White Property Interests in College Athletic Admissions

Abstract

Dominant cultural narratives position college sports as engines of racial integration and upward mobility. Previous studies examined the chances for low-income men of color becoming athletes in two sports: men’s football and basketball. While highly visible, these athletes represent the minority of participants. The majority of college athletes are White and middle class. In this conceptual article, I apply Cheryl Harris’ whiteness as property framework to identify the institutional conditions that prevent college sports from functioning as integrative and mobility engines and instead protect Whites’ privileged access to higher education via sport.

Antiblackness and Carcerality: Implications for the Study of College Athletics

“…The sport-state partnership of college athletics functions in three overarching, related ways that have been previously documented: (a) maintaining racial and class reproduction and stratification by privileging white access to higher education through athletics (Hextrum, 2018;2021a;2021b); (b) reinforcing white supremacist, eugenicist notions of white superiority and Black inferiority and fungibility (Haslerig et al, 2020;Hextrum, 2021a); and (c) creating a network of parasitic economies that profit off players' labor, images, and likeness through racism and capitalism (Gayles et al, 2018;Hawkins, 2010;Huma & Staurowsky, 2011;Staurowsky, 2007). The research presented here underscores how antiblackness and carcerality are logics that are enmeshed, and perhaps driving forces, in the previously documented functions.…”

“…Most research critical of the system has investigated the structure of college sport and player experiences through lenses of capitalism, neoliberalism, racism, and white supremacy. Research has examined these structuring logics and how fulfilling them, e.g., organizing and administering athletics according to them, is tied to structural racism (Gayles, 2018;Hawkins, 2010), white supremacy and whiteness (Hextrum, 2018;2020d;2021a;2021b), capitalism and neoliberalism (Comeaux, 2018;Gayles et al, 2018;Giroux & Giroux, 2012), and antiblackness (Comeaux & Grummert, 2020;Dancy et al, 2018). Most research references the structure of wealth accumulation for white administrators and the disproportionate percentage of Black players in revenue-generating sports compared to other sports and the rest of the study body as a signifier of racist exploitation (Gayles et al, 2018;Giroux & Giroux, 2012).…”

“…Furthermore, research has analyzed player experiences across sport and gender to delineate common coercive practices such as surveillance, threat of punishment, and precarity (Hatteberg, 2018;Hatton, 2020). Other research has analyzed how the structure placates white comfort and fragility and serves as a privilege access point for white youth to gain preferential treatment in admissions (Hextrum, 2018;2021a;2021b). Hextrum (2018;2020a) directly implicated the ideal of amateurism as a form of symbolic violence and privileging mechanism for white prospective athletes, whereby they are able to convert their various forms of capital into athletic scholarships and thus protect white property interests through sport (Harris, 1993;Hextrum, 2018;2021a).…”

The Upward Mobility Potential in U.S. Intercollegiate Athletics: A Critical Examination of NCAA Division I College Baseball Players’ Hometown Demographics

“…college sports are commonly believed to provide upward mobility opportunities (Hextrum, 2021). In part, the sport-meritocracy ideology resonates in intercollegiate athletics because higher education has different educational and admission standards for talented athletes (Hextrum, 2022;2023). But whether these irregular admission processes offer upward mobility chances remains underexplored by sport researchers (see Allison et al, 2018;Hextrum, 2021;Macaulay et al, 2019).…”