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The Collision of Race, Religion and Sports
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The Collision of Race, Religion and Sports

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 6514

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lori Latrice Martin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of African and African American Studies, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
Interests: race and ethnicity; racial wealth inequality; black asset poverty; race and adaptive leadership; race and sports
Dr. Darron T. Smith

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Sociology, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
Interests: religious studies; race; religion & sports; the neurosociology of mental distress and transracial adoption

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Race, religion, and sports are important concepts that shape and are shaped by everything from social institutions to an individual’s, group’s, or nation’s worldview. While both scholarly and public discourse tends to treat each concept as unrelated, we understand the three concepts to be interrelated and, in many ways, interdependent. We seek manuscripts for a Special Issue that explores what happens when race, religion, and sports collide, particularly after the killing of Trayvon Martin through to the conviction of Dereck Chauvin for the brutal killing of George Floyd. These two killings and many others marked the rise and peak of the collective actions commonly referred to as the Black Lives Matter movement. We define religion broadly to include social institutions, beliefs, symbols, and rituals but also as an orientation or way of understanding one’s place in the world.  

Submissions may focus on any range of relevant topics, including, but not limited to, sports from the grassroots level to the professional level. Submissions may address reactions to athlete activism from elected officials to CEOs to Power 5 Conference Commissioners, the roles of black women athletes and nonblack athletes supporters, etc., among other topics. Manuscripts should not exceed 25 double-spaced pages (not including references, tables, images, etc.) and should follow the most recent Chicago style guide. Kindly send your tentative title and an abstract of no more than 500 words to lorim@lsu.edu by March 1, 2022. We will send out invitations to submit full manuscripts by April 30, 2022. Invited manuscripts are due by August 31, 2022.

Dr. Lori Latrice Martin
Dr. Darron T. Smith
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • race
  • religion
  • sports
  • social movements
  • Black Lives Matter
  • sociology of sports

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 1041 KiB  
Article
Giants in the Frame: A 1964 Photo Analysis of How Malcolm X and Dr. Harry Edwards Connected Race, Religion, and Sport
by Whitney Griffin and C. Keith Harrison
Religions 2023, 14(5), 580; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050580 - 27 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1695
Abstract
Racial analysis of photography in the canon is important when unpacking layers of racial discrimination, Black manhood, and the historical dynamics within social forces that create stereotypical perceptions of African American males. Race, religion, and sport allow scholars to unpack the perceived disposability [...] Read more.
Racial analysis of photography in the canon is important when unpacking layers of racial discrimination, Black manhood, and the historical dynamics within social forces that create stereotypical perceptions of African American males. Race, religion, and sport allow scholars to unpack the perceived disposability of Black lives in contemporary society. In an effort to fully understand how sport and religion inform racialized experiences in Black manhood, the current paper seeks to advance theories of visual and racial culture in a particular context. Contextual analysis of a 1964 photograph of Malcolm X and Dr. Harry Edwards synthesizes the visual turn and offers insight into how race, sport, and religion collide to raise minority pride. A contextual analysis accounts for the ways in which visual materials function within broad social ecologies of Black masculinity. Implications are discussed for the role of sport and religion in continuing activism for racial equality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Collision of Race, Religion and Sports)
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11 pages, 241 KiB  
Article
The Real Cost to Remain Competitive: BYU Confronts Racist Past
by Darron Smith and Lori Latrice Martin
Religions 2023, 14(1), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010061 - 30 Dec 2022
Viewed by 2098
Abstract
College sports is a multi-billion-dollar business, and universities are looking for ways to remain competitive, including recruiting and retaining athletes from historically underrepresented groups to predominantly white institutions (PWI), many of which have a documented history of excluding non-white students, including blacks, indigenous [...] Read more.
College sports is a multi-billion-dollar business, and universities are looking for ways to remain competitive, including recruiting and retaining athletes from historically underrepresented groups to predominantly white institutions (PWI), many of which have a documented history of excluding non-white students, including blacks, indigenous peoples, and other people of color (often referred to as BIPOC). This article will examine the legacy of the racist teachings, past controversies, and compromises of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, Mormons) along with persistent struggles to shake off its 130-year-old racist past in efforts for its flagship school, Brigham Young University, to stay competitive in the lucrative Big 12 Athletic Conference. Deeply ingrained in the LDS culture is a politic of religious conservatism. Politics has often been intertwined with organized religion with much influence, and the LDS faith is no different. The cumulation of these interlocking systems generates thoughts, attitudes, and feelings that foster a racial climate at Brigham Young University where black students have reported feeling unsafe and unsupported. While this is a well-documented problem at predominately white institutions (PWIs) across the country, BYU is in many ways unique, given the discriminatory overt policies and practices employed for generations. We contend that the LDS Church’s history of racial marginalization and exclusion of black people made its way into the sports consciousness of the church’s flagship school and is not likely to change anytime soon. Understanding religion in the tradition of Charles Long as an orientation and utilizing Derrick Bell’s notion of racial realism are critical to our analyses. The confluence of politics, religion, race, and sport cannot be easily untangled. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Collision of Race, Religion and Sports)
12 pages, 274 KiB  
Article
The Essence of My Coaching Is to Serve: Monty Williams, Faith, and Relationality
by Pyar J. Seth
Religions 2022, 13(10), 936; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100936 - 9 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1502
Abstract
Oftentimes, an athletic coach is tasked with establishing a player–coach relationship that is built on trust, commitment, accountability, hard work, and a belief in process. More recently, however, head coach of the Phoenix Suns, Monty Williams, has garnered considerable public attention for adding [...] Read more.
Oftentimes, an athletic coach is tasked with establishing a player–coach relationship that is built on trust, commitment, accountability, hard work, and a belief in process. More recently, however, head coach of the Phoenix Suns, Monty Williams, has garnered considerable public attention for adding faith into that equation. Though faith is primarily considered a theological outlook and expression of spiritual value, it has extended beyond religiosity into his coaching praxis and pedagogy. In the paper, I look to add the voice of Monty Williams to the rich cohort of Black people assembled by Carey Latimore in Unshakable Faith: African American Stories of Redemption, Hope, and Community, a text principally concerned with illuminating the diversity in thought and expression of faith. Additionally, I draw on theories from Black Studies, post-colonial studies, and the sociology of sport to interrogate a particular discursive formulation advanced by Williams—“[…] the essence of my coaching is to serve”. I explore the nature of a faith-based coaching philosophy in the game of basketball and how the notion of coaching as service expresses a dynamic, complex set of religious histories, but also embodies a form of relationality centered on the following question: What does it mean to navigate sociopolitical life and death in community? Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Collision of Race, Religion and Sports)
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