Shared combat training can erase racial and gendered hierarchies through bodily friendship.
Evidence
In this section, I will outline what elsewhere I have termed “carnal conviviality”, to refer to the deep bonds of friendship forged out of training to fight in an environment where people from a range of social and geographical locations are forced to intimately share space, lending their bodies to one another in pursuit of becoming fighters (Singh 2022, 90). These emergent carnal convivial connections, which cut across racial and gendered lines, result in racial (and gendered) differences being rendered insignificant, “ordinary and banal, even boring” (Gilroy 2006, 40) as what defines people – and their relationships to one another – is mutual experiences of training, suffering and sacrificing alongside each other on the gym floor (Singh 2022; see also Trimbur 2013; Wacquant 2004). — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 32
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the author’s coined term ‘carnal conviviality’ through its conceptual components.
- XREF: Connects to the author’s existing interests in Gilroy on conviviality and Wacquant’s embodied ethnography of boxing. — connects to: Cross-ethnic friendships formed during fight training persist beyond the gym into fighters’ daily lives — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 56; Physical training to fight can forge bonds that resist racial thinking — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 17; Combat contact changes racial attitudes even among resistant groups (+2 more)
- corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 32
Related
- Physical training to fight can forge bonds that resist racial thinking (similarity 0.91)
- Cross-ethnic friendships formed during fight training persist beyond the gym into fighters’ daily lives (similarity 0.89)
- Intimate bodily togetherness flattens perceived racial difference (similarity 0.87)
- Commitment to sport functions as a status marker that supersedes race within fighting gyms. (similarity 0.84)
- Muay Thai gyms’ partner-based training structure fosters mutualistic bonds that override ascriptive difference. (similarity 0.83)
- Muay Thai gym friendships extend into private life, not just public tolerance. (similarity 0.82)
- Forced close proximity and shared goals can flatten perceived racial differences. (similarity 0.82)
- Amit Singh — Carnal conviviality and the end of race? (similarity 0.81)
- Singh Amit — Carnal conviviality and the end of race (similarity 0.81)
Broader Connections
- Physical training to fight can forge bonds that resist racial thinking
#corroborates(0.92) — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 17 - Cross-group friendship especially reduces prejudice through intimacy and equal-status contact.
#corroborates(0.88) — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Linda R. Tropp, A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup…, 98 - 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 - Combat contact changes racial attitudes even among resistant groups
#corroborates(0.85) - Finding ways to see the human in racialized others underpins cross-racial solidarity.
#exemplifies(0.70) — Amit Singh, “Carnal conviviality” and the end of…, 16