UAA Conversations About Race and Racism: Janean Cuffee

March 25, 2021

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Janean Cuffee is a senior basketball player studying applied psychology at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. In three seasons, she surpassed 1,000 career points and was named to the All-Association first team each of the past two seasons before COVID-19 canceled the 2020-21 season. Cuffee has taken the lead on NYU developing a student-athlete of color group.

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.

Lack of Diversity

“I was already thinking about the dynamic of race when I decided to go to NYU. My first year was the most diverse team we’ve had. Kayla Patterson (who graduated in 2018) was like a big sister to me and I was so excited to join the team. I came from a boarding school, which was not very diverse, but fun. I saw NYU as a multicultural university with a large team,” Cuffee recalled. “Once that class graduated, the only Black players were me and one other woman, who quit. That left me as literally the only Black player left on the team. I talked to Kayla about it, and we acknowledged that it is harder to get a diverse team when the school doesn’t offer athletic scholarship money.”

The NYU athletics programs were physically spread out even before the Coles Sports and Recreation Center, its main facility, closed in February 2016, making its “home” basketball court at another school. “I would only see other athletes passing by. My roommate, a soccer player, played her home games at another college, which took me an hour to get to from campus by public transportation to see her play. That is just the way of New York City and NYU, not race-driven, but that we have limits between our sports in general,” she expressed. “I knew there were other Black student-athletes, but there is no platform to get to know them apart from what we are trying to do with BLAC (the name several other UAA schools have used to define their student-athlete groups of color). We ordinarily spend so much time in the gym and training room that we may just see another Black athlete to sometimes make eye contact and give a head nod.”

“Without seeing other teams very often, I didn’t realize how small the Black student-athlete population at NYU was until I started creating BLAC. I found only 45 Black/Latinx student-athletes, consisting of about eight percent of all athletes,” she communicated. “Reflecting back on my experience in academics and athletics, I have seen it is hard to create a massively diverse community. There are far more people of color in my classes. The university itself is more diverse than athletics.”

Common Misconceptions

“People have assumed that I was naturally gifted athletically and since I am on the shorter side, I must be fast. I have played sports since I was 10 years old, but it wasn’t until I ran track in high school and learned the mechanics of running that I learned how to become a real athlete. Others attributed it to genetics instead of hard work and dedication. Racing for speed is not helpful in basketball. It has been learning how to use speed with agility that has paid off for me in spite of my size. Being 5’-8” would make me even better,” she joked.

She has witnessed a double misconception when it comes to her academics. “There are people who assume I got in because of affirmative action and/or because I am an athlete. I actually got in because I did well in my private school education and chose NYU because of academics,” she remarked. “I don’t take it personally because I know why I am here, but it is something I have seen and heard a lot. There is a certain lens that the majority views Black or Latinx students with.”

Challenges at a Predominantly White Institution

“I work a lot. It is difficult when you are able to attend such a prestigious institution that sets you up academically, but you are not financially stable while doing so. What may be defined as need (or the absence of need) on paper is not the same as real life,” she commented. “Work is such a regular part of my daily life. I was a student employee even before my freshman year started, working at the NYU gyms. That year, I worked a minimum of eight hours a week and then in the spring, upped it to 12 hours. In addition, I started babysitting while working at the gym, attending classes, and doing post-season workouts. My work schedule continued to get more intense over the years, including an unpaid internship at a research lab, and working at 404 (the campus gym). This season, without basketball, I picked up more side gigs.”

One of the consistent struggles Cuffee has endured is feeling at home at NYU. “I have been code-switching being in a PWI since the ninth grade, so I have learned how to navigate those dynamics. That is something that will always exist. This most recent year, I have just noticed the lack of diversity more. It is certainly not the fault of our coach (Meg Barber), who is trying and has had a lot of recruits who are people of color,” Cuffee informed. “It is just when you are on a Zoom call and everyone’s face is on at once, you really notice if no one else looks like you. Our team had discussions about Black Lives Matter and racial issues over the summer, but it was always the same Black people speaking and responding. It is an awkward environment, but there that disconnect is simply out of cultural differences.”

Zoom has also highlighted other gaps among team members. “On the court, there are more similarities than differences. We are all working toward a common goal. We are both a team and a sisterhood on the court,” she explained. “When you log on for a virtual call and people are in their homes, you see some stark differences. We had a parents’ Zoom call with the athletic director when the season was ending, and it was fascinating to see how other people live. It is directly in your face.”

Harmful Comments and Actions

“Appropriating cultures is so low-key and not well understood. For example, singing along to a song and changing your voice to sound like the person who is singing, or a stereotypical Black person, is not okay,” she discussed. “Don’t ask Black women to touch their hair just because our hair texture is different. There are so many common microaggressions about our hair. People often don’t understand what they are saying. If your Black teammate has much longer hair than she did the day before, it did not grow overnight.”

