Athletic Intruders: Ethnographic Research on Women, Culture, and Exercise

4. Cultural Expressions of African American Female Athletes in Intercollegiate Sport

INTRODUCTION Participation in intercollegiate sport can be a rewarding endeavor that provides skills and experiences that may benefit individuals throughout their lifetime. Despite the fact that institutions have demonstrated a commitment toward providing a quality experience for college athletes, trying to meet the needs of all groups of athletes is difficult for sport organizations that are culturally diverse in membership. More specifically , people who participate in sport are not just part of the athlete culture , but also products of other cultures (e.g., race, class, and gender), which predisposes them to viewing and experiencing life differently. Given this state of affairs, I explored the cultural reality of African American women who participate in intercollegiate sport at one Predominantly White Institution (PWI). In deciding on a culture to investigate , I believed that it was important to identify a situation where culture would manifest most visibly. Within the female athlete culture, not only are African American women predisposed to feeling unusual isolation and seclusion on predominantly white campuses (Willie and Levy C H A P T E R F O U R ‫ﱰﱯ‬ Cultural Expressions of African American Female Athletes in Intercollegiate Sport TERESE M. PERETTO STRATTA 79 1972), but as participants in a sport context that has been traditionally dominated by white males, African American female athletes are also least likely to find opportunities to express their culture. Moreover, African American women must exist in a society that “denigrates women of African descent” (Collins 1990, p. 22) and relegates them to subordinate status within the African American and Euro-American cultures (hooks 1990). Given this extremely stifling reality, African American women are therefore ideal for investigating the potential for cultural expression in sport. METHODS Ethnographic methods were employed to answer the research question: In what ways does college sport allow for African American female athletes to express their culture? The assumptions of ethnography allowed me to place African American female athletes at the center of the investigation so that I could discover their subjectively constructed interpretations and meanings in sport and society (Applebaum 1987). In an attempt to highlight the cultural meanings of African American female athletes in a conceptual framework, this study relied on the premises of symbolic anthropology (D’Andrade 1990; Geertz 1973; Turner 1969). Symbolic anthropology provides a framework for recognizing and understanding identifiers of culture—how individuals shape their reality and communicate meanings (Harris and Park 1983). Symbol and sign systems serve as vehicles for communicating knowledge and messages, which in turn stimulate actions or ideas in people. Within a given context, these human responses take on meanings, intersubjectively shared systems of meaning, which represent the essence of culture. I gained entrance into an NCAA Division IA intercollegiate program that is located in an urban area in the Northern United States. During this study, the university was comprised of over 30,000 undergraduate students from the following racial backgrounds: African American (20%), Asian-American (7%), Hispanic, International, Native American (3% or under), and white (67%) (Peterson’s Guide, Inc. 1992). As one athlete stated, “It’s not your average milky white university.” The significance of this statement is that this particular university and the surrounding social setting were racially diverse. Thus the African American athlete felt more comfortable socially than she would have had she attended a PWI located in a predominantly white city. Many athletes throughout the study supported the belief that “This [sport experience] is as good as it gets.” One hundred female athletes who were members of ten sports participated in this study over a fifteen-month period. Thirty (30%) African 80 TERESE M. PERETTO STRATTA American athletes were the focus of this study in addition to four black athletes, who were United States citizens and who identified themselves as Caribbean. The participation of non-African American athletes was necessary to delineate cultural phenomena from athlete phenomena. Another reason for investigating all athletes was to avoid altering the natural environment or disrupting the team “balance” that existed prior to my entrance. Ultimately, all athletes who chose to participate were accepted as informants; however, the preponderance of my time was spent with African American athletes. Collection of data occurred through fieldwork that entailed ascertaining indicators of culture through participant-observation, and structured and unstructured interviews (Spradley 1979, 1980; Strauss and Corbin 1990). After obtaining approval from administrators and coaches to conduct this study, I met with each of the ten teams to explain the...