Black Trojan athletes take initiative to foster discussion about racial issues

Fresh off the beach volleyball courts at Merle Norman Stadium, Joy Dennis, a graduate student next season, walked down the streets of USC’s campus. She was approached and asked if she played basketball for the Trojans, seemingly ignorant of the fact that she was covered in sand.

Dennis is the only Black woman on the beach volleyball team compared to the nearly half-Black Trojan basketball team. Dennis said people often assume she is a basketball player because of her skin color, and this kind of generalization is why she feels like she needs to be actively involved in the public discussion.

“[It’s] little comments where it's just you can tell that people are not used to seeing people of color within the organization or within the sport, and it's those times that I've realized, especially now, that I need to speak out,” Dennis said.

The tragic death of George Floyd while being detained by Minneapolis Police on May 25 has spurred nationwide protest and fostered discussions among Americans about systemic racism and police brutality in America.

For weeks, streets in most major cities have been flooded with protesters holding fists high, demanding change.

USC is a world-recognized university and athletics are deeply-rooted in its history and image. The most popular Trojan athletes reach upwards of 100,000 followers on social media platforms — even in less popular sports, Trojan athletes regularly have tens of thousands of followers. Since the school and its athletic program are in the national spotlight, Trojan athletes across all sports have used their platform to help fight for change.

“It would be pointless for us to have a platform and not use it,” said Chase Williams, a junior safety on the football team. “I do feel like it’s an obligation because I have the ability to spread awareness about a specific topic that can be uncomfortable, but that needs to be talked about.”

USC athletes who enjoy a national following on the level of their professional counterparts are resented by some for using their platform to address social issues. “Shut up and dribble” has become a phrase used by people trying to silence the voices of athletes they deem to have no place in social discourse.

“It angers me because that’s how a lot of people look at us,” Williams said. “We know they just think we play sports and that’s all that we are. For somebody to tell us that we can’t do something and we can’t voice our opinion just because we are good at a sport is completely degrading.”

Historically, USC, and notably USC athletics, has been on the progressive side of race issues in America. If you walk down the tunnel leading out of the basement of the McKay Center, it is impossible to ignore the 157 All-American plaques that line the wall.

At the start of the tunnel is a plaque honoring USC’s first consensus All-American, Brice Taylor. Taylor, an offensive guard, became the Trojans’ first Black football player in 1925, and if that weren't challenging enough, he played without a left hand. Only a handful of other collegiate programs had Black players at the time.

Perhaps the most pivotal event in USC’s history took place on Sept. 12, 1970 in Birmingham, Ala. Former USC head coach John McKay led his fully racially-integrated Trojans into Alabama to play against Paul “Bear” Bryant’s all-white Crimson Tide — the first football game in the state that featured Black players.

The game, in which USC blew out Alabama, is widely considered to have directly influenced the Southeastern Conference to integrate — the following season, Alabama had its first Black player, Wilbur Jackson, on its roster.

When USC football’s Jalen McKenzie was considering attending USC, his family recognized the importance of their son playing at a school with a rich history of impactful Black student-athletes — citing the 1970 Alabama game.

“You can only really look at history for [the role of athletes in social change],” McKenzie said. “When USC went down and played Alabama for the first time in 1970, and [USC] had an all Black backfield led by Jimmy Jones, Clarence Davis and everybody knows Sam ‘Bam’ Cunningham … That’s something small scale, but the role of the athlete is to be the pusher of a culture for advancement of people who look like you and for people of color and for just what’s right. That’s your role, is to be out there fighting for what’s right.”

When Anna Cockrell, a senior hurdler for USC track and field, first became aware of the term “Trojan family” on her official recruiting visit to USC, she assumed it was just another buzz phrase the tour guide repeated to attract wide-eyed high school seniors. She signed her letter of intent and was immediately overwhelmed with messages from past Trojans welcoming the newest commit to the family and informing her that they have her back.

“[The Trojan family] is a real tangible thing that people abide by,” Cockrell said. “We’re not a family if we’re not addressing the very real concerns of a large subset of that family.”

That notion of family-hood and camaraderie is the reason Cockrell wants the best for her university.

“There are a lot of very powerful people who have passed through USC who still feel an affinity for the university, who feel connected to it,” she said. “If we can get all those people together and get those people to reach out to their networks and have these tough conversations about race and address systemic racism and inequality, then a lot of change can be made in USC and beyond.”

Cockrell took the initiative to start her own discussion among the USC athletics community. She initially planned to host a Zoom call exclusively for Black USC athletes to have a safe space to discuss their feelings about the current events and their university’s response; it quickly opened up to a broader conversation.

“There are teams where there might be only one Black student athlete, and they don’t necessarily feel comfortable being the voice for Black people,” Cockrell said. “The conversation got opened up beyond just Black student athletes, beyond just student athletes, and it became open to all, and that’s why it was just straight up on my Instagram. It’s like we just came to, let’s just put it out and reach as many people as we can.”

More than 60 people associated with USC athletics attended the call including athletic director Mike Bohn, who has been outspoken about wanting to hear from his student athletes.

“Everybody is so willing to help and so happy to educate,” Dennis said. “I'm looking for change all together and trying to use everybody's brain and pick everybody's brain and try and see what we could do as student athletes.”

Cockrell’s open discourse meeting was followed by meetings among individual teams.

The USC football team converted its regularly scheduled team Zoom meeting on June 1 to an open forum to discuss current events. The 130-member team and staff spent hours discussing thoughts, emotions and concerns about race issues.

“We’ve had conversations like these amongst [sic] ourselves with different issues that arise way before this, but it’s good that something like this is what I say is a tipping point,” McKenzie said. “It’s when it’s right in your face and you have to acknowledge it so you can never be ignorant to it.”

Several USC football members voiced their gratitude for having such an accepting family of brothers after the meeting.

Cockrell noted that she feels like people may perceive athletes who are pushing their universities for change as unappreciative of the opportunities their university has provided.

“We want [USC] to be the best it can be,” she said. “All the shining perfect things I thought it was, I hope that's something that people understand that we're not ungrateful. We just demand our university live up to its promises.”

USC’s student athletes want the best for their Trojan Family, and recognize that this is an issue bigger than a game of football, a track race or a beach volleyball dual.

“At the end of the day when I step off the field, I’m Black and nobody can ever take that away from me,” Williams said. “You can take football away from me, but you can never take my ethnicity, my race and the history my people of color have dealt with.”