Physical training to fight can forge bonds that resist racial thinking

Evidence

In calling for a focus on radical forms of togetherness this paper offers qualitative insights from an ethnographic exploration of fighters at a Polish-owned Muay Thai and Kickboxing gym in East London. Developing arguments made elsewhere (Singh 2021; Singh 2022), this paper foregrounds the intimate bodily connections formed through training to fight that are not reducible to the reductive logic of “race thinking” (Gilroy 2000) or “ethnic absolutism” (Gilroy 1987), nor do they gloss over the realities of racism; quite the opposite, I empirically show how the emergence of racism within these bodily convivial encounters represents the messiness of everyday life as people attempt to grapple with – and overcome – emergent racism to maintain the rich “carnal convivial connections” they forge through training to fight alongside one another. — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 17

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the paper’s central coined concept of “carnal conviviality” and locates it between Gilroy’s race thinking and Wacquant’s carnal connections.
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 17
• XREF: connects to: Combat contact changes racial attitudes even among resistant groups; Violence against racial others functions to convince perpetrators of their own superiority — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 144; Cross-ethnic friendships formed during fight training persist beyond the gym into fighters’ daily lives — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 56 (+3 more)

Related

• Shared combat training can erase racial and gendered hierarchies through bodily friendship. (similarity 0.91)
• Cross-ethnic friendships formed during fight training persist beyond the gym into fighters’ daily lives (similarity 0.88)
• Commitment to sport functions as a status marker that supersedes race within fighting gyms. (similarity 0.85)
• Intimate bodily togetherness flattens perceived racial difference (similarity 0.84)
• Muay Thai gyms’ partner-based training structure fosters mutualistic bonds that override ascriptive difference. (similarity 0.81)
• Forced close proximity and shared goals can flatten perceived racial differences. (similarity 0.81)
• Amit Singh — Carnal conviviality and the end of race? (similarity 0.80)
• Singh Amit — Carnal conviviality and the end of race (similarity 0.80)
• Fighters shift from monocultural to multicultural lives, yet racism persists alongside conviviality (similarity 0.79)
• Muay Thai gym friendships extend into private life, not just public tolerance. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Combat contact changes racial attitudes even among resistant groups #corroborates (0.90)
• Cross-ethnic friendships formed during fight training persist beyond the gym into fighters’ daily lives #expands (0.85) — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 56
• Violence against racial others functions to convince perpetrators of their own superiority #complicates (0.72) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 144