Conjuring and Calming Anxiety: CrossFit and Whiteness in Contemporary America

Abstract

This paper examines anxiety for elite white Americans in the contemporary United States. Using ethnographic experiences in CrossFit, I explore the relationship among anxiety, physical pain, and mental resilience in the workout regimen. I use Paul Tillich's understanding of anxiety to explain the alchemic process that transforms anxiety into fear to elicit courage during a workout, focusing on the framework of “mental fitness” provided by CrossFitters. I then illustrate how workout anxiety and resilience reveal a version of “white anxiety” as CrossFitters map their workout anxieties and triumphs onto their professional lives. I use a framework of racialized affect to think through the cultural phenomenon of white anxiety in the United States. I argue that CrossFit workout anxiety grounds existential anxiety experienced by elite, white Americans. This paper is based on over 6 years of ethnographic research on CrossFit and a process of knowledge production facilitated by the anthropology of anxiety workshop participants.