The Erotic Gaze in the NFL Draft

The National Football League (NFL) draft is an annual meeting where professional teams claim contract rights to college players. It has recently become a major media event, previewed extensively by scores of magazines, newspapers, and websites, and televised in its seventeen-hour entirety by ESPN. A critical reading of these discourses finds frequent expressions of desire for the bodies of draft prospects. The paper situates this homoerotic commentary in the historical context of American white supremacy in order to explain why the mostly black prospects are available for this kind of perusal and assessment, especially given the taboos against homosexual desire that suffuse the culture of elite football; while explaining how such practices affirm inter-male dominance based on a hierarchy of race by deploying the patriarchal strategies of the male gaze.     

From California to Michigan: Race,Rationality, and Neoliberal Governmentality

In this essay, we examine recent developments in battles over race- and gender-based affirmative action across a 10-year period from the California Civil Rights Initiative (1996) to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (2006). While affirmative action policies have historically been contested within a paradigm of redistribution, our analysis of the Michigan case suggests a new strategic emphasis on disputing the legitimacy of the state's recognition of social difference. Drawing on the work of critical race and critical rhetoric scholars, as well as social theory on citizenship in the post-soul moment, we argue that a neoliberal understanding of difference and neoliberalism's appropriations of multiculturalism have allowed the anti-affirmative action movement in Michigan to avoid racist appeals completely by invoking the neoliberal myth of free, entrepreneurial individuals against a meddling, inefficient, authoritarian state. Further, we find that these shifts have permitted assaults on the positive consideration of gender—a strategy that was not possible when debates were centered over competing claims of racism. Finally, we argue that these strategic adjustments since California have enabled the anti-affirmative action movement to discursively align itself with contemporary neoliberal assaults on a range of social and cultural rights.     

“He was Framed!” Framing Criminal Behavior in Sports News

An experiment examined the effects of newspaper articles about an athlete involved in a crime on perceptions of athletes. News articles were varied by framing the athlete's activities in an accusatory versus defensive manner, and framing the athlete as physically versus mentally skilled. An accusatory frame resulted in more criminally culpable perceptions of the athlete. Frame did not influence perceptions of the athlete's race, and perceptions of the athlete as Black did not increase perceived culpability. Additional findings show that framing does influence more general perceptions of athletes. Discussion focuses on media framing, attitudes toward athletes, and college students' socially desirable responses concerning race.     

The Congressional Debates on the 19th Amendment: Jurisdictional Rhetoric and the Assemblage of the US Body Politic

Through its analysis of the rhetorical means by which the US Congress overcame jurisdictional objections to federal action on the issue of woman suffrage, this essay argues that the stasis of jurisdiction operates as a mode of assemblage of discourses, institutions, and populations. In Congress, the woman suffrage issue helped re-organize federal and state prerogatives over the management of racial and ethnic relations at home and US leadership abroad. Thus, from a governmental perspective women did not emerge as constituents but as tools of public policy. As a legislative precedent, the 19th Amendment debates prompt critical attention to the particular constraints that the discourses of state institutions pose for feminist political change.     

From the Parlor to the Barnyard: Obama and Holder on Race

This essay explores Barack Obama's “A More Perfect Union” speech and Eric Holder's speech marking African American History Month as a case study of contemporary public discourse on race. This article argues that in these speeches, Obama and Holder perform the social drama of race relations in profoundly different ways. Drawing on the Burkean parlor and barnyard as metaphors of rhetorical form, the analysis demonstrates the interplay of these dialogic and agonistic forms in motivating democratic deliberation on race. Implications of these rhetorical forms for healthy democratic practice are discussed.     

Situating Oneself in a Racialized World: Understanding Student Reactions to Crash through Standpoint Theory and Context-Positionality Frames

Abstract

Through a thematic analysis of 136 student reactions to the movie Crash, this study examines how individuals situate themselves in terms of race, racism, and race relations in the film and how their racial locations inform this situatedness. We utilize principles of standpoint theories as the theoretical framework for the analysis. We first describe this situatedness in terms of six emergent genres of responses that varied across positionality and contextual focus. Then, we discuss how the patterns of responses may be explained through standpoint theories and conversely how the emergent organizing framework may complement standpoint theories.     

A Preliminary Study of Racialized Brawn and Brain Framing Effects

Extant research has established that racially based brawn and brain frames are common within sports media. Framing theory suggests that these brawn and brain frames should influence audience members’ behaviors and attitudes, but little empirical evidence to support this notion exists. This study used a quasi-experimental design (Frame x Athlete Race) to understand how exposure to sports news articles that emphasize the physical or mental attributes of White and Black athletes may result in audiences’ subsequent observable behaviors or character judgments toward athletes. Results indicated that frames influenced audiences’ behaviors in a simulated environment and attitudes regarding athletes’ mental abilities, whereas athlete race influenced audiences’ attitudes of athletes’ physical abilities. These findings support sports scholars’ assertions about framing effects and underscore the potential dangers of current sports media trends.     

对自行车运动员肝血流图的研究

通过对14个省市100名优秀自行车运动员肝血流图的研究,（均为健将和一级运动员,平均年龄20岁,训练年限4~8年）,结果表明肝血流图对运动员的机能诊断是一项良好的指标．为自行车运动员选材,改进训练方法,提供了某些生理依据。     

Unmasking “ignorance”

ABSTRACT

Recent years have seen rising public talk around voting access and voter suppression, particularly as linked to marginalized and disenfranchised populations. In this reflection, we assess varied such public conversations and identify an interesting narrative encapsulating both those arguing voter suppression as a rising concern and those minimizing such claims. Organized around “ignorance,” this metanarrative does the rhetorical work of containment.