Cuffee says that what people say or do may not be malicious, but that doesn’t make it less hurtful. “I am from Manhattan, but people often joke, ‘Oh, you aren’t from the Bronx?’ as if all Black New Yorkers are from the Bronx or Brooklyn. Hearing someone you talk to all the time make one comment like that shifts your view of them because now you know what they are genuinely thinking,” she stated. “People see things on pop culture and social media and then repeat them without processing what they are really saying, then I am forced to make a decision at that moment. If I don’t call them out on what they said, they won’t change, but there are times I am just not in the frame of mind to deal with it.”

Advice for Other Student-Athletes of Color

“It is critical that schools start programs like BLAC to help student-athletes of color find their community. In my first year, I wasn’t trying to exclude teammates, but hanging out with my big sister (Patterson) and other Black people on the team gave me comfort and a different type of interaction,” she elucidated. “It is sad to say in 2021 that we are still in this place where we are consistently in environments where we are forced to be someone we are not.”

Particularly on teams with few (or no) other people of color, Cuffee recommends finding community in classes. “You spend so much time with your team, but classes, particularly at NYU, are large and far more likely to be diverse. Find those friends in class. Building a larger community is both helpful and comfortable. It is not that I am not comfortable around my white friends, but it is a different level when you can ignore the racial barrier,” she shared. “That could mean being part of the campus Black Student Union, making one friend there and getting to know their friends. I was better in my freshman year about grabbing dinner with non-athlete friends, but I lacked the time in later years and missed that support system. You don’t always want to talk about everything with your teammates.”

Role of Allies and Teams

“Be present and educate yourself. As soon as something challenging happens, people tend to reach out to the one person of color they know to educate them. There are resources being posted every day so you can do it yourself. Feel free to ask questions of people of color if you have taken the time to educate yourself, but don’t come to the table empty-handed relying on them to feed you information,” she commented. “Engage in dialogue honestly. Understand that it is better to make a mistake and apologize than to be ignorant. Racial topics are sensitive and touchy, but when you are in a common space, you can gain knowledge. Being there and not engaging is not learning. You need to participate to fully comprehend. Otherwise, your mind can be anywhere else, and you can be doing other things while on Zoom. If you come and don’t participate in the conversation and are looking away, it just shows you are using your privilege to ignore it.”

Cuffee was encouraged when an Asian teammate spoke out after the much-publicized murders of Black people in spring 2020. “She reached out and suggested our team make a statement. That was awesome because it showed that she wanted to make a change and our team’s mission is aligned with the statement we made. We can’t preach diversity and not speak out when race is at the forefront of what is happening in society,” she remarked. “People saw a team that is not particularly diverse sending out this message and that was important, the same way we like to see men support women in sports. Then we pushed the initiative further, collecting donations to donate to organizations. It was something simple, but if you are dedicated to making change, you can make it.”

Cuffee recognizes that humor is a major way that teammates communicate, but that it can quickly turn into something negative. “Don’t use or laugh at stereotypes. There is a line in comedic remarks and that line is very thin. It is important to acknowledge them and call out family and friends when they say something inappropriate around you,” she said. “Being in New York City, teammates have shifted their values and it is exciting to see the ways being in a liberal city can change people. Take what you learn and share it with your family. Don’t harbor the knowledge yourself, but use it to help make changes in people around you. That 1-on-1 impact with people close to you will have a much larger significance and can increase awareness exponentially. It is not something that happens overnight.”

Most of all, she asks allies to speak out. “The country is clearly at odds and that is still the case even if protests are not happening everywhere. Some cities have made some important changes, but for greater change nationally, we need people to care enough… more than enough. Silence is violence,” she articulated.

Role of Coaches

“It was great that Meg initiated the conversations. She recognized that it not okay to remain silent when racial injustice is at the forefront of the news. At the same time, neither she nor any coach can fully control who speaks on the topic. That is all part of the importance of having these open conversations,” she pronounced. “She also reached out to POC students after the events of the summer and that was a nice gesture that showed she cared.”

The NYU women’s basketball team began having weekly meetings during the pandemic. “After Ahmaud Arbery was murdered, we talked about it. Of more than 20 people, five people at most spoke. When George Floyd was murdered, we talked about it again and the same five people spoke. It was uncomfortable, but I sensed people were more afraid of saying the wrong thing. To people of color, that often seems like you don’t care,” she advised. “Coach took it a step further and started using the Zoom calls to talk about privilege, using definitions and concepts to break out to various topics from race to gender to sexuality. That appealed to more people and has been very helpful. This allowed us to not focus on individual events, but to dive deeper into systemic racism, sexism, etc.”

Cuffee believes unity is an important goal for all teams. “We are united on the court and we should be united off the court as well. When coaches, as the dominant forces of the team, show they care, it shows everyone it is something we all need to care about. If they ignore it, they are being complicit. It can be hard for a white coach to know how to spearhead these important conversations, but it is necessary. The longer you put it off, the harder it becomes to start and makes it seem like you do not care,” she expressed.