Athletic Support: Racial tensions rise as sports gear up again
eli.cranor@gmail.com
Dear Athletic Support: Our state began allowing workouts again this week. My son’s excited to get back on the field, and I’m excited for him. However, due to the current climate in our nation concerning race relations, I’m also a bit nervous. Our town has a history with these types of issues. I experienced this firsthand when I was in high school here. Oftentimes, I was discriminated against because I was one of only ten minority students. I’ve always had open conversations with my son about these things. It’s my hope and prayer that his experience will be more positive than mine. I’m thankful that so many young people are voicing their opinions and not necessarily following in the footsteps of their parents. But I still can’t help but be uneasy. What if my son — or one of his minority teammates — became the next social media hashtag? How can I get the other players and parents to see what’s happening across our country from this perspective?
— Praying For Empathy
Dear Praying:When it comes to shifting other people’s perspectives, there’s not much anyone can do. Just think of the decades it’s taken our country to go from the civil rights movement to where we are now. Things are better. Sure. But are we living the “dream” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of back in 1963?
Change most often comes as of result of experience. Real-life, down-in-the-dirt experience. And the truth is most people live in tiny, insulated, monochromatic bubbles.
As much as you want your son’s teammates and their parents to see the world as you do, you can’t force them to do anything.
Luckily, you don’t have to.
A sport like football is a melting pot of races. Locker rooms break down cultural barriers more effectively than speeches and social media posts.
Take my life for example. I was raised in a mostly white town. There wasn’t a single family of color in my neighborhood. If it hadn’t been for sports, there’s a real possibility I would’ve never befriended any black kids.
I was at a basketball tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when one of my teammates opened my eyes for the first time. He told me the difference between being a black boy and white boy was that he was reminded he was black every day. We were in fifth grade.
In college, I brought a black teammate from Miami over to my particular corner of Arkansas for Spring Break. I took him way up in the whitewashed hills for a weekend’s worth of hiking and camping. At one point we had to go into a Walmart. I’ll never forget the looks my teammate received. The scalding stares. I’ll never know what it feels like to be a black man. I’ll never experience the searing pain of racism. But I was close enough to my friend that day to feel the heat.
And the only reason I was able to get that close — the only reason I was able to learn a lesson about racism — was football. I played football for twenty seasons. During that time, I became close with guys whose skin tone was much darker than mine. I saw how our lives were different, but more importantly, I saw how we were the same.
In the end, though, football is not a cure-all for race relations. The relationships built in the locker room oftentimes falter when the players get away from the field. For us to foster genuine empathy, we must push ourselves past our comfort zones. We can no longer shy away from our country’s history. We must have honest, sometimes awkward, conversations about race when they arise.
And rise they will.
To borrow the words of fellow Arkansan Maya Angelou, “Out of the huts of history’s shame, up from a past that’s rooted in pain… I rise.”
Eli Cranor is a former professional quarterback and coach turned award-winning author. Please use the “Contact” page at elicranor.com to send in questions for “Athletic Support.”
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• Wearing masks to practice
• Coach disappears after season is cancelled
• What happens to the team if a player gets COVID-19?
• Will there be football in the fall?
• With sports gone, son’s grades tanking
• Lost without sports
• Teddy bears and tessellations
• Cornavirus? We’ve got games to play!
• Girlfriend getting in the way
• A parent’s role when sports are over
• Talk to your grandkids, carefully
• At what age should sports stop being fun?
• What ever happened to going door to door?
• Lack of respect for track
• Should my son take supplements?
• I need your help
• Help! My daughter wants to play football
• Transferring to a smaller school: the good, the bad, and the ugly
• What’s that smell? It’s not as bad as you think
• A break from school but not from sports
• Should a coach pray with his team?
• Coach tells player not to shoot
• Do nice guys (and girls) really finish last?
• Coach cancels post-season awards banquet
• No cellphones in the locker room!
• Fake scholarship signing?
• Withholding football as punishment
• Sick and tired of losing
• Late bloomer, a blessing or a curse?
• Scholarship hopes dead, now what?
• Is my son a butterfly chaser?
• Don’t force sports on your kids
• Hunting or Football?
• Beat the Heat
• Idle Hands
• Coach’s son gets special attention
