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The white moderate, sport and black lives matter: echoes from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “letter from birmingham jail” at the University of Iowa

Abstract This article examines responses of the “white moderate” in U.S. sport to Black Lives Matter and the current movement for racial justice. We combine Martin Luther King Jr.’s (1963) conceptualization of the white moderate as the “great stumbling block” in the stride toward Black freedom with Shannon Sullivan’s critique of contemporary white middle-class anti-racism. We analyse statements made by student athletes, coaches, and athletic department officials at the University of Iowa following a racial controversy to illuminate how the “good white moderate” responds to moments of racial crisis. We argue that the good white moderate does not acknowledge complicity with white domination of people of colour, or attempt to eliminate racial injustice, but seeks recognition of the league, brand, or organization as “not racist.” Further, we contend the good white moderate is mobilized in highly organized, commodified, and commercialized spaces of sport to safeguard the social and economic institutions that benefit those in power. Implications for how the institution of sport can move toward better responses to racial injustice are briefly discussed.