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Rachael Ramlal
Professor Gonzalez
ENC 1102
30 March 2023
Literature Review
Throughout my childhood I have many fond memories of watching sports with my

family and friends. Sports, at the time, were an escape from reality and a time to enjoy watching

athletes bend and break supposed human limits. However, as I got older, I realized that the world

of sport is not exempt from reality. Despite sports and reality, specifically social issues, being

clearly intertwined, many choose to ignore it and claim “sports neutrality.” Because of this,

many athletes are expected to be silent, and are often ostracized if they choose to go against the

norm. However, in recent times, many athletes have found themselves at the center of protest and

using their platform to bring about change. With this in mind, due to athletes large platforms it is

important for athletes to be careful of what they say and how they say it to maximize

effectiveness. Thus, I aim to understand what rhetoric is most effective when athletes use them in

their protests, and why.

The article “Playing and Protesting: Sport as a Vehicle for Social Change” by Peter

Kaufman, and Eli A. Wolff is a thought- provoking analysis of athletes who use their platform in

the world of sports to protest, why they do this, and what about sports itself lends itself to being a

conducive medium for activism. The authors approach their research by interviewing twenty-one

athletes who have themselves been involved in protests, and analyzing the data gathered through

a Marxist perspective as well as through classical sociological theory. Kaufman and Wolff found

that the motivating factors that caused athletes to protest fall into the four dimensions of social

consciousness, meritocracy, responsible citizenship, and interdependence (171-172). In the

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simplest of forms, these categories all allude to the party protesting (in this case, an athlete) has

had some form of personal experience with the issue they choose to protest. This can range from

the said party experiencing the said issue themselves, someone the party knows personally

experiencing it, or even just witnessing someone, even a stranger, experience the said issue. The

authors also wanted to understand what makes sport conducive for activism. They went about

studying this relationship by looking into the connections between sport and social justice. They

found that the connection between sports and social justice were the similarities of the process of

participating in both activities. The processes of both include discipline, goal setting, long term

perspective, and the desire for progress (Kaufman and Wolff 170-171). The authors also noted

the usual reaction to athletes participating in protest, “When athletes do join the political

discourse and advocate for social justice, they are likely to face a backlash of contempt and

scorn” (Kaufman and Wolff 156).

Cathal Kilcine’s article “Sport and Protest: Global Perspectives, The International

Journal of the History of Sport” studies whether protest in sport is effective, and the place of

protest within sport. Kilcine uses many famous instances of athletes protesting and analyses them

and the response they garnered to draw conclusions to her questions. In studying how effective

protests are, Kilcine notes what the usual response to an athlete protesting is, “The response of

sports governing bodies to the various forms of moral protest is remarkably consistent: they

believe their sports to be apolitical in nature and they deem their events not be a suitable setting

for the expression of political opinions” (158). She did find that despite the immediate response

typically being negative, it did not mean the protests were ineffective. Kilcine uses the instance

of athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos protesting at the Olympic games to illustrate this,

“Smith and Carlos were expelled from the Olympics by the United States Olympic Committee
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immediately after their salute and greeted by a media backlash when they returned home. Over

time, however, their gesture has become one of the iconic symbols of resistance to oppression

expressed in a sporting context” (159). The author also notes what may motivate athletes to go

against the norm and use their platform in the world of sport to protest. Kilcine found that most

athletes that used their platforms to protest were, or considered themselves to be in some form,

marginalized (159).

Emma Calow’s article “Well, what was the message you got?’: the discursive power of

Naomi Osaka and her peaceful protest at the 2020 U.S. Open, European Journal for Sport and

Society” also studies what makes sport an effective method for protest. Unlike the research

previously mentioned, Calow focuses on one instance of protest for her study. She found that the

method used to protest was important, but also that the societal context in which the protest was

made was crucial for its effectiveness (358). The importance of societal context when protesting

is important across the board, but when someone such a high-profile athlete chooses to protest,

the effectiveness of their protest is even more dependent on the societal context.

Each of these previously mentioned articles, despite the dissimilar methods used, draw

very similar conclusions. Peter Kaufman, and Eli A. Wolff’ conduct multiple interviews, while

Cathal Kilcine selects multiple instances of athletes protesting and analyze them, and Emma

Calow’s studies only one instance of an athlete protesting. Both Kaufman and Wolff, and

Kilcine conclude that athletes protest for personal reasons, that the usual response to athletes

protesting is negative, and that despite this initial negative response, sports is a very conducive

medium for protest. Calow concludes that the method used to protest, and the societal context in

which a protest takes place is crucial to its effectiveness. The other two articles also note this, but

it is not within their primary focus.

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James Jasper’s book “The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in

Social Movements” focuses on understanding what protest is. Jasper looks at what constitutes a

protest, common patterns, why people protest, and all the factors that go into it. He found that

protests change based on societal context (Jasper 7). Jasper also found that protests differ with

differing audience, and different audiences cause different goals for protests (273-274).

Throughout his book, Jasper also emphasizes the importance of rhetoric in protest.

Jack Selzer’s, “Rhetorical Analysis: Understanding How Texts Persuade Readers” is

about understanding what rhetoric is, and how it is used. Selzer explains that there is not

necessarily an “official” definition of rhetorical analysis, because rhetoric itself is very broadly

defined (279). Selzer gives a simplified definition of rhetoric and explains different types of

rhetorical analysis and terms related to Aristotelian rhetoric such as ethos, pathos, and logos, as

well as the five canons of rhetoric. Most importantly Selzer finds that aptly using rhetoric is

crucial in the reception of one’s message and its effectiveness.

Each of these sources provide invaluable insight into the realm of protest in sport.

Kaufman and Wolff, Kilcine, and Calow all concur on what causes athletes to protest, what the

usual response is to an athlete protesting, what can make a protest effective, and lastly, that sport

is in fact an effective medium for protest. James Jasper, and Jack Selzer in each of their writing

focus instead on rhetoric and its importance. The insight provided in these articles and books is

important and relevant to my research questions which involve understanding how rhetoric

impacts the effectiveness of athletes’ protests, what rhetoric tends to be the most effective, and

why. Jasper and Selzer’s writing provides understanding into rhetoric, and Kaufman and Wolff,

Kilcine, and Calow provide understanding into how protest, rhetoric, and sport are

interconnected.
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Works Cited

Calow, Emma. “'Well, What Was the Message You Got?': The Discursive Power of Naomi

Osaka and Her Peaceful Protest at the 2020 U.S. Open.” Taylor & Francis, 2021,

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16138171.2021.2001171.

Kilcine, Cathal. “Sport and Protest: Global Perspectives.” Taylor & Francis, 2017,

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09523367.2017.1373001.

Kaufman, Peter, and Eli A Wolff. “Playing and Protesting: Sport as a Vehicle for Social

Change.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 2010,

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193723509360218.

Jasper, James M. The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social

Movements. The University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Bazerman, Charles, et al. “Rhetorical Analysis: Understanding How Texts Persuade Readers.”

What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual

Practices, Routledge, New York, New York, 2009, pp. 279–307.