On April 13 and 14th Wake Forest University hosted a conference called Losing to Win. The conference focused on discussing race and intercollegiate sports. There were a total of eight panels focusing on different aspects of college sports and how they affected the black athlete. Some issues that were discussed include the 2010 Men’s March Madness teams. Of which 45 teams graduated 70% of their white players while only 20 teams graduated 70% of their black players. Another issue is the amount of white coaches in college football. Approximately 95% of BCS head football coaches are white. Approximately 50% of players are African American. One panel also discussed the time D1 basketball players devoted to athletics verses their academics. Division I men’s basketball players devoted an average of 36 hours a week to athletics while devoting 32 hours to academic activities. I watched the video from Panel 7, which was titled Title IX and Gender Equity: Increased Opportunity for Women of Color? Jacquelyn Bridgeman and Alfred Matthewson, two professors of law, were the panelists. They both seemed to be in favor of Title IX because of the great opportunities that it afforded black women. Bridgeman felt that growing up in a small town, the only things to do were to drink alcohol, have sex, or play sports. She felt that sports was a huge outlet and stress reliever for her. She said that Title IX has helped to open opportunities for black female athletes all over the country. She feels that there is stilla strong need for Title IX today. In this aspect, I agree with Bridgeman. I believe that there should be ways in which black women have equal chances at being successful in the world of sports, because there is a tremendous bias. For me however, I feel that there is a greater need to address gender and racial biases and work on changing attitudes of the individual rather than changing the law. I think that the NCAA should establish programs that help student athletes become more tolerant of race.
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