Football and race talk among Dutch football media audiences (intern rapport)

Studying football talk is relevant given its role as a “cultural barometer” to measure popular ideas about race/ethnicity. The study mainly shows the existence and reproduction of racialized/ethnicized mindsets within football talk among majority and minority ethnic youth audiences. The researchers consider the patterns of almost routine and unconscious racial/ethnic stereotyping problematic, especially as they seem difficult to change. Their finding that many respondents themselves find the use of these stereotypes acceptable is in line with a recent study among Dutch audiences that showed a renewed acceptance for racial/ethnic stereotypes. Unfortunately, this does not point to progress in thinking about ‘race/ethnicity’ in the football context and Dutch society generally. They therefore recommend, following Azzarito and Harrison’s advice, that researchers in the Dutch and international context invest more energy in disseminating their findings to further destabilize and challenge commonsensical assumptions around race/ethnicity and sport. Such dissemination and debate should take place in/with key institutional sites such as schools, sport clubs, and sport media. In addition to this, future research should further explore and reveal the invisibility and operation of whiteness and white privilege as discussed in this research, both among football media audiences and producers of sport media.