Skyview’s Tanariea Deloney and Kazz Parks and Union’s Macee Woods have never had a Black teacher.
The trio of senior athletes, all Black women, spoke about why that is an issue on Friday as part of an athlete roundtable. The video and audio of the 40-minute discussion is available on 360preps.com.
“Seeing only white teachers, for me, has always put me in an awkward position,” Woods said. “I’m usually the only Black kid in my classes. It puts you in a weird position with how they interact with you.”
The conversation was recorded on Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, a holiday recognizing the emancipation of slaves in 1865.
“It’s just something that symbolizes our freedom, releasing those chains we had for so long and being able to live how we want to live and not be chained down by anyone,” Parks said.
The holiday was not taught in their schools and has only now been recognized by their white peers as protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis three weeks ago continue across the country.
“It’s kind of crazy that just because of everything going on, it’s just now started to become a bigger thing,” Deloney said. “It’s a little bit of a sad thing because it should always be celebrated and made a big deal. At least it’s happening now.”
In their athletic endeavors, the trio was grateful they hadn’t experienced the overt racism other athletes have documented. But Woods, a Chico State University soccer commit, shared a pair of experiences she had with the intersection of race and sports.
When Woods was 11, she had an opposing soccer player tell her that her skin was “doo-doo brown.” More recently, she had to leave a Union basketball game when a few members of the Titans’ student section shouted “Wakanda forever!” to an all-Black opposing basketball team, referencing the fictional country in the Marvel Comics series “Black Panther.”
Deloney and Parks, both members of the Skyview girls basketball team, additionally discussed their relationship with one of the few Black head coaches in Clark County, Brett Johnson.
“I’ve been with a lot of coaches and coach Brett, he’s the only Black coach,” Parks explained. “He understands what we’ve been through. He knows what it takes to get there and what it takes to get to another level.”
Other topics of discussion included how Black athletes are treated differently than students of color who do not play sports, the trio’s experiences with the police and how their peers have responded to the protests around the country.
