ABSTRACT
Within what the authors characterise as the ‘Kaepernick moment’, this chapter theorises various contextual forces (cultural, economic, and political) that have coalesced to create new spaces for high-profile Black athlete activism and protest in a divided America. The twenty-first century hyper-visibility of Black commercial aesthetics, while oft an exploitative affair within systems of post-Fordist cultural appropriation, has also predicated the emergence of a new wave of Black athlete activism using new media technologies to leverage the public platforms of superstar celebrity athletes. In the current political moment of re-ignited racial tensions, widespread evidence of police brutality, and the subsequent emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the increasingly politicised role of Black American athletes is contextualised as an outcome of the popular commercial viability of Black (sporting) culture, and a broader social response to existential demands for justice. From Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick and Carmelo Anthony, the intersections of commercial representation and political activism are discussed through specific examples that demonstrate the continued potentiality of celebrity athletes to be powerfully influential in challenging social inequities and injustice, redefining traditional notions of American patriotism, and advocating for a more egalitarian American project.
