I love college athletics but get so frustrated when most of the news reported is about problems, challenges, or bad behaviors of athletes. The developmental part of me says "give them a break their students." The fan in me doesn't need to always know every detail and action of their lives. In this media driven culture, its almost unavoidable to not hear negative media about athletes. So when this video came across my facebook page, I was ecstatic to see something positive going on in college sports.
This video is only 6 minutes long so I would encourage you to watch it.
Hudson Taylor is a former NCAA wrestler now turned coach at the University of Maryland. From his own experiences, he has started a nonprofit program for NCAA athletes to stop using negative and hateful homophobic and transphobic speech in practice and game environments. In the video, he shares that based on his own undergraduate experience and ally developmental process, for him to create athletic environments where negative emotion is not targeted onto an population of people, specifically the GLBT community.
In watching the video, I am happy to see someone in an athletic area take on such a monumental task. This cannot be easy (especially because he alluded to the fact that coaches are guilty of this language as well.) In a culture like college athletics where language and use of hate language is present and popular, Hudson's cause goes against the gain of what an everyday environment could be for an athlete. As a diversity educator, I only dream that my students would do the unpopular thing in the hopes of changing a culture of negative language and hate speech. What he's doing take courage and in my opinion, guts.
I am also happy to see that a straight, white man from the sport of wrestling is leading this cause. Most of the time, if their is a anti-hate language movement in college sports it does not usually come from a male athlete and from a more physical sport like wrestling. While any anti-hate language movement is important, I believe that to truly change the culture and penetrate a long tradition in sports, any fitting a "typical" athlete stereotype would create more movement and change.
I do want to challenge one point Hudson said in the video. He shared that as a coach, he does not want to force his values and program on his athletes. I can understand that. However, as a coach, you set the tone and values of your team. I hope he is role modeling to his athletes the values he has as an ally and coach.
I am curious, do you think a program like Hudson's could impact the language used by players and coaches in college athletics?
I agree with many of the points you made in this post. I am a huge supporter of college athletics, and I think it does a lot of great things for students and for the university. It tends to get a lot of negative attention as do many other organized groups (religious groups, Greek Life, etc.) because it's easier to blame problems on a particular population than to admit it may be a campus-wide issue.
ReplyDeleteAre hateful and discriminatory words used regularly on campus as well? Yes, but when we have a group of students like athletes where we really have a chance to educate them about their language and their actions, we should take advantage of that. Students who are involved in a lot of different areas on campus are typically leaders and have a lot of campus influence. I commend this coach for taking action and starting with his team to start changing the way we treat each other.
This is a great idea, it is always amazing when a student is willing to take a stand and say that the status quo needs to change. College athletics, like other organizations, has been a head scratcher on how to break through the homophobic language barrier. An athlete who is not a member of the LGBTA community, might be one of the best tools for decreasing and eliminating homophobic language among college atheletes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing a positive story. I agree with your point that all too often we hear about and see the negative side of college athletics and college athletes. I often wonder how much of this reflects reality, and how much is sensationalized and made to grab ratings. This is not to downplay the negative behaviors and often cultural challenges associated with athletes in some contexts. It is however to questions whether institutions do enough to highlight the positives. I often wonder why the "some athletes are re-writing the record books, other the medical journals" is not more widely used across media venues. Seems we need to be doing a better job of highlighting the positives as well.
ReplyDeleteAMAZING post, Amy! Thank you so much! I'm not sure why I haven't heard of Hudson or his organization, but I'm an instant fan!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the sporting world is one of the most homophobic and transphobic segments of our society. One only needs to look at the recent cases of pro basketball players using gay slurs on the court to see that the problem is systemic.
Hudson had one quote in the clip that really stuck with me: "Sports is a place for everyone. As athletes, we are leaders. And as leaders, we have the ability to make it a safe space for everyone."
I applaud and thank Hudson for what he is doing to advance equality for LGBT individuals in sports!