the author examines how the FIFA World Cup broadcast on Dutch television informs its viewers around understandings of race/ethnicity and nation. International sport contests may provide a sense of national belonging that overrides other markers of difference such as ‘race’, ethnicity or gender. As such, the football World Cup can be considered a tool for constructing a collective national identity among viewers of various racial or ethnic origins. The project provides a unique opportunity to explore this further. One of the aims is to explore if and how race and ethnicity as markers of difference may be overridden by feelings of connectivity with the Dutch national team and to what extent this differs for various ethnic audience groups. A total of 36 persons, 12 European-Dutch, 13 Surinamese-Dutch and 11 Moroccan-Dutch, were interviewed. Findings from the study suggest that various ethnic audiences experience a feeling of national bonding but at the same time engage in everyday processes of racialization/ethization. These results will be situated in an international comparative perspective during the substantive element of this article.In this article, the author examines how the FIFA World Cup broadcast on Dutch television informs its viewers around understandings of race/ethnicity and nation. International sport contests may provide a sense of national belonging that overrides other markers of difference such as ‘race’, ethnicity or gender. As such, the football World Cup can be considered a tool for constructing a collective national identity among viewers of various racial or ethnic origins. The project provides a unique opportunity to explore this further. One of the aims is to explore if and how race and ethnicity as markers of difference may be overridden by feelings of connectivity with the Dutch national team and to what extent this differs for various ethnic audience groups. A total of 36 persons, 12 European-Dutch, 13 Surinamese-Dutch and 11 Moroccan-Dutch, were interviewed. Findings from the study suggest that various ethnic audiences experience a feeling of national bonding but at the same time engage in everyday processes ...

The under-representation and experiences of elite level minority coaches in professional football in England, France and the Netherlands

This article will examine the previously under-researched area of the under-representation and experiences of elite level minority (male) coaches in (men’s) professional football in Western Europe. More specifically, the article will draw on original interview data with 40 elite level minority coaches in England, France and the Netherlands and identify a series of key constraining factors which have limited the potential for and realization of opportunities for career progression across the transition from playing to coaching in the professional game. In doing so, the article will focus on three main themes identified by interviewees as the most prescient in explaining the ongoing under-representation of minority coaches in the sport: their limited access to and negative experiences of the high level coach education environment; the continued existence of racisms and stereotypes in the professional coaching workplace; and the over-reliance of professional clubs on networks rather than qualifications-based frameworks for coach recruitment. Finally, the article will contextualize these findings from within a critical race theory perspective and will draw clear linkages between patterns of minority coach under-representation, the enactment of processes and practices of institutional racism, and the underlying normative power of hegemonic Whiteness in the sport.

Race/ethnicity, sport and the research/policy relationship. The Dutch context.

Orange fever pushes aside the public debate about integration and finally creates one nation. If one puts an Iraqi, a Moroccan, an Italian and a German together in the same small room to watch football, and if one adds a few lines of the national anthem, some orange decorations and four goals, the result is integration in optima forma. (cited in Hilkens, 2008, p. 2) This quotation comes from an article in the popular free Dutch Newspaper De Pers [The Press] during the European football championships, 2008. The article headed ‘Allez Orange: Und jetzt sind wir alle Hollander’. The heading as well as the text of the article refers to the 4–1 win of the Dutch football team over the French team during Euro 2008. The anthem in the quotation refers to the Dutch national anthem with ‘orange’ being the colour and the symbol of the Dutch nation and Dutch national sport teams. The quotation obviously draws on the idea that Dutch inhabitants, whether they are Dutch, Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese, French or German, all feel one people during Euro 2008 in their support of and affection for the Dutch national team (‘Orange fever’). The quotation, in other words, presents the Dutch men’s football team as a demonstrable proof of the power of sport to unite and reflects the widespread belief in the Netherlands in the integrative function of sport.This quotation comes from an article in the popular free Dutch Newspaper De Pers [The Press] during the European football championships, 2008. The article headed ‘Allez Orange: Und jetzt sind wir alle Holländer’. The heading as well as the text of the article refers to the 4–1 win of the Dutch football team over the French team during Euro 2008. The anthem in the quotation refers to the Dutch national anthem with ‘orange’ being the colour and the symbol of the Dutch nation and Dutch national sport teams. The quotation obviously draws on the idea that Dutch inhabitants, whether they are Dutch, Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese, French or German, all feel one people during Euro 2008 in their support of and affection for the Dutch national team (‘Orange fever’). The quotation, in other words, presents the Dutch men’s football team as a demonstrable proof of the power of sport to unite and reflects the widespread belief in the Netherlands in the integrative function of sport. Especially, Dutch politicians and the mainstream media support such a positive perspective towards sport and its function for racial and ethnic relations. This sport-as-a-progressive-racial/ethnic-force as Hartmann (2000) coined this positive perspective towards sport, emphasizes that sport helps to promote mutual respect and tolerance among racial/ethnic communities. Within this popular ideology, sport is seen as a place of racial harmony and progress. Despite the good intentions (and sometimes political opportunism) of this sportas-a-positive-force ideology, scholars are usually more ambiguous in their assessment of whether sport exclusively contributes to a fundamental and lasting improvement of interethnic relations in Dutch society. They argue that sport does not, despite political or popular rhetoric that argues otherwise, automatically enhance interethnic relations. The fact that projects springing from this sport-as-a-progressive-racial/ethnic-force ideology usually have not been evaluated over the long term and generally lack the empirical support that one might expect, leaves many questions with regard to the alleged and ‘self-evident’ beneficial consequences of sport for racial/ethnic

Making sense of race/ethnicity and gender in televised football: reception research among British students*

Abstract Most people today watch football by way of the mass media, sites that reproduce and transform ideologies and ideas surrounding racial/ethnic and gender identity. However, still little remains known as to what extent actual football viewers take up or resist these ideas. Drawing on a cultural studies perspective, this study tries to identify the dominant discourses that British television viewers use to assign meaning to race/ethnicity and gender in men’s and women’s football on television. Eleven focus groups of British students (n = 44) were utilized to explore these discourses. Our findings indicate that viewers from various ethnic backgrounds were largely compliant with the hegemonic media discourses about natural physicality in both gender and race/ethnic comparisons. At the same time, multiple negotiated/oppositional discourses were found in relation to women’s football that showed how other social practices contributed to such readings. Limitations and possible areas for future research are discussed.

Respect: Ethnic bonding and distinction in team sports careers

Abstract This paper explores choices and (non)identifications related to race/ethnicity in team sport careers. Two elite sport careers – that of a white basketball player and a black football player – are analysed from a biographical perspective and compared to sport biographies and (changing identifications) of other team sport athletes with varying social backgrounds. We look at personal interpretations and ethnic subtexts in their (sport) socialization, life course and sports biographies. Athletes show multiple, interrelated social identifications that may change throughout their (sporting) biographies, under the influence of factors like performance, approval/trust, team constitution and life stages. Competitive (professional) team sport is a social practice where both ethnic majority and minority members search for respect and approval, and team performance can lead to (temporary) bridging of ethnic differences. It remains questionable whether competitive team sport can contribute to a fundamental reduction of existing racial/ethnic and other social inequalities in society.

Confronting ‘race’ and policy: conceptualization of race/ethnicity in research

CONTEXT This section of the journal encourages discussion between several authors on a policy related topic. The same question may, therefore, be addressed from different theoretical, cultural or spatial perspectives. Dialogues may be applied or highly abstract. This Dialogue starts with Hylton and Longs original paper doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2015.1115950 and ends with Jacco van Sterkenburgs reflections below, prompted by the observations of fellow contributors.