Abstract
Researchers have illustrated how this post–Civil Rights period is marked by significant changes to the organization and implementation of systems of racial stratification and expressions of racialized hostility. Consonant with the persistence of racial inequality is the notion that “race” is no longer relevant. In this context, we consider print media accounts of Nancy Lopez’s participation in 14 tournaments between June and October 2002. The Lopez Farewell Tour signaled the end of her 26-year career on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour. We suggest that representations of Lopez are linked to new strategies of racialization that strengthen white racial power and privilege. We argue that the popularity of Nancy Lopez, a light-skinned Latina, was not simply evidence of a move towards color-blindness; rather, it was illustrative of the ways in which discourses of whiteness are communicated through their articulation with formations of gender, social class, and heterosexuality.