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January 25, 2008 > Sports > Black students unfairly sidelined with assumptions

Black students unfairly sidelined with assumptions

By Justin Hudson | Thresher staff

As the proud parents they are, my father and mother like to tell anyone within earshot that their only child attends Rice University in Houston, Texas. Most of the responses they receive, they happily tell me, are usually along the lines of “Oh, that’s a good school,” or “How does he like Texas?”

But every once in a while, my father tells me he gets a question, particularly among those aware of Rice’s academic rigor, of “What sport does he play?” My dad usually has to explain to these people that I actually got into Rice because of my academic merit, not my athletic ability.

At its surface, the question is no big deal, or at least it shouldn’t be big deal. It really should be an innocuous question. And yet, the question is based on a disturbing assumption — a racial assumption.

If the topic of attending Rice is brought up I doubt that parents of white Rice students are asked what sport their children play. That’s because it is assumed the student is attending such a prestigious school based solely on his academic qualifications. However, when a black parent is talking about his son attending the same institution, others presume that the his entrance exam was athletic.

I have encountered such thinking far too many times on the Rice campus. While walking into an economics professor’s office during my first semester here, I was immediately asked if I was an athlete. Then there was the time I was getting help for a Math 102 assignment in a classmate’s room when his roommate said, “You play football, right?” And of course, there was the time I was invited to talk to a Teach for America rep, who naturally asked, “Do you play football?”

Such experiences are not uncommon for black males here at Rice. But what makes the situation harder for me to comprehend is my slight stature. I can understand if I were 6-4, 325 pounds of solid muscle like your average offensive lineman, but I am 5-10, 140 pounds on a good day, and have been horrendous at sports my whole life. Coordination, let alone speed, power and agility, are not my friends.

Even when I wear sports apparel, you’d think it should still be obvious I would literally be torn in half by any defensive back. The jersey, which almost reaches my knees, makes me look like an elementary school kid trying to mimic his favorite player. In other words, I’m about as unathletic as you can get. And yet there are people out there who assume I can play Division I football.

These assumptions are largely based on the demographics of campuses like Rice and many other universities across the country. Doug Lederman, the editor of insidehighered.com, wrote in his January 11th article, “Diversifying Through Football,” that Rice is one of several D-I universities and colleges whose black male population is dominated by athletes, and more specifically, football players. This trend is most common at two types of institutions — public universities located in states where blacks are few and far between and yet athletes are recruited nationally, and selective schools such as Rice who are small but insist on staying in Division I. Rice’s numbers are especially bad in this category: During the 2005-2006 school year, 47 of Rice’s 99 black male students were athletes, and 35 of those played football.

For a university that prides itself on its diversity, this reliance on athletics, and especially football, to attract young men of color is unfair and disturbing. The university should put as much effort into recruiting black male students who can do scientific research as the football staff does in recruiting black male students who can help their team go to a bowl game.

In the current atmosphere, only the university, which can boast of the presence of minority students, wins. I am personally proud of all our student athletes here at Rice. They are able to compete at a high level athletically while also bringing honor to the university through their hard work in the classroom. Yet people must realize that many students of color are not here to pursue athletic endeavors. In fact, the majority of us are just as likely as anyone else to stand in the rafters and cheer on the real athletes.

Justin Hudson is a Martel College senior, women’s cross country writer and women’s basketball writer.

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