The Rights of Minority Athletes

The Rights of Minority Athletes

TIFFANY ALEMAN Staff Writer

 

Minority students that come from low income families have historically been disadvantaged by institutionalized bias and underfunding from the athletic community. As a result, minority student athletes have been stripped of their opportunities to find success through sports. A recent example of this would be the case of Lisa Parks vs the city of New York. Parks was a local teen who moved to New York City from Georgia and hoped to continue her career in competing in CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) track and field. Upon arrival, she learned that her school did not offer any athletic teams due to lack of funding. Parks decided to investigate how funding was distributed and found that P.S.L.A. (public community athletic sponsors) denied half of all schools that had a majority of minority students in New York. This meant that schools of dominantly white students received approval for funding every year without obstacles. P.S.L.A. has denied institutionalized bias against minority students, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Parks has filed a lawsuit against the organization for failure to disclose how they choose which schools receive funding. Although Parks was robbed of her opportunity to compete in CIF track and field, her efforts of working toward a permanent bill can help protect others against discrimination in any community. There is no justification for racial bias through school funding, every student deserves the same opportunity to thrive in extracurricular activities. For students like Parks, sports could be their ticket out of poverty or even a way to college. Failure to provide funding for minority populated schools deprives students of their chance of success outside the classroom.

Data collected from the P.S.L.A. website exposes how the organization intentionally chose schools with a majority population of white students. Although there may be other lurking variables in their decisions on who to fund, failure to provide a written procedure of their selection process has left the public to jump to their own conclusions. Sports may seem like an ordinary part of school, but for some, it is a lost opportunity. It is unfortunate that minority students must attempt to take legal action to be equal to other highly funded schools.