“I Don’t Know How You Get Past That”: Racism and Stereotyping in College Football Recruiting Media

Abstract

College football programs invest millions of dollars into recruiting top high school prospects. This recruiting process is covered extensively by reporters from sports media outlets. While the players being recruited are predominately Black, the sports media is disproportionately dominated by White men. In this context, the current study reports on data from interviews with 15 participants who work in the college football recruiting media industry. While some participants adopted a color-blind perspective dominated by a belief that racism no longer exists, most reporters expressed an awareness of racial stereotypes in the sports media and felt a need to address racial inequity. Such awareness presents an opportunity for anti-racist training that may help media members avoid racial stereotyping and address racism in the field.

You Gotta Be There: A Thematic Content Analysis of the Historically Black College and University Sporting Experience

“…BONs reflect the current existence that led to the need and creation of the Black Liberatory Fantasy. Within this study, the existing circumstances are the prevalent deficit-fueled narratives surrounding HBCUs (Benson, 2000; Cooper et al, 2014; Hosick, 2014), HPWI sporting spaces riddled with racist ideologies and operations (Davis, 1994; Love et al, 2021; Singer, 2005, 2009), a disjointed and sport-centric environment (Bimper, 2015; Cooper et al, 2017; McCluskey, 2020), and a sport culture that limits the development and enrichment of athletes (Cooper & Dougherty, 2015; Hatteberg, 2018; Simiyu, 2012; Singer, 2005). The culmination of these components presents a nightmarish existence that creates a hostile sporting space for athletes, marginalizes Black students, and limits the holistic development of athletes.…”

Black U.S. Military Affiliated Perspectives on Sport Media's Coverage of Racial Representation and Athlete Activism

“…In the U.S., the majority of sport media content is created, edited, and produced by white men (TIDES, 2021). Whether purposeful or not, racial stereotypes are prevalent in sport media (Anderson & Raney, 2018;Christensen et al, 2016;Coogan, 2012;Crowe, 2021;Ferrucci et al, 2016;Leonard, 2017;Love et al, 2021;Rugg, 2019). If consumers decode sport media messages from a hegemonic perspective, it would be easy to understand why racist stereotypes persist in sport discourse, especially from frequent media consumers.…”