Dissertation
BROWNING SPORT: HOW MULTICULTURAL MARKETS, HALLS OF FAME, & BILINGUAL MEDIA CONSTRUCT LATINOS/AS IN LATE-CAPITALIST AMERICA
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2017
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111845
Abstract
In this dissertation, I examine the relationship between American sport and U.S Latinos. I focus on Latin/os, an ethnoracial, multi-lingual population situated across the American hemisphere, because given their increased demographic and market presence within U.S society, they chart important changes into the twenty-first century, namely: (1) changes in perceptions of cultural differences; (2) expansion of global capital and consumerism; and (3) unprecedented advances in new media-scapes. I contend that this set of conditions highlights the Latin/o browning of U.S sport, a social-cultural paradigm shift in the political economy of sport, and its mediated articulations of race, ethnicity and citizenship. More specifically, I argue that the Latin/o browning of U.S sport is a social force comprised of athletes, fans, scholars and communication and media workers alike.
To illustrate these arguments, I use textual analysis and participant observations to examine four case studies. In chapter 1, I develop the theoretical notion of Browning sport in application with Latina/o historiography, American cultural studies and critical sport studies. In chapter 2, I unpack the Latin/o presence at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York, focusing on the legacies of Cuban Orestes Miñoso and Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente. In chapter 3 I analyze the political economy of Hispanic sport marketing with a focus on the National Basketball Association’s Noches Latinas campaign, to reveal the limitations of social inclusion via corporate multiculturalism. In chapter 4, I survey the autobiographies of Latin/o football players Tom Flores, Jim Plunkett and Ron Rivera, among others, arguing that despite a rich history of successful quarterbacks and head coaches, the modern National Football League continues to willful neglect American Latinos. In chapter 5, I turn attention to the world of Latina/o sport media, with a focus on ESPN Deportes’ One Nación Podcast. Chapter 6 concludes with a synopsis of key themes, limitations and future directions. Considering the dangerous resurgence of American whiteness, toxic masculinity and xenophobia, embodied in the 2016 election of Donald Trump, a comparative, yet critical consideration of the circulation and consumption of Latinidades across U.S sport is both timely and necessary.
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Details
- Title
- BROWNING SPORT: HOW MULTICULTURAL MARKETS, HALLS OF FAME, & BILINGUAL MEDIA CONSTRUCT LATINOS/AS IN LATE-CAPITALIST AMERICA
- Creators
- Jorge E. Moraga
- Contributors
- C. Richard King (Advisor)José M. Alamillo (Committee Member)Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo (Committee Member)David J. Leonard (Committee Member)Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Languages, Cultures, and Race
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 260
- Identifiers
- 99900581431101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation