Blog post by Max Mauro, Bournemouth University, UK
 
Lamine Yamal, the 17-year-old wonderkid in the world of football, has three tiny flags printed on his boots: that of Equatorial Guinea, the country of origin of his mother; that of Morocco, the country of origin of his father; and that of Spain, the country where he was born and that he decided to represent in international competitions. His case is not original; over the last decades, many athletes with multiple national backgrounds have risen to fame.
 
They are often the offspring of migration journeys from the Global South to the Global North or members of ethnic minorities. In one case or the other, they have likely been racialized, and they often claim to have experienced racism and discrimination. Furthermore, their belonging to the ‘nation’ is frequently questioned in public and media discourse, as happened to the members of the France national teams who won the men’s FIFA World Cup in 1998 and 2018.
 
The global visibility of sports such as football magnifies the impact that these dynamics can have on popular culture. In a way, the sporting spectacle exposes the fragility of the 'imagined communities' that we call nations by showing that is perfectly normal to have multiple belongings. As noted by Stuart Hall, identities are never fully settled; they are made of continuous additions and diversions. However, this contradicts the way sports and media usually represent people and nations; as crystallized identities, often fixed in stereotypical traits.

Blog post by Heather Poke, Michigan State University, USA
 
In this blog, Heather Poke, a second-year master’s student in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, reflects on what it means to navigate higher education as a first-generation Black woman from a low-income, rural community in Alabama.
 
I remember watching the different road signs pass by through the window in my U-Haul, and reality kicked in: I’m really moving 12 hours away from home. My first day of class at the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University was terrifying, yet a proud moment. I was the first of my family to move hours away from home ‘just for school’, as my parents stated. And the only thing I kept repeating to myself was: ‘You’re too country for the north’.
 
Despite moving to a slightly better environment, I had to leave behind things that shaped me, like my hometown. I grew up in a rural town in Alabama, called York, a predominantly Black community with limited resources. Not only were the resources limited for my community (health), but also academically.
My community placed my high school basketball team on a pedestal, and the idea of relying on higher education was considered a shadow or often viewed as a dream rather than a reality. Observing my loved ones struggle to make ends meet while still being classified as ‘lower class’ inspired me to seek education as a means of achieving stability and opportunity. This is what motivated me to further my education.