Black Sporting Identities and Counter-Narratives in Men's Recreational Soccer in Canada
Beyond Victimry, Beyond Boundaries?
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24226986 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Nya (0009-0001-6046-4398, University of Alberta), Jay Scherer (0000-0003-1394-1363, University of Alberta) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-15 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Sport and Social Issues (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0193-7235 • E-ISSN: 1552-7638 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01937235261486680 |
| OpenAlex | W7222141367 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 44 |
Drawing from a multi-year ethnography, this paper examines the role of sport in the resettlement experiences of contemporary economic immigrants from continental Africa. Focusing on members of the Black Continental African Soccer Club who participate in a 35+ men's recreational league in a Canadian prairie city, we critically explore how they navigate Black (African) masculinity as a subjugated and stereotyped gendered racial identity. In these spaces, historical neo-colonial racist perceptions of Black masculinity continue to pervade white-imagined Canadian sports cultures in ways that powerfully police Black bodies. Guided by Critical Race Theory (CRT), this study examines how constructions of Black masculinity are contested, reaffirmed, and reframed through participants’ interactions with referees and league officials. In so doing, we emphasize the influence of structural and systemic racism that sets powerful limits and pressures on their ability to fully embrace their authentic Black selves and to confidently negotiate sporting environments. Using the CRT tool of counter-narratives, we foreground the voices of team members as they reconceive, re-author, and rearticulate the connotations of Black masculinity. Crucially, their counter-narratives allow the emergence of themes that not only illuminate their collective confrontations with painful experiences, but also their endurance and resistance to anti-Black racism.
Critical Race Theory in Education · Physical Education and Sports Studies · Sports, Gender, and Society
Black Sporting Resistance
Critical Race Theory
Whiteness as Property
Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma
Progressive Black Masculinities
The Black Migrant Athlete
Black Sexual Politics
Race, Sport and Politics
Talk the talk, walk the walk
Mentorship of Black student-athletes at a predominately White American university
Through the Decades
Anti-Black Racism and Soccer in Canada
The Articulation of Difference
Whitewashed and Blacked Out
Contesting Race on Sundays
When dreams take flight
New Directions in Immigration Policy
Blacks in Research
Interrogating Classroom Relationships and Events
The hubris penalty
Racial bias in judgments of physical size and formidability
You make me wanna holler and throw up both my hands
Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education
Suspending Damage
Historical silences and the enduring power of counter storytelling
The Structure of Racism in Color-Blind, "Post-Racial" America
Are Some Emotions Marked 'Whites Only'? Racialized Feeling Rules in Professional Workplaces
Critical Race Methodology
Good Blacks' and 'Bad Blacks
The Black Continental African Soccer Club as a diasporic resource
How a turn to critical race theory can contribute to our understanding of 'race', racism and anti-racism in sport
The Construction of Black Masculinity
Racial Bias in Fans and Officials
| Highly cited | No |
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