Kadee Sylla rowing at the Western Rowing Intercollegiate Championship
Over the last thirty years, vast changes have been made in the inclusion of African American women in college sports. Specifically, at the “University of San Diego” (USD) the inclusion of African American women has transformed the development of the athletic program. USD representatives, such as coaches and athletic administration, have created a movement within the campus to increase the inclusion of African American women to participate in their “National Collegiate Athletics Association” (NCAA) programs. USD has increased the inclusion and participation of African American women in sports as a result of a change in NCAA legislation, desire for diversity and the acknowledgement of discrimination. USD is making space for African American Females in San Diego to challenge systematic injustice and through their participation is improving performance in all Division I sport offered at the university.
The NCAA is the governing body of college athletics. All sports at USD are categorized in the Division I (premier league) of the association and therefore have to adhere strictly to the athletic association’s rules. The NCAA’s main purposes is to keep collegiate athletics fair and amateur.
During the women’s movement in the 1980’s, protests were made questioning the NCAA’s regulations regarding the equality of man and women in collegiate sports. The association recognized that there was inequality between men’s and women’s sports and therefore implemented “Title XVI”. The legislation “prohibits discrimination based on sex in education program and activities in federally funded schools”[1]. This title ensured that there was equal representation of women in collegiate sports as if schools did not adhere fair gender representation, they would risk losing necessary grants from the federal government. This affected USD as it required the athletic administration to equally to distribute the funding between the men’s and women’s athletics.
In addition, Title XVI “protects students, employees, applicants for admission and employment, and other persons from all forms of sex discrimination, including discrimination based on race”. This changed African American women’s ability to participate in sports as there was now legislation that prohibited race-based discrimination and allowed new opportunities for African American women to go to school.
Because of equality through funding and non-discriminatory rules, many opportunities have been created for women to participate in collegiate athletics. The initial shift that increased African American female participation was Title XI legislator that resulted in equality through funding. Colleges now had to equally fund both men’s and women’s sports which caused an increase in available scholarships for women at many schools as they were previously underfunded before. For example, large schools such as San Diego State or the University of California – Berkley who had over 60 men on full scholarships for football, now had to invest the equal into their women’s sport. In addition, coaches now could be held accountable for race prejudice in sports. In relation to USD, Title XI enabled advancements in women’s athletics as there they were now able to provide more opportunities for women and specifically African American women in sport. On the USD Women’s Rowing team, they were able to offer more scholarships to girls in need who did not have the funding to pay for school. Many of these scholarships went to minorities, such as African Americans, who were amazing at their sport yet could not afford to pursue it because of systematic oppression. This increase in need base scholarships on the rowing team allowed African American women to participate in USD programs as before many could not afford to attend the institution.
In addition, the coaching staff has recognized the value of diversity of teams. “Diversity increases productivity within groups”[2]. A key to many sports is to learn from others. Diversity, especially among race and socio-economic groups allowed the teammates and coaches to bring new ideas and different ways to view the sports. On the Women’s rowing team, diversity created by the inclusion of African American women allows the team members to view different approaches onto how to improve in the sport.
Lastly, USD in the movement to increase diversity within sports teams has begun to recognize areas of racial inequality and appropriation within the school’s athletic community. Learning to function as a team is as important as learning about your team. It helps to know the problems people have faced and background of teammates in order to function more efficiently. On women’s rowing there was an incident of cultural appropriation caused by a Caucasian wearing cornrows. Cultural Appropriation is “the adoption or co-opting, usually without acknowledgement of cultural identity marker associated with or originating in minority communities by people or communities with a relatively privileged status”[3]. When asked about the incident, Kadee Sylla, an African American woman who has been on the team for 3 years said “something about it bothered me but I felt that I couldn’t say anything about it”[4]. As the USD rowing team moved forward from the incident, they tried to educate their students and especially athletes about racial inequality and appropriation. Kadee Sylla explains that “now with social media, it is almost less of an impact that [she] had them in her hair, but the fact that she posted it on social media meant that now everyone in the world could see it”. However, in Sylla’s opinion the issue did not even affect the school’s representation as “the general population is so uneducated about culture appropriation that many people do not realize when it is happening or never the less the affects it has on African Americans”. In response to the incident, the head coach of the women’s rowing team hired a speaker to come openly talk about the intersectionality and issues regarding race on the team. The point of his visit was to release the sigma around race and to change our mindset on being different. Intersectionality, the idea of how race, socio-economic and gender, was an idea of value as it was important to Sarah Trowbridge (head coach of USD women’s rowing) that we understood that people were not defined by one characteristic but were rather influenced by overlapping identities. Furthermore, he encouraged athletes to talk about discrimination and to have open discussions about acts that could be considered insensitive towards race. This was important to USD athletics as for rowing, and many sports, teamwork is crucial to success. Teamwork is not only about working together but rather understanding one another and where we come from. The inclusion and acknowledgement of our differences help teammates understand one and another and therefore function more efficiently.
