Research Paper
krisGG
SampleResearch1.pdf
Sample Research 1
Pressures of Athletics, Academia, and Young Black Men: The Black Man’s Trap
The field of athletics can be a space in which people from many age groups, cultures,
genders, and social standings can thrive. Many assume that athletics is based on personal ability
and hard work, which is why many parents make sports the focus of their child’s life from an
early age in the hopes of future success, either in young childhood or up until adolescence.
However, this mindset is misguided and can be damaging to people of color, especially young
black boys and men, according to my interview subject, DeShon “Shon” Jackson, a 24 year old
male senior Biology major at California State University San Bernardino. Shon is tall,
easy-going, and talkative. A hard worker, he deeply enjoys the time he can take to relax when
not focused on schoolwork. He and I sat down for our interview over lunch and talked- we have
known each other for several years, so getting into these topics was fairly easy to do. For many,
gearing young black men towards sports from a young age is rooted in racist ideology which
which objectifies and stereotypes them as good athletes based on their race, which prevents them
from being seen as legitimate in their field of study as students in high school and college. They
are regarded as only in attendance based on their physical and not mental capabilities or
intelligence, a perception that only black athletes have to face. In his own experience, Shon calls
the hope of a father’s young black boy’s success in sports, especially American football, “The
Black Man’s Trap”. This is because it creates a cycle of false hope and strained family
relationships by placing the focus solely on sports and not academics, leaving their sons
unprepared for higher education when not given the chance to “make it big”.
Shon grew up not wanting for anything, given that when he was younger, both his parents
were in the home and contributed income, and he had grandparents present as well. From an
early age, academic excellence was demanded by his mother and he placed high value on getting
good grades as sports were not emphasized in childhood. He enjoyed this because he could show
how smart he was and apply himself and see results. As he got older, however, family dynamics
changed. His mother and grandparents left the home, with he and his siblings being raised solely
by their father from his age 11 onward. From this point, he was tasked by his father, as the oldest
son in the home, with taking care of his siblings, academics, and getting to school by himself. In
addition to added home responsibilities, his father placed him into sports and told him to focus
on that as well as maintaining his grades and GPA. He never liked sports because he knew his
father saw him succeeding in it as future income for him and not accounting for his son’s lack of
personal interest or fulfillment. Shon maintained that academics was where he could really shine
and show his true intelligence and advance in society because the chances of actually going into
football as a career were minimal. To him, his father’s hope of future income via his football
success was not only irrational but incredibly selfish. According to the National Collegiate
Athletic Association’s website, only 1.5% of college athletes go Major Pro, meaning in this case,
get drafted into the NFL, a very paltry number. He calls this just like playing the lottery and
expecting to win.
It was because of his father’s adamancy for sports that he noticed the difficulty many
student athletes face: the issue of balancing schoolwork and football practice. With so much
added responsibility at home and the severe amount of time dedicated to football, his
performance in class suffered. This, in addition to injuries early on in his high school football
career, made him see that football was hurting what he truly loved, which was the sciences.
However, he had to stay in football throughout high school because when he brought up his
dissatisfaction with being in the program, his father berated him for attempting to go against his
wishes. Shon understood that his father was ignorant to the importance of education, because he
saw that other students whose parents placed emphasis on academics did better and were more
prepared for careers and college. This is when he coined the phrase “The Black Man’s Trap”, a
cycle that occurs when low class African American fathers do a disservice to their sons by
pressuring them into sports and not academics, trying to capitalize on their child’s sports ability.
This robs them of valuable opportunities to build educational prestige early on which gives them
better chances at getting into a good college, or into a college with a better academic record.
Subsequently, the cycle repeats itself with the sons who place less importance on academics
when they have sons, leading to more ignorant black men who work at jobs they hate with
unsteady income which then places them and their families into poverty. This is why Shon
values education: he sees it as a viable way out of the cycle, and a chance at setting an example
for future young men.
Despite his own experience, Shon does recognize the experiences of many other People
Of Color within sports, when it is their desire to go into the field, and it is when they are only
regarded as good for sports and only sports, not their academic prowess. In an article by Albert
Y. Bimper Jr titled “Lifting the Veil: Exploring Colorblind Racism in Black Student Athlete
Experiences”, Blimper examines this phenomenon by interviewing several black college athletes
to get their perspective on how their experiences amount to the discourse of racial politics today.
Blimper states that “participants often explained race disparities and racial differences with
linkages to lowered expectations, racial stereotyping and stereotype threat” (233), going on to
cite an example given by a student athlete named Harlen who said counselors and advisors gave
the impression of expecting black athletes not to do well academically. Harlen goes on to say “I
would say it really comes from them thinking we’re just trying to get through. But it’s just a
stereotype; that we don’t care about school [...] I came in here with high hopes, but from jump,
they told me what I can and can’t do” (234). The ideas of colorblindness that we touched on in
class, of Dubois’ Veil, and of the perception of post racialism in today’s America are all
applicable here. The misconception that non-minorities have about race today is that society has
“fixed” racism by not enslaving people explicitly and abolishing laws on segregation, however,
racism and racist ideologies still thrive in America. They’re more subtle than most would think,
invading people’s subconsciousness to the point that counselors and mentors like Harlen’s would
say when asked, that they were not racist, however, their perceptions of non-whites are deeply
biased when it comes to People of Color.
Identifying and discussing cycles that Shon has noted, and discrimination People of Color
and non-white student athletes face seem to be solutions that are easy enough to carry out, and
even then, are still hard for many people because they have to face their own biases and talk
about them openly. ‘The Black Man’s Trap”, as Shon called it, happens by and within the black
community, a form of self sabotage that continues on. It isn’t just subtle or outright racist whites
that need to have a change of mindset, it’s non-whites too, for the betterment of themselves and
their children.
Works Cited
Blimper Jr, Albert Y. “Lifting the Veil: Exploring Colorblind Racism in Black Student Athlete
Experiences.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues , Vol. 39(3) 225–243, EBSCO, DOI:
10.1177/0193723513520013. Accessed 1 Dec. 2017.
“Estimated probability of competing in professional athletics”. NCAA , 10 Mar. 2017.
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-probability-competing-professio
nal-athletics. Accessed 3 Dec. 2017.
