Cam Newton and Russell Westbrook's Symbolic Resistance to Whiteness in the NFL and NBA

Using critical rhetorical analysis (McKerrow, 1989 McKerrow, R. E. (1989). Critical rhetoric: Theory and praxis. Communication Monographs, 56(2), 91–111. doi:10.1080/03637758909390253[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) as a method of analysis and critique, and informed by critical whiteness studies (Nakayama & Krizek, 1995 Nakayama, T. K., & Krizek, R. L. (1995). Whiteness: A strategic rhetoric. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 81, 291–309. doi:10.1080/00335639509384117[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Black feminist thought (Collins, 1991 Collins, P. H. (1991). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]), this project argues that NFL North Carolina Panthers' quarterback Cam Newton and NBA Oklahoma City Thunder's point guard Russell Westbrook rhetorically perform an alternative Black masculinity that symbolically contests whiteness's surveillance of male bodies who occupy Black positionality in the NFL and NBA via their performance of cool pose (Majors & Billson, 1992 Majors, R. & Billson, J. (1992). Cool pose: The dilemmas of Black manhood in America. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Maxwell McMillan. [Google Scholar]). Focusing on news and sports media coverage in the 2015–2016 season, this project also interrogates whiteness's strategies to reconstitute Newton and Westbrook's expressions of cool pose by inscribing Black masculinity with belittling and dehumanizing controlling images that favor whiteness and White masculinity. This manuscript closes with a discussion of the harmful repercussions of whiteness's strategies in pro sports as well as the possibilities that athletes like Newton and Westbrook bring forth for social justice initiatives.