‘For your ears only!’ Donald Sterling and backstage racism in sport

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how racism manifests 'behind closed doors' in the backstage private domain. We do this with reference to recent high-profile controversies in the US and UK. In particular, we use the concepts of frontstage (public) and backstage (private) racism to unpack the extraordinary case in point of the ex-National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise owner Donald Sterling. The paper concludes that though it is important for frontstage racism to be disrupted, activist scholars must be mindful of the lesser-known, and lesser-researched, clandestine backstage racism that, we argue, galvanises more public manifestations. The Donald Sterling case is an example of how backstage racism functions and, potentially, how it can be resisted.

The virtual stages of hate: Using Goffman’s work to conceptualise the motivations for online hate

“…Despite this, a number of scholars have applied Goffman’s work to online spaces in a bid to critically understand online behaviour (Aspling, 2011; Bullingham and Vasconcelos, 2013; Merunkova and Slerka, 2019; Serpa and Ferreira, 2018). Fewer studies, however, have specifically employed Goffman’s theoretical model to critically understand, and theoretically underpin, the motivations for online hate speech (Hylton, 2018; Hylton and Lawrence, 2016; Hynes and Cook, 2013; Kilvington and Price, 2019). Although useful, it could be argued that Goffman’s original model cannot simply be applied to online interaction when examining hate speech because of the significant differences that exist between online and offline worlds, which influence and modify human behaviour.…”

“…Like offline backstage performances, bonds and solidarity are formed within virtual backstage spaces meaning that these private interactions remain concealed and protected through ‘team collusion’ (Goffman, 1959). Hylton and Lawrence (2016) and Hynes and Cook (2013) postulate that hidden virtual backstages are being used to perform derogation and thus team solidarity helps prevent against unwanted exposés. For Cain (2012: 669), ‘The two regions have a symbiotic relationship in that activities in the backstage allow workers to maintain appropriate behaviours during the front stage, while activities provide fodder for discussions and activities in the back region’.…”

White Heterosexual Men, Athletic Bodies, and the Pleasure of Unruly Racialization

“…Moreover, following Blaisdell (2006), I used a “race” conscious dialectic approach during interviews in order to facilitate an inclusive and participative approach which, for Hylton (2012), allows for an exploration of the importance or otherwise of the racialized aspects of the imagery. This is an especially relevant approach for any research wishing to understand better phenomena that are more commonly discussed in private but less commonly in public (Hylton and Lawrence 2016; Hughey and Matthew 2011a).…”

Tackling Social Media Abuse? Critically Assessing English Football’s Response to Online Racism

“…Put simply, a divergent racial performance is presented within frontstage (multiracial) and backstage (white) spaces. Although overt racism has declined in frontstage spaces due to the contemporary 'politically correct' culture popularised by dominant liberal political and cultural agendas, overt expressions of white male racism remain and have moved behind closed doors (Feagin and Picca, 2007;Hughey, 2011;Hylton and Lawrence, 2016). Nakayama (2017) argues that people often feel free to post abusive messages online rather than espouse hate in public spaces.…”