I’m not sure there’s an exact moment in my childhood where I could pinpoint the developmental stage in which I could say, “I’m white”.
Sure, early in my life I could distinguish my skin color from others, but it was not really an ‘aha’ moment.
I went to a predominantly white elementary school, but we also had a fairly large Filipino population in my part of New Jersey and I live in a very diverse block. I was surrounded by many cultures at an early age.
The better question was when I started to recognize my privilege and that racism was an issue.
It is important to state I had the privilege of LEARNING about racism before experiencing it. I did not learn about it from a traumatic event. I learned about it in a calm, but emotional, conversation. Not all kids get that chance.
My father is a sports journalist, so, like many other lessons in life, I first learned about racism in the context of sports.
Before we sat down to watch a film about Jackie Robinson, we had my first “real” conversation about racism. By this age I was able to tell that not everyone had the same skin color, but not quite old enough to understand the many complexities behind it. This film and conversation started to bridge that gap.
My mom & dad sat me and my brother down and first explained who Jackie Robinson was. Of course he played a sport, I could see that by the cover, but it was an opportunity to explain why his presence meant so much to so many.
After watching the movie, we had a family discussion about the treatment Robinson faced, why this happened in history and how it continues today.
I remember this conversation often, but I was reminded of this especially in my sophomore year of college in my Oppression and Privilege class.
The assignment for the paper was to discuss our whiteness and to interview three other people of the same race. So, I thought back to this childhood conversation and went back to my dad. He, again, and much more high levelly, discussed how whiteness plays into many sports.
We had an enriching conversation about how racism plays into basketball, football and hockey.
Hockey, typically a predominantly white sport, has many training lessons and much equipment required for participation (ie. ice skating lessons) whereas basketball is more accessible for low-income families who cannot afford much equipment besides a ball and a hoop (that could technically be made out of homemade materials).
For football, my dad discussed how many coaches put Black men in the “athletic” spots on the field such as running back and put their white players in the more “strategic” positions such as quarterback. This is called racial stacking and is much more common than I had ever noticed.
The older I get, I see all of the crevices racism creeps through to breech our society.
It inspires me to learn about the nuances of racism in each facet of my life. While I can recognize national atrocities, where is the racism closer to home? Where is it in communications? Where is it in politics or theology? On my campus?
While I still do not know much about sports, I am thankful to have avenues to learn about the injustices in this space.