By John Celestand | Word in Black | The AFRO
John Celestand is the program director of the Knight x LMA BloomLab, a $3.2 million initiative that supports the advancement and sustainability of local Black-owned news publications. He is a former freelance sports broadcaster and writer who covered the NBA and college basketball for multiple networks such as ESPN Regional Television, SNY, and Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia. John was a member of the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers NBA Championship Team, playing alongside the late great Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and son. Credit: Courtesy photo
Back in early March, in a statement released on social media, legendary Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith blasted his alma mater, the University of Florida, for eliminating its diversity, equity, and inclusion program. Smith warned minority athletes at Florida to “please be aware and vocal” about the decision the university was making, which in essence meant closing the doors on students of color.
A few days later, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson asked “current and prospective” student-athletes to “reconsider any potential decision to attend, and compete at a predominantly white institution in the state of Florida.” He pointed out that “these institutions reap considerable financial benefits from the very individuals they fail to stand by in matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
So, should Black athletes refuse to attend schools that defund DEI?
After all, today’s athletes command major coin when it comes to NIL (name, image, and likeness) dollars. Their ability to enter the portal and transfer to other universities without repercussion could, if leveraged correctly, have a tremendous influence on how universities handle DEI.
The question came up again this week for me after news broke that the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, plans to divert the school’s entire $2.3M DEI budget toward public safety and policing.
Basically, UNC “said that the opposite of funding DEI programming is funding police,” writer, researcher, and Harvard Kennedy fellow Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman wrote on X this week.
North Carolina brought in nearly $123 million in revenue from athletics in 2022. If every Black athlete at the school refused to play until the DEI budget was restored, that would undoubtedly put pressure on the school.
But even though today’s college athletes are in a prime position to effect change around DEI at universities because of their platforms, power, and heavy influence, is this really their responsibility?
