An Athlete's Humble Beginnings: A Place-Based Narrative in Need of Repair

Sports plays a unique role in American culture, acting as a source of entertainment and community identity. It is also a microcosm of society that simultaneously reflects and guides cultural and racial difference. Those differences are illuminated by the journey of the African-American athlete as “large numbers of Americans across racial lines interact with sport and are impacted by its remarkable racial dynamics (Hartmann, 2000, p. 231). The media depictions of Black athletes as super-human, aggressive bodies that are products of poor, blighted and dangerous neighborhoods have created a dominant humble beginnings narrative that stigmatizes Black athletes and marginalized neighborhoods – creating an imagined Black sense of place and space that travels with the athletes as they move from city to city for their professional careers. Grounded in Black Geographies, this research intersects race, the media-framing of male athletes, and neighborhood stigma, providing a new lens through which to evaluate marginalized communities. This research also disrupts the dominant narrative by de-centralize the Black body and offering variations of the lived experience as shared by 30 Black NFL players. Understanding alternate storylines creates new imaginaries of marginalized Black communities and what is needed to improve the quality of life. It concludes with a consideration that scholars and journalists highlight variations of the humble beginnings experience and share the stories of Black athletes who do not come from humble beginnings to help deconstruct racial and geographic stigmas.