The Importance Of Black Student Athletes

One last precedent of athletes prioritizing athletics over academics is that the reason for all of the low grades is because of college athletic departments being motivated by greed. “A culture of greed is at the roots of those pitiful graduation rates. Basketball and football programs produce the most revenue in most athletic departments, which have placed a severe strain on education priorities” (Lewis). A Thabiti Lewis explains, it’s not just the athletes’ faults that they favor athletics more. Part of the problem is the programs they are involved in. The heads of those programs are not providing a balanced opportunity for their athletes to succeed. Instead, they are making it almost physically impossible for athletes to be in class for a reasonable amount of time. Since they cannot be in class for a reasonable amount of time, it obliges athletes to neglect school. …show more content…
“Any effort to improve rates of completion and academic success among Black male student-athletes must include some emphasis on their confrontations with low expectations and stereotypes in classrooms and elsewhere on campus” (Harper et.al.). As Shaun R. Harper elucidates, the expectations for Black male student-athletes are indubitably low. Just going into college, or any other lower school, teachers already expect for them not to turn in assignments and to not be in class every day. Since teachers expect this, student-athletes believe that it is ok to not go to class because they can use the “I’m an athlete” excuse. Think about it, if someone is always telling somebody that they are going to be bad or setting low expectations for them, why would they try to think to be any