Is Racism the Main Factor in Opposition to Paying College Athletes?

footballA new study by research at the University of Massachusetts and California State University, Long Beach finds that racism is a factor in opposition to paying college athletes for their services.

First, researchers found that most African Americans favor paying college athletes while most White Americans oppose it. They also measured respondents’ racial views and found that Whites with more negative opinions of Blacks were less likely to approve of paying college athletes.

In another experiment, researchers showed one group of White survey participants pictures of African American college athletes that include captions with stereotypical Black names before asking their opinion on paying college athletes. A control group was not shown any photographs. The results showed that the group that was shown the photographs were significantly less likely to approve of paying college athletes.

The authors conclude, “the discussion about paying college athletes is implicitly a discussion about race.”

Related Articles

2 COMMENTS

    • There’s a link in the post to a newspaper article. I would contact the authors of the study listed at the end of that article.

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

New Online Library for the Study of Philanthropy and Black Churches

The new Philanthropy and the Black Church digital collection of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, an organization founded by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, and the Center for the Church and the Black Experience at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, aims to provide resources for Black churches and other philanthropic institutions to partner together on strategic initiatives.

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Establishes New Research Center to Address Segregation in Local Area

The new Center for Equity Practice and Planning Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee aims to study the history of racial segregation in the local area and advance racially equitable practices in urban planning.

Featured Jobs