Colouring outside the lines: a historical excavation of comparative media representations of the deviant black male athlete

© 2014 Charlotte FergusonThis thesis will attempt to answer the question: how are print media representations of the champion black male athlete from the civil rights era to the possible post racial era historically informed? And further, how do the bodies of these athletes reflect a broader historical understanding of the times in which they competed? It contends that the body itself is transformed through action, observation and descriptive analysis into a site of conflict and by extension, violence and control. Further, it seeks to demonstrate that the interaction of sport and the media that ‘covers’ it simultaneously reifies and redefines racial and sexual stereotypes. The research will focus specifically on comparing print media representations of the ‘deviant’ black male athlete, with the boxer Muhammad Ali providing the crucial focus of the primary source research undertaken. The comparative element of this thesis refers to the comparisons made between mainstream ‘white’ media and alternative ‘black’ print media outlets. Ali is argued to provide a narrative of defiance that has since become archetypical of the representation of the black male athlete, creating a fictive dichotomy in which the athlete is viewed as either acquiescent or deviant. His representation will then be compared to a more recent example, Tiger Woods, demonstrating that although Woods’ sexual ‘deviance’ was markedly different in nature to Ali’s politico-religious defiance, an analogous narrative emerged. Superstar basketball player, Michael Jordan, will be analysed as a counterfactual to the deviance of the two other athletes chosen. His commercialism and success is argued to entrench the paradigm of the deviant black male rather than undermine it