No abstract

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have made notable social, cultural, and economic contributions to the African Diaspora, particularly since their inception in the United States. Being that HBCU athletic programs account for a small proportion of the intercollegiate athletic industry, these unique entities are often examined in the same vein as their Historically White Institution counterparts without a full account of the intergenerational adverse impacts of systemic racism. Since HBCUs are situated within the distinct context of Blackness, the researchers offer a reconceptualization through the theoretical lens of Black Critical Theory. This manuscript illuminates linkages across extant literature, while also presenting a budding theoretical framework in the study of sport, and sport organizations, that have deeply embedded relationships with communities, for example, HBCUs and the Black community, stickball and lacrosse within Indigenous communities, and the relationship between women and womens’ sports leagues. Implications of this work are centered on promoting more critical reconceptualizations of sporting spaces that reflect the full diversity of the societies in which they exist.

The college sport landscape is a unique arena where institutional and social norms merge with an erratic, but highly-traditioned, sporting space. While the broader scope of college sport is framed through a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) lens, the context of differing institutions is often forgotten or misunderstood. This process is primarily evident with Minority-Serving Institutions. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are educational spaces that leverage their historical foundations and missions in an effort to create safe and equitable spaces for Black students and community members. Traditionally, scholarly inquiries about HBCUs have focused primarily on exploring and understanding institutional missions and culture. The dynamic and complex relationships that exist between HBCUs and their collegiate sporting teams continues to be understudied. This study uses a Black Liberatory Fantasy lens to analyze tweets posted by HBCU students, alumni, and media members from 2013 to 2020. A thematic content analysis of tweets discovered five (5) emergent themes that highlight the unique contributions of the HBCU sporting space: (1) shifting HBCU narratives, (2) the communal culture of HBCU sport, (3) the HBCU sporting sanctuary, (4) enrichment within the HBCU sporting space, and 5) the Black Oppressive Nightmare. Implications of this study highlight institutionally and culturally-specific approaches towards marketing, fan experience, and broader social discourse.

Self-perception is the level of competency at which individuals evaluate themselves in certain areas or domains (Marsh & Shavelson, 1985). An individual’s self-perceptions contribute to their global self-worth and even predicts performance (Cuellar, 2014; Harter & Neemann, 2012). This study measures self-perception scores, as well as experiences with racial discrimination, of 306 NCAA Division I college athletes using the Self-Perception Profile for College Students (Harter & Neemann, 2012). Scores are compared across race. Findings suggest that White college athletes have significantly higher self-perception scores than college athletes of color - with recent discrimination (within the last year) as a significant predictor of multiple areas of self-perception. The implications of this study suggest that faculty and other campus stakeholders should pursue positive relationships with the college athletes they encounter. Positive relationships between college athletes and faculty may help raise college athlete self-perceptions, and in turn, performance in a variety of areas.