Trash Talk or Smack Talk: The Language of Competitive Sport

Abstract

This paper challenges the Eurocentric interpretation of the intentionality of the use of trash talk in competitive sport. The power bloc established within sport enables the formation of a moral community amongst athletes within competitive sport. An anthropological exploration of the Black vernacular tradition of trash talk, from the Middle Passage to modern American sport, supports the use of trash talk as a mechanism used to ethically vet and form relationships within moral communities of competitive sport. The proposed conceptual framework advances philosophical scholarship on the sociology and ethics of sport by creating a line of literature that explores moral communities in sport from the perspective of the athlete. Framing trash talk as smack talk reveals the intentionality of the aggressive interactions as an ethical construct established by the athletes within the capitalistic environment of competitive sport. An understanding of athlete discourse will empower diversity, equity, and inclusion officers, administrators, and coaches in producing and regulating ethical environments for athletes in American sport.