Respect: Ethnic bonding and distinction in team sports careers

This paper explores choices and (non)identifications related to race/ethnicity in team sport careers. Two elite sport careers – that of a white basketball player and a black football player – are analysed from a biographical perspective and compared to sport biographies and (changing identifications) of other team sport athletes with varying social backgrounds. We look at personal interpretations and ethnic subtexts in their (sport) socialization, life course and sports biographies. Athletes show multiple, interrelated social identifications that may change throughout their (sporting) biographies, under the influence of factors like performance, approval/trust, team constitution and life stages. Competitive (professional) team sport is a social practice where both ethnic majority and minority members search for respect and approval, and team performance can lead to (temporary) bridging of ethnic differences. It remains questionable whether competitive team sport can contribute to a fundamental reduction
of existing racial/ethnic and other social inequalities in society.