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"Playing While White argues that whiteness matters in sports culture, both on and off the field. Offering critical analysis of athletic stars such as Johnny Manziel, Marshall Henderson, Jordan Spieth, Lance Armstrong, Josh Hamilton, as well as the predominantly white cultures of NASCAR and extreme sports, David Leonard identifies how whiteness is central to the commodification of athletes and the sports they play. Leonard demonstrates that sporting cultures are a key site in the trafficking of racial ideas, narratives, and ideologies. He identifies how white athletes are frequently characterized as intelligent leaders who are presumed innocent of the kinds of transgressions black athletes are often pathologized for. With an analysis of the racial dynamics of sports traditions as varied as football, cycling, hockey, baseball, tennis, snowboarding and soccer, as well the reception and media portrayals of specific white athletes, Leonard examines how and why whiteness matters within sports and what that tells us about race in the twenty-first century United States" --

This essay examines the representation and consumption of Mafia III and Watch Dogs 2 as a site of catharsis, pleasure, and empowerment. Through not only its representation of white supremacy but its rendering of intervention and transformation as violence, Mafia III and Watch Dogs 2 offer a powerful inscription of gratification. In other words, offering both a space of oppositional gaze and a virtual reality invested in challenging gaze based in violence, Mafia III and Watch Dogs 2 reimagine the conventions of both video games and violence.

Gun violence is a daily reality; mass shootings, from suburban enclaves to inner city parks, are commonplace. Yet, all violence, all death, all lives, and all gun shootings are not treated equal. This essay examines the ways that anti-Black racism and White privilege (White supremacy) infect discussions of gun violence. In examining a series of incidents, and the broader media/political discourse, this article concludes that race and space overdetermine who is afforded the rights of safety and security, and where violence is normalized, expected, and therefore nothing to worry about. Race, space, and class affect the legality and illegibility of gun violence.

The death of Joe Paterno prompted a national moment of silence, a treatment usually reserved for dignitaries. This paper argues that this level of national mourning says less about his importance as a football coach or even a man, but more about the meaning JoPa icon, especially in light of his firing from Penn State. It says as much about us and fears about a lost white masculinity than Paterno. Signifying the end of an "era" and a perceived community under attack, on the heals of Jerry Sandusky's arrest, his death was reframed as a sad affair because of the cloud hanging over head at death's door. Yet, as argued here, it was that cloud and the level of nostalgia that led to heightened media coverage and national sadness.

Examining the specific reaction and context of meaning for Shawn Green's yearly internal battle between religious/personal commitments and job/team, and the historic context of Hank Greenberg's similar battles, this paper reflects on the complex and sometimes contradictory place of Jewishness within both the realms of popular and sporting cultures. In looking at the ways Shawn Green, the Los Angeles Dodgers, sports commentators, and fans have reacted to his Jewishness, and specifically his decision to skip games because of his religious cultural identity, this paper equally gives voice to the signifiers/discourse of Jewish (white) intrusion into the sports world. In exploring this discourse, this paper explores the meaning of Jewish celebrity within contemporary sports, analyzing the meaning and signifiers of Jewishness, whiteness, and celebrity within this popular cultural space.

As the national media descended on Durham, North Carolina, in wake of public accusations of rape against three Duke Lacrosse student athletes, much of the discourse remained mired in its own shock and awe. Ignoring, if not erasing, histories of sexual violence involving White men and Black women while focusing on the problems plaguing college athletics, the media, and the numerous online defenders of the players used this instance to rearticulate tropes of White power, imagining the case as yet another assault on White masculinity. Beyond examining these deployed fictions and the denials of the possibility of guilt, given the player's Whiteness, sport of choice, educational institution, and class status, this article explores the ways in which their student athlete identities were seen as either meaningless or evidence of innocence, especially in juxtaposition to the discursive articulation of the criminalized Black male student athlete.

Amid a backlash against the influence of hip-hop within professional basketball, exacerbated by the 2004 brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills, NBA executives, media pundits, and fans have denounced the influx of Black high school players. This article argues that the establishment of a policy preventing high school players from the NBA is neither a pure business decision nor a hypocritical move by a league that has long profited off the contributions of young Black males and the popularity of hip-hop. Instead, it links this discourse to the larger societal moves to police and put Black male bodies under surveillance. It specifically examines the ways in which calls for an age restriction within the NBA and those efforts to send young men and women of color into America's expanding prison system reflect the same White supremacist logic that necessitates the control, regulation, and punishment of Black and brown bodies.

In this essay, the author explores the absurdity of colorblind rhetoric within the discursive field of Kobe Bryant's rape trial. Specifically, in examining articulations on the Internet, television coverage, commentaries, and news reports, this article reveals how colorblind ideologies that dominate public discussions conflict with the racialized discursive utterances surrounding Kobe's arrest and ongoing trial. In exploring the reactions to accusations of rape against Kobe Bryant by both the mainstream media and White nationalists, this article repels the tendency to disassociate mainstream discourses surrounding race and sports from the more racially grotesque versions found among White nationalists. This article interrogates the context, text, and subtext of the racialized/gendered discourse of Kobe Bryant, situating this case study within the larger dynamics of racialized sports celebrity. It asks whether status as a celebrity athlete provides racial erasure and whether accusations of criminal misconduct not only reinscribe race but also erase celebrity.