Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology by Aaron Trammell

Abstract

Reviewed by: Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology by Aaron Trammell Lori Latrice Martin Trammell, Aaron. Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology. MIT Press, 2023. Scholars interested in how sports influence society and are influenced by society often examine play. In Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology, Aaron Trammell offers a critique of conventional definitions of play and suggests other ways of thinking about play that center the Black experience. Trammell seeks to accomplish this in a book that, according to the series editors’ introduction, is intentionally brief, pocket sized, and written in a way that is accessible to broad audiences and not just scholars. Repairing Play is bookended by an introduction and conclusion with five chapters sandwiched in between. In the introduction, Trammell situates his work within what he calls the Black radical tradition. Readers may have appreciated a richer discussion about what constitutes the Black radical tradition for the author and engagement around why this particular tradition makes the most sense given what the author wants to argue. Trammell describes how central the slave ship is to the Black experience and draws upon notable Black scholars, such as Fred Moten, to define such key terms as Blackness. Greater engagement with the vast body of literature on what constitutes Blackness as well as the related strengths and limitations may have been useful here. What are some other ways to define Blackness and how might those ways of understanding Blackness inform our understanding of play? Trammell argues that being Black is about one’s complexion and history. He characterizes the Black experience with such terms as struggle, resistance, and survival. Trammel argues that torture is an important feature of the Black experience. It is a trauma that is communicated through generations in many forms, including play. Historically, scholarship about play, often conducted by philosophers and psychologists, has framed play as almost exclusively positive and centered around whiteness and whiteness [End Page 71] as representative of human and civilized. Trammell wants to complicate our understanding of play to include both pain and pleasure. Trammell signals that he intends to invite scholars and game designers to rethink the phenomenology of play. He wants his readers to consider play as a means to subordinate others. Trammel sets out to argue that play is both an activity and an embodied practice drawing from such perspectives as Critical Race Theory and the works of scholars such as Michel Foucault, particularly Foucault’s work on torture. Critical Race Theory is arguably one of the most misunderstood terms in the American lexicon today. Perhaps Trammell could have explained in greater detail how the perspective informs his work and which concepts he finds most useful. Trammell does devote some attention to intersectionality later in the book, which is often linked to Critical Race Theory. Trammel sets out to repair our understanding of play in chapter one, “Decolonizing Play.” As the title implies, the author argues that our understanding of play is heavily influenced by European colonizers and thinkers. Trammel wants his readers to understand how play may be experienced by groups other than white people. Trammel returns to one of his main themes here when he talks about the Black phenomenology of play as involving both pain and pleasure. The author critiques oft cited works as failing to account for the experiences of Black people and other historically marginalized groups. In the next chapter, “Play as Affect,” Trammell continues his efforts to show how play is far more complicated than the historic and contemporary research on the subject reveal. Trammell uses examples from his personal experiences playing tag as a child and from activities that many readers may relate to show how play can be connected to oppression as well as freedom. The author outlines an affective context of play that again considers both pain and pleasure. Here, Trammell comments on one of his hopes regarding the impact of Repairing Play. His goal is that understanding how multilevel and multidimensional play will assist game designers in creating more inclusive games and give them the tools they need to address the uncomfortable feelings that might arise given the experiences of historically marginalized groups. What are some of the benefits to various constituencies...