{"id":4725,"date":"2016-06-23T17:27:14","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T17:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=4725"},"modified":"2016-06-23T17:27:14","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T17:27:14","slug":"trumps-dog-whistle-the-white-screwed-over-sports-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/trumps-dog-whistle-the-white-screwed-over-sports-icon\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s dog whistle: the white, screwed-over sports icon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle W. Kusz<\/a>, University of Rhode Island<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

While athletes and coaches<\/a> can be overlooked vehicles of political ideology, they often play key symbolic roles in the cultural and political life of any nation. Look no further than Muhammad Ali, whose recent death reminded us how an athlete can also stand up for racial justice and religious freedom.<\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s presidential race, one candidate has been especially eager to capitalize on the support of athletes and coaches. On June 11, at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump crowed to his supporters<\/a> that Steelers star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had his back.<\/p>\n

\n

I love Big Ben. Do we love Big Ben? I just spoke with him, what a great guy. And he\u2019s with us 100 percent.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The only problem? Roethlisberger reportedly told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\u2019s Ed Bouchette that he hadn\u2019t endorsed Trump and doesn\u2019t plan on doing so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t the first time Trump name-dropped a famous local sports hero to try to ingratiate himself with an audience.<\/p>\n

Along with Roethlisberger, he has humble-bragged about friendships with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight and the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. He\u2019s appeared at campaign events with Knight, NASCAR CEO Brian France and NASCAR drivers Bill and Chase Elliott.<\/p>\n

Reportedly, Trump even wants to hold<\/a> a \u201cwinner\u2019s evening\u201d during the Republican convention that will showcase American athletes, because \u201cour country needs to see winners\u2026 We don\u2019t see winners anymore. We have a bunch of clowns running this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what, exactly, is Trump doing? Well, these sports figures all have one thing in common: They\u2019re all white men.<\/p>\n

As someone who has examined the racial and gender meanings embedded in media stories about sport stars, I\u2019ve been fascinated by Trump\u2019s repeated use of white male sports icons on the campaign trail \u2013 especially in a contemporary American sports landscape where people of color increasingly dominate the playing ranks.<\/p>\n

Unlike other politicians’ use of sports stars when campaigning, Trump seems to be taking it a step further, using them as a way to \u201cdog whistle\u201d his support for white, male entitlement.<\/p>\n

Sports as presidential symbols<\/h2>\n

For years, presidential candidates have attempted to connect themselves with sports or famous athletes to endear themselves to voters.<\/p>\n

For candidates seeking to cultivate mass appeal \u2013 especially in an era of media fragmentation \u2013 there\u2019s perhaps no better association to make. Nearly 60 percent<\/a> of Americans call themselves sports fans, and almost 112 million tuned in for Super Bowl 50<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his book \u201cLeading Men: Presidential Campaigns and the Politics of Manhood,\u201d<\/a> masculinity scholar Jackson Katz<\/a> has documented how American presidents and presidential candidates have long used sports metaphors \u2013 and even invented personal sporting histories \u2013 to try to endear themselves to the electorate.<\/p>\n

Teddy Roosevelt loved to talk about how he followed boxing and college football, while Ronald Reagan drew his nickname \u2013 \u201cThe Gipper\u201d \u2013 from his performance as Notre Dame football star George Gipp in the 1940 film \u201cKnute Rockne, All American.\u201d John F. Kennedy famously played vigorous games of touch football with family and, of course, Gerald Ford was a standout football player at the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Gerald Ford was a star football player at the University of Michigan.<\/span>
\n Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More recently, George W. Bush made Little League baseball games on the front lawn of the White House an annual event. Sarah Palin\u2019s playing days as a high school point guard were highlighted <\/a> when she was first introduced as John McCain\u2019s vice presidential nominee.<\/p>\n

And even though he made an embarrassing attempt at bowling<\/a> to better connect with working-class white voters, President Barack Obama regularly talks about his love of basketball. He\u2019s also made filling out NCAA March Madness basketball brackets on ESPN<\/a> an annual event.<\/p>\n

On dog whistles<\/h2>\n

But when it comes to Trump\u2019s direct appeal to sports fans, there might be something more sinister at play.<\/p>\n

