B efore the homecoming game on Nov. 15, members of The Real Silent Sam Coalition, an activist group of students, staff and community members on campus, marched from the Old Well to Kenan Memorial Stadium. They chanted, “Can you see us now?” to contest the invisibility of race within the role of athletics at UNC.
The University has historically paid little attention to the role that black people have played in building the campus and continues to do so with its silence around demands to additionally frame the Wainstein report in the context of race.
This board has previously brought attention to the relationship between academics and athletic eligibility, which cheats athletes out of the quality education promised in exchange for athletic performance.
The issue of race in athletics has rarely been brought up except by activist groups, yet it has a significant part in the academic fraud that took place.
A study found black men are disproportionately represented in college basketball and football compared to black male undergraduate enrollment overall. Yet these black male student-athletes graduate at lower rates than undergraduates in general.
It is important to consider the harm that has been done to student-athletes from academic fraud, but there should also be a particular focus on the way this represents a broader continuation of the University’s racial status quo.
The Coalition’s march should be applauded for bringing these criticisms to an event whose audience might not have otherwise been exposed to them.
