Jimmer Fredette and the Fantasy of Reverse Discrimination

The Great White Hope?

Historic Amnesia: 

Jimmer Fredette and the Fantasy of Reverse Discrimination

by David J. Leonard | special to NewBlackMan

The 2011 draft brought cheers and optimism from teams across the nation. From the Cavs to Timberwolves, the NBA draft always provides a glimmer of hope for several of the NBA’s habitual losers. The celebratory tone was not limited to fans who concluded that this year’s player was the final piece of the puzzle, but found its way to those who saw hope beyond wins and losses with the entry of Jimmer Fredette into the NBA. Fredette, the leading scorer during the 2011 college basketball, was a highly honored point guard from Brigham Young University, having won Wooden Award, the Adolph Rupp Trophy, the Naismith Award, and the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Notwithstanding, Fredette has been positioned as a “great white hope,” a tribute to perseverance and fortitude who has worked to overcome his physical limitations and their stereotypes concerning white players.

In “ Fredette out to break NBA stereotypes ,” Ian O’Connor joins the celebration, ostensibly calling his entry into the NBA as a game changer. “In living color, Jimmer Fredette turned out to be a study in black and white, a prospect whose vertical leap was most valuable when he hurdled a stubborn stereotype and landed in the lottery of the NBA draft,” wrote O’Connor. Acknowledging his potential on the court, O’Connor focuses on the opportunities that transcend points, assists, and even wins/loses. “He could help change the unfortunate language of the NBA draft, one littered with racial code words that need to die a sudden and painful death.” His movement in the NBA potentially represents “a great moment for all right-minded fans, black and white, if it helps change the unfortunate language of sports.”

The argument that stereotypes about white basketball players represents an obstacle is nothing new. Yet, O’Connor takes the discussion to a new level, using a player who was drafted 10th overall (not to mention one who received endless media praise; every major college award) as an example of anti-white bias. In other words, what has he lost because of the stated stereotype (s/o Kenneth Carroll)? The 10th pick? Millions of dollars? Despite concerns about his defense and speed, not to mention shot selection, the level of competition he played against during college, whether or not he has a position in the NBA (point guard size with scoring guard mentality), and how has stats were inflated by the number of shots taken, he still was taken 10th in the draft. Stereotype or not, opportunities are abound for Jimmer Fredette.

While certainly guilty of hyperbole that imagines whiteness as a discriminated minority within the NBA, O’Connor’s greatest sin is his comparison between Jimmer and Doug Williams, the great NFL quarterback. To highlight his argument about racial stereotypes and the obstacles faced by athletes, O’Connor links the story of Fredette to the struggles that Williams endured as a black quarterback. "It's unfortunate that some people, whether it's the media or outside forces, will always look at athletes from a black and white standpoint," noted Doug Williams in the article. “The man who helped crush the vile stereotype that African-Americans couldn't make for winning quarterbacks. When I was playing football, an African-American quarterback didn't have as much time to prove he can play. It's unfortunate that [Fredette] might have to deal with the same thing in the NBA."

O’Connor was not alone in the deployment of a narrative fantasy depicting white as the true victim of racism in today’s sports world. Other then seized upon the linkages and Williams’ comments about Fredette in an effort to lament  reverse discrimination faced by white athletes.

O’Connor’s historic erasure is troubling to say the least. The structurally-based "pig skin" ceiling experienced by Doug Williams and countless other African American quarterbacks has its origins in white supremacist ideology that has historically denied intelligence, leadership qualities, and other skills required for the quarterback position to African Americans. According to  N. Jeremi Duru, “Quarterbacks of color were rare for the longest time, and still remain statistically rare. Centers of color, middle linebacker of color, the quote unquote ‘thinking positions’ have tended to be relatively homogenous and excluded people of color, and head coaching position as well.”

