Black and famous in France or the United States? The coverage of professional tennis players in national newspapers

The integration of minorities is a major issue across Europe and the wider world but there is no consensus on the best way to integrate an ethnically and racially diverse population.  In some countries (most notably France) the standard practice is to downplay minority identities and actively encourage assimilation.  In other countries (for example the United States) it is more common to highlight ethnic and racial differences in celebration of diversity.  Social science research often examines the relative benefits and downsides to each approach by analyzing political outcomes (e.g. minority political behavior and representation) or labor market outcomes (e.g. education and employment).  In this article I pursue a different angle by examining a cultural outcome: how different approaches to diversity shape the acceptance of minority celebrities.  To do this, I analyze newspaper coverage of black and white professional tennis players in France and the United States from 2000-2013.  I explore whether there is any evidence of racialized coverage in each country and how that racialized coverage may differ across the two national contexts with fundamentally different approaches to integrating minorities. Beyond political and economic outcomes, the media coverage of celebrities is an indicator of cultural integration with implications for how minorities are accepted in the cultural fabric of the nation.