Many have wondered whether Trump\u2019s fiery rhetoric and policy proposals are simply a less filtered version of the usual Republican stances<\/a> or whether they signal a more dangerous proto-fascist<\/a>, far right<\/a>, authoritarian<\/a> political turn.<\/p>\n

But no one has addressed how Trump\u2019s use of white sportsmen operates as an important \u201cdog whistle\u201d during his bid for the presidency.<\/p>\n

According to UC-Berkeley law professor Ian Haney-Lopez, a \u201cdog whistle\u201d occurs when one makes a racial appeal to a targeted audience without explicitly mentioning race.<\/p>\n

In his book \u201cDog Whistle Politics<\/a>,\u201d Haney-Lopez shows how American politicians \u2013 most often, Republicans \u2013 have used this sort of coded talk since the civil rights movement to appeal to white voters who fear that changes to American society have diminished their social status. Phrases like \u201claw and order<\/a>,\u201d \u201cstates\u2019 rights<\/a>,\u201d \u201cwelfare queens<\/a>\u201d and \u201cthe makers and the takers<\/a>\u201d have been regularly used by politicians to stoke white fears without any explicit mention of race.<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s case, he may be using these white sportsmen as crucial symbols to connect voters with his political message.<\/p>\n

The racial undertones of Trump\u2019s athletes<\/h2>\n

According to data<\/a> collected by the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies, \u201cTrump\u2019s core strength remained his advantage amongst men and non-college-educated whites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump taps into and cultivates the anger and angst of those white men who feel as though they\u2019ve lost social standing relative to immigrants, LGBT individuals, women and people of color (despite all evidence to the contrary<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Through his inclusion of white sports legends like Brady, Paterno and Knight in his campaign to \u201cMake America Great Again,\u201d Trump symbolically reveals how white men who are \u2013 in his vernacular \u2013 \u201ctotal winners\u201d<\/a> constitute his vision for America\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

But these athletes and coaches aren\u2019t just \u201cwinners.\u201d They\u2019re also each, in their own way, polarizing figures who have suffered falls.<\/p>\n

Talk to fans of Knight, Paterno or Brady<\/a> and they\u2019ll rant about how their legacies have been tarnished by bureaucrats, ranging from university officials to the NFL\u2019s commissioner\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Listen more closely and you\u2019ll hear, in coded form, a defense of white male entitlement. You\u2019ll hear echoes of Trump\u2019s belief that the country is now run by \u201cPC-police<\/a>\u201d who have withdrawn institutional support for white men.<\/p>\n

Recall how Penn State students swarmed the streets of Happy Valley<\/a>, overturned cars and demonstrated vociferously when Penn State fired Paterno, despite his complicity in protecting assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who had been found guilty of 45 counts of child sexual abuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or Knight\u2019s astonishment<\/a> when he was fired from his job as the basketball coach at Indiana University after decades of documented abusive behavior toward students, players, staff and administrators. (IU students also took to the streets and even issued threats<\/a> to Knight\u2019s final accuser, an IU student himself.)<\/p>\n

In both cases, Paterno, Knight and their devout supporters seemed unable to comprehend how a white male sporting legend was not entitled to a blank check of protection from an institution \u2013 perhaps even society writ large \u2013 because they were \u201cwinners\u201d who had brought moments of joy to their communities. (Even Brady<\/a> and Roethlisberger<\/a> have also had their moments of notoriety.)<\/p>\n

And Trump probably realizes that to his crowds, these sports icons evoke a version of white manhood \u2013 embattled, unapologetic, and uncompromising \u2013 that strongly resonates.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Kyle W. Kusz<\/a>, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies of Sport\/Media, University of Rhode Island<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyle W. Kusz, University of Rhode Island While athletes and coaches can be overlooked vehicles of political ideology, they often play key symbolic roles in the cultural and political life of any nation. Look no further than Muhammad Ali, whose recent death reminded us how an athlete can also stand up for racial justice and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":4726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6],"tags":[414,710,713,479,712,711,203,420,714],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4727,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions\/4727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}