The ideology of neoliberalism cannot merely be pruned so far back only to see it as process of crafting or reimagining how we are to think about the climate and conditions of our economics and politics. An entanglement with neoliberalism is not just the consequential alterations of how we think, yet also a transformation of who we are. In the process of changing how we consider policies and practices to align with free-market values and an economic rationality, it too transforms our soul (Harvey, 2005). The point of neoliberalism is shared among the ways in which we alter our thinking, generate policies and practices, and enable a revolution of self. Individualism, as a virtue of the neoliberal project, is stimulated and operationalized through reconstructed investments in the cultivation of human capital. All persons and institutions are composed as rational actors who make judicious decisions that serve their interests. Neoliberal ideology endeavors to unambiguously construct individual and institutions as consumers of the market (Giroux, 2005). As goods and services are privatized, people are constructed as entrepreneurial actors able to consume that which is necessary to retain the life and overall persona of self that they desire. To achieve these ends, the free market thrives on consumer choice so that decisions are determined through the economic rationality of a cost versus benefit analysis. Possessing a particular lifestyle, personal brand or image, or to acquire various forms of capital that can fill one’s bank account, strengthen a resume, or even elevate one’s status of influence is possible through a series of choices that seek to leverage the accrual of capital. The individual and intuition is a perpetual economic, entrepreneurial consumer whose interests are achieved by a continuous series of coherent decisions (Giroux, 2005).
The hegemonic force of neoliberalist ideology is rife with contradictions similar to the overly optimistic claims of the Keynesian welfare state (Jones & Ward, 2002; Palley, 2005). Neoliberalism, has proved historically, to be far more of a convenient truth and managerial strong-arm over its declaration to deliver universal prosperity. The ideological hegemony has facilitated a widening of economic and sociocultural divides since its inception (Plehwe, Walpen, & Neunhoffer, 2006). While state-intervention is generally condemned by neoliberalist as an act of distortion to negatively infringe upon market values and its effectiveness and efficiencies, government intervention has been common and necessary to purge existing social welfare programs and policies (Brenner & Theodore, 2002; Harvey, 2003; Jomo & Baudot, 2007). The powers of the state, by way of the contradictions of neoliberalism, have historically been extended as a strategy to promote capitalist accumulation to manage social and economic crisis as well as to manage communities neoliberally defined as being in-crisis (Jones & Ward, 2002; Lentin & Titley, 2011; Lipman, 2013; Slater, 2015). State-interventions such as intensified resources allocated for policing communities, implementations of rigid penal codes (e.g. mandatory minimums), educational reform policies have been aligned with the political and economic neoliberal agendas. Many argue these reform movements and policy alignments couched by tropes better known as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top (Alemán et al., 2011; Hursh, 2007a).
A charismatic trait of the neoliberal project lies within its conjecture of post-ideological politics. The ensemble of ideas, politics, and discourse that constitute the defining values, policies and practices of neoliberalism serve dual purposes. In one regard, this assemblage attempts to outline how to achieve the end goals of economic prosperity and sociocultural equity. In another regard, the same congregation of ideas, politics and discourse impart that evolutions of ideological contestation end at neoliberalism (Apple, 2001a, 2004a; Munck, 2005). In other words, neoliberalism attempts to have us all believe that it is irrational and illogical to think beyond the logic and rationality of neoliberalism, it self. A popularized phrase in the neoliberalist discourse is “There is no alternative” or TINA (Apple, 2004a; Munck, 2005). While seemingly sounding like oversimplifying the nuances of neoliberal ideology, the echo of TINA became the preeminent mantra for political and economic change from the Keynesian welfare state to fundamentalist fights for free-market freedoms and individual rights.
The aims of neoliberalism are not intended to eradicate inequality (Saunders, 2007). But rather, the conviction of the agenda is to encourage that free markets are, in fact, dependent on some degree of perpetual inequality (Apple, 2001a, 2001b). The capability of a market to show degrees of inequality facilitates an inscription of how ones’ status within a marketplace is not predicated on an unjust market, yet is fundamentally a consequence—positive or negative—of individuals’ determination, innate abilities, and their commitment to grind. Accordingly, markets that reveal an inequitable distribution of benefits to its stakeholders is not, based on neoliberal theory, a sign of injustice, but rather indicative of an effective market. Such a market is seen as duly rewarding those that contribute adequate effort and hard work. Simultaneously, the same market communicates, to all, that one’s shortcomings of effort and unrefined commitments to access particular market benefits is a just consequence and fairly defines individuals as undeserving. Here, the process of defining and redefining individuals and institutions as deserving and underserving based on ideas of effort, innate abilities, and commitment to develop into quality market contributors is used to rationalize policies and practices that support free markets values, privatization and divestment in public goods, and an investment in ventures of human capital development.
The Fight of the Century
W. E. B. Du Bois, in 1903, prophetically recognized and asserted that the color-line would prove to be the perpetual problem of the twentieth century. At the end that very decade for which Du Bois gave his philosophical diagnosis of the Souls of Black Folk and a prognosis of twentieth-century race relations, the heavy weight champion of the world, a young black athlete from Galveston, Texas, would step into a boxing ring to face his most durable opponent. While Johnson, stood atop the canvas of the boxing ring, starring into the eyes of the nation’s great white hope, Jim Jefferies, it was no secret that he also stood toe-to-toe with the gloved fists of a hegemonic ideology, also named Jim. The dynamics of whiteness would serve as the referee to call the fight between Johnson’s secondary opponent. Although not visible in the flesh, the spirit of its presence certainly presided overall in that moment.
The Johnson versus Jefferies fight was billed the fight of the century (Roberts, 2004). And although Jack Johnson stood victorious after the fifteenth round beneath the squelching sun, his victory was yet another paradoxical substantiation of the problem of the color-line. Nearly two decades into the twenty-first century, we continued to be saddled by this very color-line of race. There is zero indication, at best, that race will not remain a problem for generations to come. Similar to Jack Johnson, black athletes today are standing toe-to-toe in a fight of the twenty-first century. Only today, the opponent paired against black athletes is not Jim Crow, but rather the fierce hegemony of neoliberalism.
There is much research and literature concerning neoliberalism at the intersections of institutional structuring, policies and practices of education (Apple, 2013; Giroux, 2003; Olssen & Peters, 2005; Harvey, 2005; Hursh & Martina, 2003; Ross & Gibson, 2007). While the permeations of neoliberalism into systems and processes of education have stimulated a breadth of critical thought and understandings, there remains a dearth of robust knowledge as to how these phenomena pertain to black intercollegiate athletes’ experiences and education. My aim is to build upon this body