Vivian Lam 20624191

Article Critique #3
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Article Critique – March 8, 2018

Ugly on the Diamonds: An Examination of White Privilege in Youth Baseball - Troy D.

Glove

The primary aims and purposes of this paper was to explore race and racism in society

through narrative writing, explore race as a social construct, and to compare and draw relations

between race and youth sports. The author explores these topics through the adaptation of a

Critical Race Theory framework, (CRT) in order to examine society in relation to race and power

in order to expose elements of racism in youth sports, specifically, youth baseball. The author

collected data from 7 participants through face-to-face interviews and subsequently, transcribed

into a short narrative.

There are major issues relating to power in the lens of racial authority. Many examples

arise in this paper that are in direct conflict with each other. The author mentions that some

researchers believe that CRT should not be adapted and used by white scholars in the fear that

they will use it as a form of “colonization” in order to redirect the use of the theory towards their

own interests while seemingly representing individuals of colour. There is a clear issue of racial

power across not only the scientific community, but in the studies itselves. The study itself found

many sources of power inequalities, an example being that white coaches and parents can

monitor players of colour and keep him/her under “control” because of the lack of players of

colours on these teams while simultaneously convincing themselves that they are being

inclusive. In addition, the author mentions that the abolishment of stereotypes is ineffective, but

what is required is, “the transformation of power relations between black and white people. Such

a transformation necessarily requires the re-distribution of resources to address existing power

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imbalances between blacks and whites, (Glover, 2007 p. 205).

Some implications for leisure studies and future research is to be aware of the fact that

there are a substantial amount of barriers that hinder individuals from experiencing or enjoying

leisure. Most individuals take the concept of leisure for granted but do not take into account the

“privileges” such as race (eg. white vs. black) and socioeconomic status (eg. rich vs. poor) one

might have in order to be able to partake in certain leisure activities. More research regarding

leisure constraints and barriers in all perspectives must be undertaken in order to facilitate a

better understanding of how one’s identity (eg. race, gender, ethnicity) can affect the outcome or

experience of certain leisure activities. Only then can we begin to create and foster policies or

social change.
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References:

Glover, T. D. (2007). Ugly on the diamonds: An examination of white privilege in youth

baseball. Leisure Sciences, 29(2), 195-208.