{"title":"Decolonizing the Sneaker: Sneaker Customization and the Racial Politics of Expressive Popular Culture","authors":"Brandon Wallace, D. L. Andrews","doi":"10.1177/01937235221094035","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Epitomized by the athletic sneaker industry's lucrative mining of Black bodies and Black culture, the colonization of the racial “Other” by the forces of Western consumer culture has become a defining feature of late capitalism. However, we propose that contemporary consumer culture also offers possibilities for everyday decolonizing practices, specifically those associated with sneaker customization. Drawing on 15 interviews with racially-marginalized sneaker customizers, we explored how individuals used sneaker customization to initiate critical and creative dialogues with the sneaker industry and other late colonizing forces. We found that participants used sneaker customization to assert their humanity through: signaling their personal/group identity; articulating political subversions and solidarities; and seeking to uplift disadvantaged communities. We conclude by encouraging sport scholars to critically engage the possibilities for decolonizing politics as infused within everyday popular cultural practices.","PeriodicalId":47636,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sport & Social Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Sport & Social Issues","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01937235221094035","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Epitomized by the athletic sneaker industry's lucrative mining of Black bodies and Black culture, the colonization of the racial “Other” by the forces of Western consumer culture has become a defining feature of late capitalism. However, we propose that contemporary consumer culture also offers possibilities for everyday decolonizing practices, specifically those associated with sneaker customization. Drawing on 15 interviews with racially-marginalized sneaker customizers, we explored how individuals used sneaker customization to initiate critical and creative dialogues with the sneaker industry and other late colonizing forces. We found that participants used sneaker customization to assert their humanity through: signaling their personal/group identity; articulating political subversions and solidarities; and seeking to uplift disadvantaged communities. We conclude by encouraging sport scholars to critically engage the possibilities for decolonizing politics as infused within everyday popular cultural practices.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Sport & Social Issues is an indispensable resource that brings together the latest research, discussion, and analysis on contemporary sport issues such as race, media, gender, economics, drugs, recruiting, injuries, and youth sports. Using an international, interdisciplinary perspective, Journal of Sport & Social Issues examines today"s most pressing and far-reaching questions about sport, including: World Cup soccer, gay experience and sport, social issues in sport management, youth sports, sports subcultures. Always provocative, Journal of Sports and Social Issues presents a lively public discussion of the impact of sport on social issues from many perspectives.