Book review: Playing While White: Privilege and Power On and Off the Field

Abstract

According to its author, David J Leonard, Playing While White: Privilege and Power On and Off the Field, 'explores how and why whiteness matters within contemporary sports and what that tells us about race and racism in the twenty-first century' (p. 6). More specifically, Leonard's book details the myriad sporting narratives that have mythologized white athletes to function as potent vehicles of conservative, if not retrogressive, racial ideologies over the past decade. It also responds to recent calls to make socio-cultural analyses of sport meaningful and accessible to broader audiences (Zirin, 2008