Playing the Game: Embodied Brilliance Beyond the Moral Limits of Race in Sport

Playing the Game investigates the intersection of race and ethics in cultural misinterpretations of Black athleticism in the United States. The book demonstrates the way Black athletes expose the colonizing logic of white supremacy and the story it tells of a post-racial society. It applies womanist theological ethics and theologies of embodied spirituality to three exemplars—Marshawn Lynch, Steph Curry, and Deion Sanders—who epitomize the play of racial politics surrounding depictions of the Black male athlete as "beast." All three are celebrated public figures who illustrate and then frustrate cultural attempts to flatten the embodied brilliance of Black athletes based on moral rationalities that reflect a racist history. The book reads the athleticism of Lynch, Curry, and Sanders in light of theological perspectives that question "human" as a category, reimagining them as embodiments of divine freedom who creatively transform the racial politics of sport. Learning to recognize the theological significance of Black athleticism makes legible ethical possibilities that contribute to the play of anti-racism in the United States.