The Role of Whiteness in Football and Its Relation to Racism in the English Game

Name : Geoffrey Yeow

Student ID : 6100103105

Module : POLM802 Politics of Governance and Resistance

Task : First Essay

The role of 'Whiteness' in football and its relation to racism in the English game.

Introduction

Even though there has been extensive literature and research about racism and racial discrimination in not only the English professional football industry but other parts of the globe, the concept of whiteness has largely escaped sustained examination. Racism in sports and specifically, the FA Premier League (the highest level of football in England) has become a source of debate in recent times with the incident involving Liverpool Football Club's Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez and Manchester United Football Club's French defender Patrice Evra. This is just the latest in a long line of cases where issues surrounding racism and racial discrimination has been at the forefront of English football. However, I would argue that an examination of racism in the game could achieve greater depth by exploring notions of whiteness, which is one element that has been overlooked until recent times. One plausible cause for this oversight could be that the formation of the identity of whiteness is part of a process that involves ‘the labelling of the other while typically denying the labelling of the self’ (Long & Hylton 2002, p.87) which leaves the discourse of whiteness very much invisible and in the background when it comes to critical discourse of English football.

My argument is that the continued success of non-white football players and the increasing cosmopolitan nature of the English league has masked the fact that racism is still rife both on and off the pitch, and the conception of whiteness can, to some extent, help us in exploring these acts of racism and its consequences. The choice to use whiteness was a delicate one, given that by undertaking this project I run the risk of recentering and/or perpetuating the hegemonic and...