In this episode of The End of Sport Johanna is joined by Drs. Christienna D. Fryar and Matt Hodler to break down the white supremacist terrorist actions of swimmer Klete Keller in the January 6th attack against the US Capitol building and the white sport media’s apologist portrayal of him. Dr. Fryar is a Lecturer in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London where she teaches about British colonial history, Black history, and much more, alongside researching the histories of disaster and sport. Dr. Hodler –a repeat guest on the show! - is an Assistant Professor of Sports Media & Communications at the University of Rhode Island. His research interests include racialized nationalism, gender, and international sport structures, mediated representations of sport, internet memes, and swimming. Both of them are fellow swimmers with Johanna.
The impetus for this episode emerged not only due to Klete Keller’s horrendous actions, but also due to the sport media and swimming community’s largely apologist portrayals of Keller and his actions. Our discussion brings a much-needed critique on Keller that has been mostly absent from the media pieces about him (outside of The Nation’s analysis of Keller within the IOC’s history of racism).
Drs. Fryar and Hodler first help Johanna situate Keller’s actions within the sport of swimming, arguing against the popular and comforting idea that his behavior is a deviation from the swimming community’s values posited by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Swimming World in particular. Their discussion articulates why modern swimming has a whiteness problem that historically and currently is centered on the white community, making Keller’s actions a product of US swimming, and explicitly not an aberration of it nor of Trump’s followers. Importantly, Dr. Fryar explains how – like point that Dr. Kevin Dawson made in our episode with him and that other scholars have shown – white Euro-Americans have consistently made bodies of water a site of intense trauma and pain for Black swimmers, which has led directly to horrendous drowning statistics. Our ensuing discussing shows how US swimming’s white supremacy is a real public health concern that Keller contributed to through his white terrorism.
We then turn to analyzing the media’s white apologist portrayals of Keller, such as why their focus on his mental health issues, homelessness, and his white teammates and coaches’ sympathetic responses is a white tactic not actually aimed at highlighting mental health issues; rather, it is an intentional attempt to individualize Keller’s actions rather than tackle the core issue of his racism, terrorism, and where it fits within the swimming community. This is clear when we compare how Keller, Ryan Lochte, and Michael Phelps have been treated for their crimes with white gloves compared to Tamir Rice and the countless other Black boys and men who have been murdered by the police for far less and even non-criminal behaviors. Dr. Fryar points to the issue that sports journalists are not trained to analyze racism, classism, and other issues as evidenced by her students’ research about how the Hillsborough incident was covered by the sports media.
We end the conversation by dissecting the appallingly inadequate – but perhaps not surprising – statements made by USA Swimming and to a lesser extent Team USA. We question the ‘values’ that USA Swimming supposedly stands for, and what their silence regarding Keller’s white supremacy means for the sport and Black swimmers. Dr. Hodler mentions the Swimmers for Change episode with Lia Neal, Cullen Jones, and Anthony Ervin as being one of the first comprehensive spotlights on the racist discrimination that swimmers of color face in the sport.
This conversation is very much a continuation of our Swimming Week series of episodes from September 2020. Check them out if you would like to hear more about the sport’s discriminatory foundation, such as its white supremacy with Dr. Kevin Dawson here and Dr. Hodler here!
More on Dr. Fryar (including her forthcoming book!), can be found here. You can find her on Twitter too! Check out the 2 pieces she mentioned in the episode, about the economic barriers that she and countless others faced in trying to join a club swim team for The Toast, and also for Media Diversified about why we need to address the racist stereotype that Black people cannot swim in light of Simone Manual’s gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
More on Dr. Hodler can be found here, and you can find him on Twitter too! Check out one of his pieces about Phelps.
For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)
Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.
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@Derekcrim
@JohannaMellis
@Nkalamb
@EndofSportPod
www.TheEndofSport.com
Episode 58: “A Horrific Canadian Soccer Story” with Ciara McCormack, Part II
Episode 57: “Our Passion Was Used Against Us” with Ciara McCormack, Part I
Episode 56: Raging Against the (College Sports) Machine with David West and Ricky Volante
Episode 55: Constructing New Rooms with Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
Episode 54: Anthropology of an American Pandemic with Adia Benton
Episode 53: Georgia On My Mind with Amanda Mull
Episode 52: Fascism, Spectacle, and Politics with Maximillian Alvarez and Sina Rahmani
Episode 51: Racialized Organizations, Politics, (and Sports) with Victor Ray
Episode 50: Harm and Hockey with Rick Westhead
Episode 49: Sport and COVID-19 Special with Gavin Yamey and Zachary Binney
Episode 48: #WeAreUnited with Otito Ogbonnia
Episode 47: Talking Gymnastics with Jessica O’Beirne of GymCastic
Episode 46: Swimming While Black with Jamal Hill
Episode 45: Racialized Nationalism and Hegemonic Masculinity in Swimming with Matt Hodler
Episode 44: The Culture of Abuse in Swimming with Katherine Starr
Episode 43: The Golden Age of Black Swimming with Kevin Dawson
Episode 42: Cheer, College Football, and Suffering as Virtue with Amanda Mull
Episode 41: “Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back” with Kavitha Davidson and Jessica Luther
Episode 40: On the Player Strikes
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