David A. Victor is a tech analyst on the Application Cloud Technologies team at Capgemini. He was a soccer student-athlete at NYU, where he majored in applied physics with a minor in creative writing/poetry. He served as president of NYU’s Society of Undergraduate Physicists and was the co-founder and co-president of Ritmo, the school’s Urban Latin Dance Club.
The UAA “Conversations About Race and Racism” series seeks to lift the voices of people of color and recognize the challenges faced in both athletics and academics at the collegiate level. By sharing personal stories, we hope to elevate the conversation about race to raise awareness and bring about change.
Microaggressions
Microaggressions are the everyday, subtle interactions that reflect bias toward historically marginalized groups of people. But to Victor and others, there is nothing “micro” about them. In his New York Times #1 best seller How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram Kendi said microaggressions are, in fact, “racial abuse.”
“I’m a very personable person. In college I found myself having many friend groups comprised of people from a wide variety of different cultures and backgrounds. With that kind of social adaptability, I became close with friends of all races,” Victor described. “At first, I didn’t experience the microaggressions (which aren’t “micro” at all) or hear blatant racist remarks, but as they became more comfortable with me, their ally-facades lifted. From ‘Black jokes’ to being called the ‘n word,’ I experienced racism from virtually every angle.”
David A. Victor Speaking at Protest
“Through my experiences I decided to educate myself on where these ideologies came from and the psychology behind their reinforcement,” Victor elucidated. “This self-education helped me become a more controlled and mature person — both of which have enabled me to achieve my goals from an athletic and academic level with a lot more to come.”
Misconceptions/Impostor Syndrome
“The most common misconception about me is that I am uneducated. Whenever I tell people that I majored in physics and minored in poetry at NYU, their jaws drop,” he shared. “Another common assumption is that I am a criminal. I can’t count how many times I have been to the store and was followed around incessantly by security or how frequently people cross to the other side of the street when they see me walking on the same side of the road.”
Victor communicated that his biggest challenge at NYU was overcoming his own impostor syndrome, which is defined as a psychological paradigm where individuals doubt their own skills and talents with an internalized fear of being exposed as a pretender. “When you spend so much of your time in spaces where no one else looks like you, it can result in the belief that you don’t belong,” he explained. “At first it was pretty daunting to walk into every class (at a relatively diverse institution) being the only Black or Latino kid there. The cure for me was balancing my social life with my athletic and academic life. I was able to find people with similar backgrounds who were dealing with similar issues who helped me feel more deserving of where I was.”
The Whiteness of His Name
“My name is a constant reminder of my background. Not only was my last name forced onto one of my ancestors by their slave master, my first name was given to me in large part because it was sufficiently ‘white sounding,’” Victor divulged. “At law school in the early/mid 1980s, my dad was on law review (the top 5% of his class). After graduation, he was receiving just as many, if not more, interviews than his peers, but he could not land a job. His white counterparts who were not on law review received high-paying jobs immediately after graduation, leaving my father confused as to why he couldn’t get any offers.”
In retrospect, Victor’s father knows what held him back, but he did not recognize it at the time. “Ignorant to the reality of the situation, my dad read book after book on how to perfect his interview skills, but still to no avail. It wasn’t until he became desperate and started asking friends and family for advice that he discovered the reasons for his troubles,” Victor relayed.
“He was told, ‘Brian, it’s because you are Black.’ In a time before profile pictures, job applications did not indicate race. With a first name like Brian, a slaveowner’s last name, and an exceptional academic record like his, his application did not seem like that of a Black person to potential employers. His resume and his ‘white-sounding’ name resulted in many interviews, but the color of his skin robbed him from landing any opportunities.”
His father kept that experience in mind when he named his son David. “The harsh reality is that if my dad’s name was not ‘white-sounding,’ he may not have received many of those interviews in the first place. In an effort to at least get me through the door, he gave me a name that was ‘white-sounding’ enough so that my applications would not be immediately thrown away. To this day, I don’t include my middle name (Alejandro) on my resume.”
“It is important to note that my father’s experience was not unique to him. If anything, it was the experience of most people of color across all fields of work,” Victor articulated. “When choosing a name for your child, you shouldn’t have to think about employers robbing your children of opportunities based on the race they will assume they are, but that is a luxury that people of color do not have.”
Advice for Other Student-Athletes of Color
“Educate yourself. Learn not only from people who deal with similar issues, but also learn about where these issues originate,” he recommended. “You can deal with things more effectively when you clearly understand them.”
At the same time, Victor stresses the importance of self-care. “Keep your sanity by doing things that boost your mental health. It is already hard enough balancing a heavy course load with a busy athletic schedule, but I can confidently say from experience that it is easier to manage these things when you find time to do things for your mental and emotional betterment.”
Role of Allies
Victor believes people can start by being more considerate. “If more people asked themselves questions like ‘How would a Black person feel about this joke rooted in a negative stereotype about their culture?’ or ‘Would this person appreciate me touching their hair unprompted?’ I believe they would immediately do less harm,” he communicated. “Sometimes it is entitlement that leads people to do harmful things. It’s important to know that good intentions do not render actions and words harmless.”
“The best thing allies can do is to lift marginalized voices. The fact of the matter is marginalized people can best speak for marginalized groups,” he expressed. “Allies also need to be willing to sacrifice for just causes. For example, if you find out that your boss is paying their ethnic minority employees less than their peers for the same jobs, then be able to stand up for what is right regardless of the consequences. If more allies become soldiers, willing to figuratively fight on the front lines for us, then marginalized groups’ voices can be sufficiently amplified to invoke systemic change.”
Role of Teams
“Depending on the team, they play a pivotal role in either perpetuating racist behavior or condemning it. Teammates need to hold one another accountable. If players speak up against racist teammates, it can discourage or even thwart racist behavior,” Victor pronounced. “Inaction simply reinforces harmful behavior. At a team level, there needs to be harsh disciplinary consequences for racist conduct. At the professional level, players are fined and suspended for multiple matches for racist behavior. Similar statutes should be in place for each team to uphold.”
He recommends that antiracist values begin with the head coach. “The head coach needs to lead by example. Exemplary behaviors by respected figures are often emulated. This means actively advocating against racism, voicing the concerns and issues of marginalized players to conference officials, and urging the conferences to put statutes in place to condemn racism. From a general standpoint, if the message is clear that there is no place for racism, the efforts to enforce this message will help deconstruct harmful ideologies.”