Kickboxing with Bourdieu: Heterodoxy, hysteresis and the disruption of “race thinking”

Abstract

This article deploys Bourdieu’s conceptualization of habitus to examine how fighters at a Muay Thai/Kickboxing gym in East London challenge their taken-for-granted thinking about race (their racial doxa). I argue that through training to fight, people experience “hysteresis” as they find themselves within situations where their habitus – and relatedly their doxa – no longer adequately guides them. This results in a questioning of racial doxa that previously went unquestioned, which Bourdieu refers to as ‘heterodoxy’; an alternative to doxa. This article subsequently offers empirically informed theoretical insights by establishing a relationship between habitus, race and racism. It argues that the reproduction of racist thought and action is not inevitable, as people find ways to break habitual practices in their everyday life.