Sports have long provided a platform for diversity and tolerance. Jesse Owens, Bill Russell, and Jackie Robinson are examples of athletes who challenged the cultural norms and the prevalent prejudice at the time. There are countless examples of athletes over the years who have been prevalent in combating racism.
Some people may question the significance of sports and its role in diversity. Some people may think that sports are just a game. But sports, like art or other media, can be studied over time and people can see the clear progression in things like racial diversity compared from the 1950s to the present.
Have you ever thought about how you think differently than others? My story starts when I was little in a place called Tennessee. I was 2 or 3 years old at this time. At this stage of age, toddlers like me are supposed to talk or speak in little sentences. Well…according to my mom I didn’t exactly speak “normally” like the rest of my family. My mom, who’s a doctor, told me that I spoke in one or two syllable words. Sometimes if I was asked to repeat a word I would but I wouldn’t speak in clear sentences.
Fast forward to when I turned 5, after my younger twin brothers were born, my parents (mostly my mom) would begin to notice how strange I acted at the time. I don’t know what exactly the details were, but my mother told me that I was quiet and liked to have fun with myself. My mom and dad thought back to when I was 3: I showed signs of having Aspergers or high-functioning autism. However, being the good parents they were, they didn’t want to assume it onto me early. Back to my 5th year of age, they decided to get a check up on me; to their surprise, it turns out they were right. I did have high functioning autism.
Growing up in a rural Eastern Tennessee community, there was not a lot of diversity. It is a land inhabited by mainly Caucasian folks of Scot Irish descent, later known as hillbillies. Unlike most of the deep south, there are practically no black Americans in the communities of East Tennessee. Whereas most of the deep south has a large black population, this area has always been self-contained to mostly uneducated whites. The lack of education, along with little to no exposure to diversity sometimes leads to ignorance and hate.
Thankfully, my family did their best to ensure my brother and I were as well traveled as we possibly could be with the resources we had. I soon realized that I was a lot more comfortable around people that didn’t look or act like me than most of my peers were. By the time high school came around, I realized that there was some real and alive racism all around me. It hurt me to my core. I couldn’t wait to move to a larger community with more like-minded people.
Saying that this topic is incredibly personal to me would be an understatement. Around the same time as the possibility of pursuing a Communication degree in college really cemented itself into my life, another important thing happened: I realized that the feelings around my gender are incredibly valid and that I was nonbinary. Finding a place for myself in the world of news and informative media remains incredibly important both to me and to the entire queer community at large, whatever their identities are.
However, it’s especially key to the nonbinary community (as well as the trans+ community at large, who intersect with the nonbinary community in many ways) that journalism’s coverage of them, their coming outs, and their experiences are accurate and respectful.
While Tennessee does not have the most progressive history when it comes to legislation, it was not the proposal of the pride flag ban in schools that recently passed, but it was the vote that passed the legislation that shocked me.
The vote that passed it was 70 to 24, and if that is any indication of the sentiment of the state population as a whole, it concerns me a little.
In a public school tucked in Chattanooga, TN, sat a girl in the cafeteria, surrounded by smells of various foods, as well as a wide range of diversity. As she finished the last crunchy bite of her carrots and ranch, she rushed to her phone to get on social media. This was the most exciting time of her life as she was preparing to graduate. On the hunt, the young girl and her friends scoured Instagram in search for the perfect photographer for their senior photos. Little did she know the importance photography would have on her life.
It was summertime in Harlem, New York 2007, I was just a small 7-year-old boy who observed everything but was blissfully unaware of the changes going on around me. During that time if you were just trying to get to where you were going you may have missed the magic, but then you had those who were a part of it. It’s hard to truly digest the beauty of the block when you’re using your feet, but in my dad’s Toyota Camry, it felt like I could glide through the blocks and never miss a beat.
I remember being very young hearing a story about my grandma that broke my heart. My aunt says my grandma would work all day cleaning ships and would come home filthy. She was dirty from head to toe, the only things clear were her eyes. This was shocking for me to hear. She was always positive and laughing and joyous. But my grandma worked her entire life, put in an arranged marriage at 14, raised her five children by herself, and moved to the U.S. with nothing. Never did I see her cry or down or complain. She took care of her children and grandchildren without a single complaint. I wonder sometimes the courage it takes to move to the U.S. without anything. How she faced ridicule and hate from being poor and never good enough for my grandfather’s mother. She did it without complaint and she never let the hate get to her.
Growing up in a predominantly white area, going to a predominantly white school, and participating in predominantly white activities, it took Josephine a moment to recognize and understand the concept of diversity. Her parents worked as hard as they could, but the financial status and lack of free time made it difficult for them and their daughter to explore the world and culture around them. The family was surrounded by and would continue to be surrounded by the same types of people, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but when Josephine was old enough, around 10 years old, to try out for an AAU sports team, she and her family realized the beauty and power of diversity.
A woman can be successful. A woman is successful. A woman is never less and a woman should never be accepted as less. A woman is powerful and a woman is a leader.
This is what Ireminded myself each morning as the first day at my new job approached.
I was gifted and accomplished in sports writing and dreamed of becoming a sports journalist. My dream was approaching only days away at Sports Media US with my first-ever job as a sports journalist in the busy city of Chicago. The first day at my job came and went, and while I was getting adjusted to my job I realized something. I didn’t see many women in the office or any women working as sports journalists in particular and that startled me. I didn’t know whether to feel grateful or a little scared, wondering why many women weren’t working alongside me in the office. Nonetheless, I started working on new tasks and writing new stories she enjoyed and spent lots of her time perfecting them even if it meant staying late.
