UAA Conversations About Race and Racism: Jon Onyiriuka

March 4, 2021

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Jon Onyiriuka is a 2008 graduate of University of Rochester, where he earned degrees in financial economics, and electrical and computer engineering. He played basketball and earned a spot on the UAA’s 30th Anniversary Team, after being named to the All-Association first team twice and the second team once. Onyiriuka currently serves as director of U.S. equities sales trading at global financial services firm BTIG.

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.

Growing up in Corning

“Being in high school in Corning (New York) was an interesting experience. There were 1,000 kids in school, but only one other Black person in my grade. Diversity wasn’t even a word I was familiar with. I realized later what a homogeneous climate that was,” he remarked. “That really shaped the way I viewed race. When the protests were happening over the summer, a number of friends asked me if I had to deal with racial injustice. It was comical in a sense. You are close to me, but you didn’t understand these things have always been going on and happen to me too? There have been a number of times I have been stopped unfairly by police or put in a situation with subversive racism. I have had too many experiences to share.”

Most Black people growing up have been given “the talk” from their parents about dealing with the police, but Onyiriuka was not. “My father is from Nigeria (having moved to the middle of Colorado in the 1970s) and my mother is from South Carolina. I was learning how to operate as someone who is a minority in a white society. I never had the conversation with my parents about how to interact with the police. I was so conscious of trying to fit in that I did not understand what a negative experience that could be,” he acknowledged. “A couple years ago, my brother and I were stopped by police in Scottsdale (Arizona). He is much different than me and introverted, but he calls things as he sees them. We had different ideas about how to interact with the police.”

Common Misconceptions

“There have been so many times in my life when people have told me that they don’t see race when they see me. I had a girlfriend who saw me as a ‘junior mint.’ People were accepting me because I was something different than what they expected,” he stated. “That is prejudice, which is not the same as racism. Racism includes the power to enact a policy that changes other people’s way of life. In that construct, people have assumed the status quo as normal. What we are dealing with now is not normal or right.”

Being 6’7” adds another element to the preconceived ideas people have about him. “People presume that big and Black is scary and dangerous. My initial assumption is that when people first see me, they are thinking about that stereotype. I have gone out of my way in life to make people feel comfortable, especially when I first meet them,” he pointed out. “There are common events like people walking to the opposite side of the street when they see me, bringing something they are carrying closer to them, or just stopping and pretending they are talking on the phone because they don’t want you walking behind them. There are just a multitude of things to be conscious of.”

One thing that particularly discourages Onyiriuka is that some people believe in the concept of racial color-blindness. “I have had very good friends say to me, ‘I don’t see race.’ By not seeing I am Black, you are minimizing my experience and that is not helpful in any kind of meaningful dialogue,” he expressed. “How does that help their kids in white suburbia area learn? Without these discussions, all they have to go on is the negative connotations they may see in the media. People’s thinking cannot change if we don’t address issues head-on. You may not see color, but the world does.”

Challenges at Primarily White Institution

Looking back on his time at Rochester, he believes he missed some opportunities. “I didn’t engage in the Black community that existed at the school, and does at most schools, as much as I would have liked. I don’t see myself as a sellout, but I was trying to fit in too much with the majority. That came at the expense of being with people who looked like me,” he revealed. “I spent most of my time with athletes. I could have still spent a lot of time with them, but also been a part of other things and organizations. I didn’t go far enough in meeting more people on campus.”

He recognized that his experience as a Black student-athlete differed greatly from that of other Black students on campus. “My experience as a student-athlete was insulated. (Teammate) Uche (Ndubizu) and I were big guys on campus. I was protected by campus police. That was good for me, but just because it was fine for me doesn’t mean it was across the board,” he communicated. “I was always an exception. How many times do we hear about who is referred to as other people’s ‘one Black friend?’ That was me. People would say, ‘Why can’t every Black person be just like Jon?’ Can you imagine someone saying, ‘Why can’t every white person be like so and so?’ That just showed how they were taking what was in their subconscious to a conscious level.”

Onyiriuka admits overthinking has hindered him. “How many times could I have just easily gone to a Black event, but wondered what people would have thought? I am very introspective and retrospective. I care too much about what people think of me. I am trying to figure out how to be myself, but still fit in. For example, how do I retain my identify on golf courses?” he quipped. “The world always looks at us as part of a group. You may be an exception in your eco system, but that is not how others see you.”

Differing Perspectives

“This summer, a couple of my friends were exhausted by the coverage of racial injustice. I told them, ‘If you don’t want to go to a march, you can go home and not be part of it. I can’t do that.’ That doesn’t mean you were handed money and your life is easy. It simply means your situation is a lot different than someone else’s in terms of education, law, and work,” he described. “You can just go back to your life. I have to keep living my life while continually learning how to protect myself in order to survive.”

