This article examines how a group of men negotiate the social problems that postindustrial racial, class, and gender hierarchies create. In a Brooklyn boxing gym, trainers coach amateur fighters inside and outside the ring. In the ring, trainers prepare amateurs for competition and help them develop masculine identities. Outside the ring, trainers provide forms of social support. As trainers engage these practices, they negotiate a discursive tension. When they work with boxers, trainers use discourses espousing individualism and personal responsibility. And yet, when talking about the motivation for their work, trainers utilize discourses critiquing systemic inequality and anti-black racism. This article analyzes the presence of these apparently contradictory discourses. I argue that neoliberal ideology at the structural level is rearticulated as critical discourse in the gym; context shifts meaning.
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