UNC-CH’s athletic director says he doesn’t know why racism endures. His school shows why.
One could mistake UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham for someone speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He says he “stands against racism,” but he is against players having the right to benefit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), legislation that would financially benefit many Black athletes. Upon closer examination we see a disturbing consistency in Cunningham’s recent pronouncements. That consistency indicates that the white supremacy culture we witnessed at UNC during the NCAA investigation of its athletic department is still firmly in place.
Cunningham said on Twitter on June 1, “Like many of you, I’ve watched the events across our country over the last few days and struggle to understand how and why racism continues to polarize our society.” We suggest that Cunningham open his eyes to the very system that pays his bills every month to gain a clearer understanding of how racism works. Racism is not a set of attitudes and mentalities. Racism is made up of systems, structures, and institutions that concentrate wealth and power in the hands of white people.
There are several reasons racism continues to polarize our country. White people continue to hoard power in institutions like UNC-Chapel Hill. Wealth continues to be concentrated in the hands of white people, white communities, and white-dominant institutions. White people with formal institutional power like Cunningham continue to uphold the status quo. His “standing against racism” does nothing to challenge a system in which he extracts economic value every day from Black people to make the more than $700,000 a year that the university pays him.
The country doesn’t need Cunningham to “stand against racism,” we need him to be anti-racist. Being anti-racist means that Cunningham would use his power and privilege to actively dismantle the systems that concentrate white wealth, white power hoarding, and white defensiveness in his spheres of influence.
Cunningham has had a 10-year stint at UNC and he has done nothing to disrupt the concentrations of white wealth, decision-making, and culture there. He cannot work in an athletic department in which all 26 varsity head coaches, all four directors of academic support for athletes, seven of eight senior athletic directors, six of six staff in the athletic compliance department, three of three directors of strength programs, the chancellor, provost, and 12 of 13 people on the board of trustees are white and say he doesn’t understand racism. Cunningham is immersed in a white-dominant institution where power and decision-making are concentrated in white hands. He is living, breathing, and benefiting from racism every day.
People of color didn’t create racism, white people did. And people of color are telling this country that they have had enough. Anyone who is against racism, must be against the status quo in our economy, our justice system, and, yes, in higher education and collegiate revenue sports.
The place where white supremacy culture and racism are the most evident in our institutions of higher learning is in athletic departments at schools like UNC-Chapel Hill, where the majority of revenue generating athletes are Black. Those same athletes are generating profit for everyone else in the system except themselves. Not allowing them to benefit from their athletic capital at what will prove to be the peak of their market value for most collegiate athletes is the opposite of anti-racist. It is a tool deployed to keep white wealth and power concentrated where it has been in America since enslaved people built the economy that created this country’s wealth.
It’s time for Cunningham and other athletic directors to break ranks with their white-dominant institutions, and stand in solidarity with Black athletes, families, and communities. Advocating for NIL legislation is a good start. But if they really want to change the systems that keep racism humming along in this country, they’ll have to start with changing the systems they have worked so hard to maintain.
John Shoop was the offensive coordinator for UNC’s football team from 2007-2011. The Rev. Marcia Shoop is the senior pastor at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville and author of “Touchdowns for Jesus and Other Signs of Apocalypse: Lifting the Veil on Big-Time Sports.”