This same sort of racist logic also played out in justifying segregation in the military, exclusion from institutions of higher learning, and denial of the rights of citizenship. The exclusion of African Americans from the position of quarterback “has implications off the football field. The discrimination dynamic that surrounds the issue of Black leadership on the turf reflects the greater racism that shapes our entire society,”  writes Dave Zirin . In other words, the ideology that questions black intelligence and leadership is foundation to American racial ideology and therefore has a longstanding history inside and outside of the realm of football.

The same history cannot be pointed to when discussing Jimmer Fredette. It is hard to argue that Jimmer, a player who despite hoisting 20.7 shots per game, who is often lauded as a team player, unselfish, and someone who doesn’t dominate the ball (he has been positioned as the anti-Kobe/AI/Baller of the new school –  Thabiti Lewis ), suffers at the hands of some reversed racist conspiracy. His whiteness represents a privilege and a commodity.

At the same time, the stereotypes that play out within the media narrative is not the result of some anti-white bias (or reverse racism) but is a manifestation of white supremacist discourses (anti-black racism) that tends to construct whiteness (in opposition to blackness) as intelligence, the cerebral, the civilized, etc., qualities that are desirable in every capacity. So whereas we can link the discrimination felt by Doug Williams to high rates of unemployment or incarceration, we cannot link the purported stereotype (that confined Jimmer to the 10th pick) to denied opportunities to whites outside of the sports realm.

In fact, the celebration of Jimmer’s intelligence, work ethic, and dedication to team – his whiteness within the dominant imagination – demonstrates why black unemployment is nearly twice that of whites. Jimmer and his white peers in fact continue to reap the benefits/wages of whiteness each and every day, a fact erased by the fantasies that depict Jimmer as yet another white male suffering at the hands of America’s new racial order.

A 2011 study from Tufts University and Harvard University found that despite different views about race, both blacks and whites agree that anti-black racism has decreased during the last six decades. More importantly, these same white respondents identify anti-white racism as a significant problem, one that in 2000 outpaced anti-black racism. Jenee Desmond-Harris in “ White People Face the Worst Racism?” describes the study’s conclusions as follows:

"These data are the first to demonstrate that not only do whites think more progress has been made toward equality than do blacks, but whites also now believe that this progress is linked to a new inequality -- at their expense," note Norton and Sommers. Whites see racial equality as a zero sum game, in which gains for one group mean losses for the other."

The narrative that imagines racial progress as not only eroding anti-black racism but also reversing the playing field is commonplace, evident in this study and in writings about Jimmer Fredette. Fredette is represented as a white person who suffers because of discrimination, that same sort of treatment that African Americans USE to endure. He is imagined as someone who must deal with PREJDUICE and STEREOTYPES, the same sort of racism that players like Doug Williams USE to have to deal with it. He is celebrated as someone who in spite of obstacles and bias is successful, providing legitimacy to the neoliberal bootstrap mantra  “If they made it why can't you?”  

The historic erasure is not surprising and illustrates how sports exist as a national playground to rethink and reimagine ongoing histories. Whereas Williams faced discrimination based in longstanding white supremacist ideology that restricted his employment (and that of millions of others), Jimmer cannot say the same thing. Whereas Doug Williams and countless other black quarterbacks were criticized for their lack of intelligence, poor work ethic, questionable decision-making, and leadership skills, Jimmer has faced questions about his speed and willingness to play defense, the second which has nothing to do with racial stereotypes. Whereas Doug Williams found success in spite of the “pig-skin ceiling” because of collective action and the revolt of the black athlete, the NBA opened its arms to Jimmer Fredette with little apprehension, excited about how he can change the NBA – how he is a “breath of fresh air.” Yes, whiteness matters and Jimmer Fredette is no Doug Williams.

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David J. Leonard is Associate Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. He has written on sport, video games, film, and social movements, appearing in both popular and academic mediums. His work explores the political economy of popular culture, examining the interplay between racism, state violence, and popular representations through contextual, textual, and subtextual analysis. He is the author of Screens Fade to Black: Contemporary African American Cinema and the forthcoming After Artest: Race and the War on Hoop (SUNY Press). Leonard blogs @ No Tsuris