Out of the Shadows: A Biographical History of African American Athletes

IV. Race, Sport, and Celebrity Culture

IV Race, Sport, and Celebrity Culture Arthur Ashe and many of his contemporaries not only realized untold fame and a forum for speaking out on larger societal issues, but a degree of financial independence as well. They did not realize, however, the incredibly large amount of money and corporate sponsorship that have marked the careers of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Venus and Serena Williams. These four individuals, taking advantage of the new celebrity culture and the global economic market, have parlayed their successes in sport into multimillion-dollar business deals that athletes of yesteryear could only have dreamed of. Jordan, the University of North Carolina, Chicago Bulls, and Washington Wizard’s basketball great, is perhaps the most influential athletic pitchman in history, selling everything from Nike shoes, McDonald’s hamburgers, Gatorade, and Hanes underwear. Making an estimated $40 million a year at one time for product endorsements, Jordan is also involved in the restaurant business and serves on the corporate boards of Oakley and Diving Interventures. Douglas Hartmann, in his “Bound by Blackness or Above It? Michael Jordan and the Paradoxes of Post–Civil Rights American Race Relations,” provides an analysis of Jordan’s role as an icon and the “race neutral discourse that surrounded and defined him.” Although bound by race in many ways, says Hartmann, Jordan was far less constrained than those African American athletes who preceded him, seemingly able to transcend the stigma of being black and profit from his celebrity status as the world’s greatest basketball player. This apparent ability to overcome race and realize unprecedented success has been interpreted in many different ways, some observers believing that it was an indication of racial progress in sport and the larger American society. Other observers, most notably academicians interested in sport and racial issues, contend that Jordan’s apparent ability to overcome race is merely an anomaly and that his success has 3WIGGINS_pages_263-372.qxd 9/12/06 12:03 PM Page 297 diverted attention from the racial discrimination and deep-seated stereotypes that still exist in American society. Still others suggest that Jordan’s extraordinary success was actually a result of his race, people attracted to and fascinated by his blackness. The apparent ability to overcome race was just as true for Tiger Woods as it was for Michael Jordan. As Steven Pope explains in “‘Race,’ Family, and Nation: The Significance of Tiger Woods in American Culture,” Woods has, at least for middle-class white golf fans, “transcended , if not negated, racial issues altogether.” And like Jordan, Woods does not talk about race, avoids speaking out on social or political issues, and has made an extraordinary amount of money through endorsements. He nets approximately $54 million a year through his work with such corporations as Nike, American Express, Buick, Rolex, and Titlest. He complements his endorsement deals with highly publicized philanthropic work. Woods has put the “icing on the cake of his celebrity image” by means of his work with disadvantaged children. Through the Tiger Woods Foundation (established with his father, Earl, in 1996), Woods has introduced the game of golf to literally hundreds of underprivileged children . Interestingly enough, Pope cogently observes, Woods has provided more opportunities for underprivileged children to play golf by surrounding “himself with the very corporate institutions and ‘players’ that have served as the bulwarks of the establishment and system of privilege for upper-class America.” Like Woods and Jordan, Venus and Serena Williams, between them winners of all the major tennis championships, have netted millions through various endorsement deals. Appealing to advertisers because of their background growing up on public courts in Compton, California, and their enormous success in the sport, the Williams sisters have carved out careers played out on the world stage and in front of major media markets. Unfortunately, the Williams sisters have been on the receiving end of much criticism, tennis opponents and others contending that they are aloof, conceited, and noncommunicative. Although reluctant to claim that this criticism is based on race, the Williams sisters have made it clear that they believe racial prejudice still exists in the white-dominated sport of tennis. The dimensions of racism surrounding the Williams sisters is the focus of Pierre and Ellen Rodgers’s “‘Ghetto Cinderellas’: Venus and 298 RACE, SPORT, AND CELEBRITY CULTURE 3WIGGINS_pages_263-372.qxd 9/12/06 12:03 PM Page 298 Serena Williams and the Discourse of Racism.” Utilizing elements of rhetorical...