Phantom Calls: Race and the Globalization of the NBA [Paperback]

In the twenty-first century, the idea of race in sports is rapidly changing. The National Basketball Association, for instance, was recently home to a new kind of racial conflict. After a recent playoff loss, Houston head coach Jeff Van Gundy alleged that Yao Ming, his Chinese star center, was the victim of phantom calls, or refereeing decisions that may have been ethnically biased. Grant Farred here shows how this incident can be seen as a pivotal moment in the globalization of the NBA. With some forty percent of its players coming from foreign nations, the idea of race in the NBA has become increasingly multifaceted. Farred explains how allegations of phantom calls such as Van Gundy’s challenge the fiction that America is a post-racial society and compel us to think in new ways about the nexus of race and racism in America.

Grant Farredis associate professor in the Literature Program at Duke University. He is the editor ofSAQand the author ofWhat’s My Name?: Black Vernacular Intellectuals.

Introduction

 

Son of the Whore of Asia

 

Who Can Speak of Race?

 

Speaking For

 

Living with the Outcome:  Effects of the Age of Deng

 

Anti-Americanism, Sui Generis

 

The Dark Side of the Moon

 

Acknowledgments