A Qualitative Study of March Madness

A 2019 study by Dr. Ray and Dr. Foy provides a great example of how social institutions can reinforce racial biases.  Dr. Ray and his co-author Dr. Steven Foy, of the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, transcribed 52 men’s college basketball broadcasts, including 11 championship games. They were looking at the ways broadcasters talk about players of different skin tones, and whether racial bias was at play.  Dr. Ray and Dr. Foy found that the institution of media (specifically broadcasters) can reinforce racial stereotypes using different language for white players and black players.  This use of language is also a great example of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and how language can produce and reify stereotypes.  

The original research article from U of Chicago is called Skin in the Game: Colorism and the Subtle Operation of Stereotypes in Men’s College Basketball and is published in the American Journal of Sociology 2019.

'Crafty' Vs. 'Sneaky': How Racial Bias In Sports Broadcasting Hurts Everyone is a summary of the research from Public Radio where you can listen to Ray and Foy talk about their research:

"That’s a tough matchup for JJ Redick on the glass. Redick not known as a rebounder. Tasmin Mitchell much stronger, bigger and more athletic."

"I mean, of course, we can highlight some of these bigger comments that most people would consider to be racist," says Dr. Rashawn Ray, who teaches sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. "But instead, what we were highlighting, in many ways, is implicit bias and the subtle ways that race actually operates, when it comes to talking about some of these historical stereotypes, about what it means to be Black and physically superior and, at the same time, intellectually inferior, and, on the other hand, what it means to be lighter-skinned or white." 

As you watch the games, be mindful of how the announcers talk about the different players and how that can affect society's stereotypes of different categories of people.

What examples can you here in the broadcast?