Download - University of Minnesota

More documents

Recommendations

Info

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIETY in terms of the historically articulated cultural associations that many white Americans held about African Americans and the threats they posed. Third, I historicize this discussion through the dimension of political economy: the NBA’s stagnation in the late seventies and its resurrection in the eighties should be seen in the context of America’s struggling economy, the backlash against the civil rights movement, Reaganism, and “colorblindness” as an unofficial national policy. The 1970s have often been referred to as the league’s “dark ages” due to its flagging popularity, low public profile and almost literal retrospective invisibility; because fewer games were televised, especially nationally, only middle-aged, die-hard fans can actually recall the feats of Pete Maravich and Bill Russell (Fortunato 24-25). I argue that the phrases “dark ages” and the widely repeated “too black” should be seen in relation to each other, since professional basketball has succeeded in America by embracing colorblindness and carefully managing its players’ images so as to distance the sport from stereotypes of black men. More than any other sport, professional men’s basketball has often served as both the most public stage for successful black men in America and simultaneously as “evidence” for biological racial difference. Although the NBA’s domestic popularity has decreased from its peak in the 1990s, its global reach has never been wider (Carrington, Andrews, Jackson, and Mazur). Football and baseball are currently more popular domestically, but the former has almost no profile internationally and the latter’s popularity is limited outside of a handful of nations (such as Japan, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic). But basketball is truly global: there are, as of this writing, professional men’s basketball leagues in at least 40 countries, and the 2010 NBA All-Star Game was broadcast in over 200 countries. Beyond the game itself, NBA culture—the products endorsed by its players, their hairstyles, their jerseys and baggy shorts—have an influence around the world that is beyond measurement (and the scope of this paper). The stakes of the critical interpretation of race in professional basketball are high indeed. The Absence of Race in the NBA’s Mythology The NBA has been remarkably efficient in controlling its image and the construction of its history since its rise to popularity and visibility in the early 1980s, a factor which partially accounts for its success. Unfortunately, its relative obscurity presents an obstacle to detailed historical research before this period, since scholars must rely heavily on short accounts of games in newspapers and the autobiographies of former players who have a host of reasons not to wade into the waters of controversial topics. In this void, as cultural critic Todd Boyd points out (1997), “basketball was able to create its cultural mythology without the glare of mainstream media attention” (119). This is in stark contrast to professional baseball, which has held center stage in American sports since the 1870s. Since relatively few people were concerned with basketball’s history until the 1980s, the NBA itself has had an unusual opportunity to craft a uniform mythology that serves to promote their primary interest, economic growth. This constructed history is extremely selective. With enough space, I might provide the short summary here, as any fan could, and as the NBA has in its three official encyclopedias (Hollander; Hollander and Sachare; Hubbard), which focuses almost entirely on the exciting, family-friendly play of its gladiators: gradual increase in skill, athleticism, and popularity; the virtues of teamwork; individual brilliance; and heroic achievements. Sports historians 224
MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON have been attentive to the subtle locations in which myth-making occurs, such as commercials, billboards, official record-keeping and even word of mouth. All of these are directly relevant to this discussion; however, the most influential site has typically been ignored: television broadcasts of individual games. As sociologist John Hoberman notes, “the live sportscaster is the more important representative of managerial power, because he has the power to frame issues and interpret behavior instantly to enormous audiences” (38). There are approximately 1,300 NBA games played each season, which amounts to more than 2,600 broadcasts each year (one for each team). Although some local announcers see themselves as journalists or paraphrasers, most are aware of their responsibility to represent the game in the best possible light: Hubie Brown, former Coach and broadcaster, admits that his “job is to keep you from flicking your clicker and changing your dial, to convince you to stay” (Fortunato 122). Brian McIntyre, NBA Senior Vice President of Basketball Communications, has characterized “a game broadcast, whether it is local or national, as nothing more than a 2 ½ hour infomercial for the product” (Fortunato 149). Many authors have identified the role of television sports commentators in naturalizing racial and gender differences through linguistic patterns, which highlights the subtle power of announcers. As Toni Bruce put it, Although live televised sports are commodified spectacles that draw heavily upon entertainment values, they are grounded in new media ideologies of neutrality and objectivity, which add to their perceived credibility. Indeed, broadcasters are cut to the professional quick when racist discourse is identified because it undermines their professional credentials of balance and impartiality. (863) A fair amount of each broadcast comprises “dead time” during which little on-court action occurs. During these moments announcers generally fill the silences by describing and analyzing the game at hand, but they also highlight their team’s history or recall and replay great moments from the sport’s past, all with the powerful illusion of neutrality and objectivity. Provided with information by the NBA and charged with selling a product, it is not surprising that announcers would support the NBA’s constructed history, especially in relation to a turbulent, embarrassing and mostly forgotten period, the 1970s. An example of the elision of the controversies of the 1970s is demonstrated in the entry on that decade on the NBA’s online official “NBA Encyclopedia—Playoff Edition” on NBA.com, called “A Decade of Parity,” which fails to mention drugs, race, and potential contraction. A great deal has been deliberately left out, and for good reason. The Los Angeles Times claimed in 1981 that as many as 75 percent of NBA players used cocaine (Cobbs). As David Halberstam put it (1999), “[The NBA] was seen as far too black, and the majority of its players, it was somehow believed, were on drugs…” (114). David Stern, named Commissioner in 1984, admitted that the NBA was “looked upon as a league that was too black” (Finley and Finley 75) at the time. There are, in fact, dozens of audience reception studies showing racial bias on the part of white audiences, although the implication that this prejudice was restricted to a bygone era is entirely false (Kanazawa and Funk; Brown, Spiro and Keenan). I want to question what kind of cultural work “too black” performs. “Black” in this phrase should not be understood as a player’s level of melanin but as part of a historically specific racial formation (Omi and Winant) that includes stereotypes of drug abuse, violence and the threat of black physical and political power. In addition, the acknowledgement that white fans and/or advertisers had racial biases during this period often carries the implicit 225
Page 1 and 2: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of SPORT
Page 3: “Too Black”: Race in the “Dar
Page 7 and 8: MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON Drugs, V
Page 9 and 10: merger would form a monopoly and re
Page 11 and 12: “blackness” but any mention of
Page 13: Robertson, Oscar (2003), The Big O:
Page 16: THE UNIVERSITY PRESS JOURNALS www.A

Download - University of Minnesota

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?