Lack of Black Opps: Kobe Bryant and the Difficult Path of Redemption

Abstract

A fundamental contradiction anchors contemporary sport: for many, it exemplifies racial transcendence; yet racism continues to shape play, persona, and possibilities. For Black athletes, in particular, it opens a space of overdetermination, constraining representation and reception, while challenging their humanity. Following Joe Feagin (2009), this article suggests the white racial frame offers a means of accounting for and unpacking the persistent force of race in a society determined to be beyond—or better said, done with—it. Recent panics around Kobe Bryant center the analysis. A close reading of media coverage and fan commentary reveals a troubling discursive pattern of racialization and sexualization. Indeed, especially in online forums, this discourse actively seizes upon the All-Pro forward to rearticulate supposedly antiquated formulations of difference and reanimate the prevailing hierarchies anchored in them. Ultimately, popular reception and representation of Bryant exposes not only the persistent myths of black masculinity at the heart of the white racial frame, but also suggest the ways in which they make it impossible for African Americans (athlete or not) to transcend them, redeem themselves in a white world, or claim dignity and humanity.