Onyiriuka has witnessed the polarization on issues that affect Black people. “You could see the completely opposite perceptions people had when Colin Kaepernick was silently protesting police violence. He was demonstrating peacefully for Black lives, but he was vilified by fans and the NFL. A lot of people tried to characterize every Black Lives Matter protest as some far-left anarchist event like the one in Portland,” he reported. “What has really been hurtful is people’s failure to understand and critically think about the core issues. We want information the easiest way possible without regard to whether it is factual or not.”

He believes many people in the U.S. are unable to tell the difference between truth and fallacy. “What many people go to for news is actually punditry. It is disheartening and harmful when people go to just one piece of so-called news and expect it to give them what they need. That type of dialogue goes unchecked and gets reinforced in homogeneous communities. That becomes their entire belief system and all of a sudden, you have people storming the capitol,” he commented.

Advice for Black Student-Athletes

“No challenge you face is too big. We could easily make an excuse as to why we are not doing things. We need to go further today for someone else to go even further tomorrow,” Onyiriuka recommended. “Take the challenge to have difficult conversations to help bring about change. Make tomorrow a better day for someone who looks like you.”

Onyiriuka with his daughter

He suggests student-athletes of color get more involved in their communities. “Look at what LeBron (James) has done. Most athletes at his level have never been as involved in social issues as he is. Like Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Jim Brown, he doesn’t care how it affects his brand. He is going to speak out,” he remarked. “He had overwhelming expectations on him in 2003, yet he has exceeded them. He has personally and proudly made his social justice work part of his brand. Of course, it won’t be on his scale, but we can all do this in our own ecosystem. People are looking at athletes at all levels to see what they will do. You can take the challenge to speak up.”

Role of Allies

“Do more listening, less talking. This has been one of the most frustrating things. So many people want to lend their opinion on something they think they know about, but they don’t. They only have preconceived notions,” he deemed. “The only way to enact change, and I think people want to, is to sit back and learn by listening to people’s stories. That allows you to better understand their trials and tribulations. That is what can open your eyes to something you may never have seen before. Don’t minimize what you hope to change!”

Onyiriuka with his wife and daughter

He fears people declare themselves experts without basis. “People too easily lend their opinions on things without being fully informed. We should be well-versed on a topic to give an opinion. Instead, everyone has an opinion about everything,” he stated. “How does a person think they are an expert because they heard or saw one thing. It is unproductive. I was watching a news show with a white woman and a Black man as anchors. The man offered an opinion on a racial issue and the woman said, ‘No, it was probably this.’ By silencing him and interjecting her point of view, it shows that you don’t value his point of view, even on an issue much closer to him.”

Role of Teams and Coaches

He finds basketball a particularly important sport in learning about others with different experiences. “There is a structure in some sports that keeps many people out because it is too expensive. Basketball costs the least to play. Whether you played in AAU or for your school in most areas, it is likely you have encountered people who didn’t look like you. You have to be prepped to deal with people who are different. Basketball is an equalizer,” he pointed out. “I was very fortunate to have supportive teammates and there was definitely a maturation process for me in college. My class on the team was a large one and we had each other’s backs off the court. It didn’t mean we didn’t have any battles, but that was between us and no one else. They supported me and didn’t reinforce stereotypes.”

Onyiriuka holding his 1,000th point ball next to head coach Mike Neer

Onyiriuka has seen expectations continue to rise for coaches over time. “The bar is a lot higher for any leaders now in coaching and corporations. The racial issues are out front. We have been saying this police violence has been happening for years, but now everyone sees it. (Former teammate and current head men’s basketball coach of Suffolk University) Jeff Juron called me after some of the initial videos came out. He listened to me and asked me questions,” he recollected. “He wanted to know what to say to his players and I said to just talk to them and begin the conversations. I respect him so much for saying he didn’t know much about the issues, but he wanted to learn from my experience. Coaches need to be active like that.”

“No matter who the coach is or how many ethnic minorities on your team, there are too many things going on to not have conversations about them. Even if you selfishly don’t want to as a coach, understand how it is affecting your players and could potentially affect their peak performance,” he continued. “Listen and apply what you hear from your student-athletes. Don’t run away from topics and conversations. Avoiding them does not make it easier. If you don’t ask your players how they are doing, it shows you don’t care enough.”

He believes that when coaches show they care about the full person, it can improve their recruiting and their team’s performance. “Sometimes it takes incentive for people to act. Coaches need to realize they can get better athletes and athletes who want to play harder for them when they see they have a vested interest in how they feel as 18-to-22-year-olds without their parents,” he narrated. “If a recruit doesn’t get a sense the coach really cares about them, they may think, ‘I don’t understand how they don’t care. Is this the right place for me?’ Coaches need to take actions that are not temporary. It requires a long-term commitment.”