USD has created space and has fought against systematic oppression in its increased inclusion of African American women. Through the use of Title XI, increased diversity and acknowledgement of discrimination, USD female sports has advanced significant on the campus. There has been an increase in teams attending their respective NCAA tournaments and competitions as a result of increased inclusion. African Americans have changed the future of USD athletics as they have made the university view the benefit that they have on athletic performance.
Bibliography
“Cultural Appropriation.” Dictionary.com. Last modified January 1, 2019. Accessed May 7, 2019. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cultural-appropriation.
Department of Education, Title IX Resource Guide, Misc. Doc., at 5 (Apr. 5, 2015).
McDowell, Jacqueline, and Akilah Carter-Francique. “An Intersectional Analysis of the Workplace Experiences of African American Female Athletic Directors.” Springer Science+Business Media, January 18, 2017. https://sandiego.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=124586144&site=ehost-live.
Sylla, Kaddee. Interview by Amanda Finnie. San Diego, CA. April 14, 2019.
Thelin, John R. “Good Sports?” Taylor & Francis Ltd. https://www-jstor-org.sandiego.idm.oclc.org/stable/2649145?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=Title&searchText=XI&searchText=NCAA&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DTitle%2BXI%2BNCAA&ab_segments=0%2Fdefault-2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=search%3A6e3d9a952d330d489e0f19601e14d3ce&seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents.
Woehr, David J., Luis M. Arciniega, and Taylor L. Poling. “Exploring the Effects of Value Diversity on Team Effectiveness.” Springer Science+Business Media, June 2, 2012. https://www-jstor-org.sandiego.idm.oclc.org/stable/pdf/43285230.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Fdefault-2%252Fcontrol&refreqid=excelsior%3A2a970baabb057cf433fe741f34cb85ec.
Bibliography
“Cultural Appropriation.” Dictionary.com. Last modified January 1, 2019. Accessed May 7, 2019. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cultural-appropriation.
Department of Education, Title IX Resource Guide, Misc. Doc., at 5 (Apr. 5, 2015).
McDowell, Jacqueline, and Akilah Carter-Francique. “An Intersectional Analysis of the Workplace Experiences of African American Female Athletic Directors.” Springer Science+Business Media, January 18, 2017. https://sandiego.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=124586144&site=ehost-live.
Sylla, Kaddee. Interview by Amanda Finnie. San Diego, CA. April 14, 2019.
Thelin, John R. “Good Sports?” Taylor & Francis Ltd. https://www-jstor-org.sandiego.idm.oclc.org/stable/2649145?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=Title&searchText=XI&searchText=NCAA&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DTitle%2BXI%2BNCAA&ab_segments=0%2Fdefault-2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=search%3A6e3d9a952d330d489e0f19601e14d3ce&seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents.
Woehr, David J., Luis M. Arciniega, and Taylor L. Poling. “Exploring the Effects of Value Diversity on Team Effectiveness.” Springer Science+Business Media, June 2, 2012. https://www-jstor-org.sandiego.idm.oclc.org/stable/pdf/43285230.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Fdefault-2%252Fcontrol&refreqid=excelsior%3A2a970baabb057cf433fe741f34cb85ec.
[1] Department of Education, Title IX Resource Guide, Misc. Doc., at 5 (Apr. 5, 2015).
[2] McDowell and Carter-Francique, “An Intersectional,” [Page 11].
[3] 1. “Cultural Appropriation,” Dictionary.com, last modified January 1, 2019, accessed May 7, 2019, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cultural-appropriation.
[4] Kaddee Sylla, interview by Amanda Finnie, San Diego, CA, April 14, 2019.