Strangerhood and racism in sports

Abstract

The practice of sport between different ethnic groups may lead to the experience of strangerhood, and forms of racism may find their way into sport. There are few satisfactory approaches toward explaining these phenomena, because insufficient consideration is given to the role of the body in sport. Since the body is a fait social et culturel, an experience of strangerhood may arise when people of different origins interact through the medium of the body. This is the focus of the first part of the article. The second part deals with the question of which social and political conditions lead to a racist perception and interpretation of bodily distinctions. In conclusion, an outlook is given of further questions to be investigated. It is argued that the sociology of migration and research into racism ought to devote more attention than hitherto to social structures in an embodied state and to body-related orientations of values in immigration countries.