American football and national pride: Racial differences.

Over the past four decades, scholars from diverse disciplines have consistently emphasized the role of sport in expressing, reflecting, or producing national sentiments (Abell et al., 2007; Bairner, 2001; Ehn, 1989; Gibbons, 2011; MacClancy, 1996; Marks, 1998; Solis, 1996; Sorek, 2007; Tuastad, 1997; van Hilvoorde et al., 2010). Both sport and national identity, however, are “contested racial terrains,” where constant struggles over the meaning and role of racial categories are taking place (Beamon and Messer, 2014; Buffington, 2005; Hartmann, 2000). American national identity has been shaped by a struggle between “racial nationalism,” a political world-view that associates American identity with whiteness and a more inclusive racially-blind “civic nationalism,”which links American identity to the adoption of certain values (Gerstle, 2001). Throughout American history these two perspectives had competed over the legal definition of citizenship, naturalization laws, distribution of resources, and the popular understanding of who and what is entitled to be considered “American”. At the same time, sports have been a sphere for major-race related dialectical tensions: segregation vs. integration, oppression vs. resistance, and the perpetuation vs. elimination of racial stereotypes (Carrington, 2010:88; Hartmann, 1996). This paper examines the intersection of these two contested terrains surrounding the most widely followed sport in contemporary America: football. The football spectacle contains explicit displays of patriotism and discourses of opportunity and hard work, each contributing to narratives of national identity. Furthermore, whilemany sport events include singing the national anthem and displays of the flag, among the three American hegemonic sports (football, baseball, and basketball) the football spectacle is unique in explicitly incorporating displays of military strength and unity in its choreography. Our basic premise is that if football plays a role in shaping American national identity, this role should be expressed in a positive statistical correlation between being a football fan and indicators of national identification. At the same time, the importance of race in the construction of national identities, as well as in determining socio-political dynamics in the sport sphere raises the question whether any such influences may also differ by race. The existing literature suggests at least two scenarios. The ideal of a color-blind meritocratic order that is ever-present in sport in general (Birrell, 1989; Hartmann, 2003) is especially salient in the hegemonic narrative of American national identity. For many spectators, displays of athleticism and successful teamwork may affirm the importance of meritocracy in their