Commodified and Criminalized

David J. Leonard is associate professor of critical culture, gender, and race studies at Washington State University. C. Richard King is professor and chair of critical culture, gender, and race studies at Washington State University.

Commodified and Criminalizedis timely and provocative—a direct assault on anti-Black racism in the contemporary moment. In chapters ranging in focus from Tiger Woods to Serena Williams, the collected authors challenge us to rethink the racial politics of sport and the cultural logics of its production, consumption, and representation. It is a must-read for anyone seeking to better understand the complex and contradictory discourses at work in the simultaneous celebration and demonization of Blackness and Black athletes.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Celebrities, Commodities, and Criminals: African American Athletes and the Racial Politics of CultureChapter 1: America's New Son: Tiger Woods and America's MulticulturalismChapter 2: Sister Act VI: Venus and Serena Williams at Indian Wells: "Sincere Fictions" and White RacismChapter 3: Ghettocentrism and the Essentialized Black Male AthleteChapter 4: Why Can't Kobe Pass (the Ball)? Race and the NBA in an Age of NeoliberalismChapter 5: One Nation Under a Hoop: Race, Meritocracy, and Messiahs in the NBAChapter 6: Much Adu About Nothing? Freddy Adu and Neoliberal Racism in New Millennium AmericaChapter 7: Me and Bonnie Blair: Shani Davis, Racial Myths, and the Reiteration of the Facts of BlacknessChapter 8: The Dennis Rodman of Hockey: Ray Emery and the Policing of Blackness in the Great White NorthChapter 9: Contesting the Closet: Sheryl Swoopes, Racialized Sexuality, and Media CultureChapter 10: "Life with no hoop": Black Pride, State PowerPostscript: Ameri