WHO DA' IMAN: BLACK MASCULINITIES AND SPORT IN CANADA Gama1 Abdel-Shehid A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial filfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Philosophy Graduate Programme in Sociology York University North York Ontario Decernber 1999 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Wellington OtiawaON KIAON4 OttawaON K1AON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Who Da' Man: Black Masculinities and Sport in Canada Gama1 Abdel-Shehid by a dissertation subrnitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillrnent of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY O Permission has been granted to the LIBRARY OF YORK UNIVERSITY to tend or sell copies of this dissertation, to the NATIONAL LISRARY OF CANADA to microfilm this dissertation and to lend or sell copies of the film. and to UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS to publish an abstract of this dissertation. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the dissertation nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. Abstract Over the last twenty to twenty-five years, there has been a considerable upsurge in black sporting cultures in Canada. Today, it could be argued, black sporting cultures constitute an essential part of the national fabric. Unfortunately, the literature in the areas of both Cultural Studies of Sport and the sociology of sport have not responded to this change. As this thesis comrnents in its introduction, there is still a persistent view that Canadian sporting cultures are defrned by hockey and a hostile manichean relation between Canada (the good) and the United States (the bad) Who Da ' -Man is an investigation into questions of black masculinities and sporting cultures in Canada with a view to both marking these demographic shifts and to highlighting the tensions within them. Specifically, the thesis is geared around the subject of masculinity, and suggests that, while the way in which officia1 or cornmon- sense notions of Canada act to place blackness to the nation's boundaries, there is another element in the process, which is the performance of black masculinities by black athletes themselves, both at the local and national levels. This tension is what the thesis focuses on, in that it is an andysis of the ways that these masculinities are performed in both progressive and reactionary ways. The thesis involves three case studies: which are focused on basketball in Toronto, the quarterback and the phenornena of scrambling in the Canadian Football League, and the way that images and representations of track and field athletes Donovan Bailey and Ben Johnson. Methodologically, this thesis is grounded in bIack Cultural Studies, and it is reliant upon the work of C.L.R. James, Hazel Carby, bel1 hooks, Frantz Fanon, Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall. In addition, the thesis pays attention to questions of performativity and hybridity, and borrows on the work of Homi Bhabha. Table of Contents Introduction ........................... .. ......................................................................... 1 C hapter 1: Black Masculinities and Spoa in Canada: A fiarnework ................... -13 Chapter 2: Canada. Race. and the question of Hockey's Place................... .......... ..j0 Chapter 3 : Running Clean: Ben Johnson and the Unmaking of Canada ................ 76 Chapter 4: Who Got Next?: Raptor Morality and Black Public Masculinity in Canada ................. ... .......................................................................................... 107 Chapter 5: Scrambling through the Black Atlantic: Black Quarterbacks and Americanada........................................................................................................ 134 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 165 Notes ........................................................................................................................ 173 Select Bibliography ....................... .... ........................................................................ 182 To Mary (Maher Ghalg Abdel-Shehid and Adib Ragheb Abdei-Shehid for teaching me love and persistence It wouid be impossible for me to think about finishing this work without the generous support of fiiends, farnily, and members of my committee, who were there for me more times than they know. My sincere and hedelt thanks to you dl. First, 1would like to thank those on my Supervisory Cornmittee: Livy Visano, gay Morris, and Warren Crichlow, who, whiie they left me alone for the most part, were there when 1needed them most. What more cm you ask for? I would also like to acknowledge the support and inspiration of Ato Seky-Otu and Car1 James who read parts of this thesis in its early stages. Thanks as well to Priscilla Walton and Pemi Stewart for sewing on the exarnining committee. There are a nurnber of fnends who defïnitely deserve their props. For being temfic at various stages of this process: Lachlan Story, Tracey Henry, Mark Thomas, Eric Mikhalovskiy, Patti Phillips, Rebecca Raby, Tessy Chakkalakkal, Beth Jackson, Shei!a Cavanagh, Zelda Abramson, Marco Fonseca, Maria Casas, and the adorable Loucas, Keith Harrison, Michael Lornax, Mary Louise Adams, Jehad Al-Iweiwi, Christian Oporto, Maria Ordonez, J.J. McMurtry, Meghan Shuebrook, and Krida (hugs), Mokaysh Sarnlal, Mary-JO Nadeau, Kasia Rukszto, Renuka Sooknanan, (my PAC crew fiom back in the day), Andrew Thomton, Dan Yon, Badeya Warwar, Leslie Sanders, Dionne Falconer, Frances Latchford, Jenifer Kawaja, Cynthia Wright, and Dionne Brand. Much love and respect to you dl. To Rinaldo Walcott, thanks for al1 of the stellar advice, support and challenging me throughout. And thanks for keepin' the faith. To my brother, Ihab, and sister-in-law, Swette Benoit, to Rushurnba, and to my adorable nephew, Malek Benoit Abdel-Shehid, also known as "kut kut", many hugs and kisses. To rny queArabians Trish Salah and Dina Georgis, what to say? thanks for al1 the love, advice, intellectual fights, psychoanalysis, good times, and for building a fabulous cultural universe filled with among things, lots of yummy kibbe naya!! Finally, a special thanks to my other brother, Darius Zifonun, and his girlfiend, Miranda Jakisa, and the beautifid Shejla. Love. vii Introduction: 1. Sporting Cultures in Canada: BCackness, Patchwork 3ild hpericl Onslaught In the recent book, The Stmgglefor Canadian Sport, Bruce Kidd suggests that sport in Canada, over the last one hundred years, is defined by one central narrative. This is that sport in Canada - interchangeably defined as feminine, amateur, public and indigenous - has been in danger, and in fact has been ravaged by forces hostile to it - dternatively masculinity, corporatization, and Americans. Kidd's argument is summarized in the following (1996: 264): In short, the 1920s and 1930s witnessed the triumph of capitalist cultural production over the more avocationai and associational forms of cultural activity pursued by the middle and working classes. Purchased identity replaced the loyalties of roots and self-realization. The public spinted attempt to develop a pan-Canadian system of sport with organic links to communities across the country was subordhated to the profits of metropolitan and commercial interests. This analysis, replete with romanticism and nationalist paranoia is a common way of narrating Canada within a nationalist script. Within this script, the categories "Canada" and "Canadians" are always under siege fiom evil, extemal interests. in this regard, Kidd's "Iament for a nation" shares a series of assumptions about Canada, and who is Canadian, with conservative nationalists such as George Grant and Margaret Atwood. ' Among other things, the difficulty with this story is that it tells very little about what Canada is and who lives in it. Manicheisms structure the text, thereby dividing everything into binaries such as public and pnvate, masculine and feminine, corporate and cornmunitarian, etc. This means that nuance and ambivalence are impossible moments within Canadian sports, and perhaps Canadian society in general. Second, in speaking of Canada as a whole, Kidd is uncriticai of the way that Toronto and Montreal are often positioned as "Amerïcan" cities within the context of Western Canadian nationalisms. Third, in displacing al1 of the problems in Canadian sports to elsewhere, (most often assurned to be originating in the United States), Kidd forecloses a discussion of the way that oppression