This paper blends personal narrative with academic scholarship as a Black feminist intervention to affirm the intellectual authority and pedagogical expertise of Black women who work alongside student athletes. Enacting an antiracist pedagogy to undo the harm from PWIs calls into question mislabeling practices, inaccurate assessments and incorrect assumptions. This purpose of this paper draws on Black feminist rhetorical traditions to show the inherent value of Black women’s knowledge, labor and presence – particularly when it is insisted on the humanity of Black men as essential to antiracist work.
As a reflective essay, the author’s methodology uses autoethnography and storytelling to blend the art of writing with the science of football. This paper uses scholarship from the fields of rhetoric and composition, education, and cultural studies to organize research and findings to show how Black football players are highly literate and sophisticated despite what racially biased standardized testing measures suggested.
Black student athletes are assumed deficient, categorically (mis)labeled, and assessed with standardized tests that are culturally biased. Black students in general and Black student athletes in particular are punished at higher rates than their white counterparts for not performing middle class values. Instead of encouraging their use of grit, the author offer guts as an alternative for everyone – students and teachers alike – to access the necessary courage needed to call out racism in higher education.
Although the author did not use quantitative data to provide numbers or statistics, based on her experiences, the occurrences she details are happening broadly at universities with robust athletic programs. These practices must be called into question and removed so Black student athletes have a fair educational experience at major universities.
The value of this piece remains part of a growing body of work that legitimizes the voices of Black women who work alongside and/or research Black student athletes. Although fields of anthropology, sociology and African American studies are ones that may traditionally discuss the impacts of athletics in African American communities, the author adds her voice to the fields of rhetoric and composition, as well as Black feminist pedagogy.
