Questions

Regardless of what happens with the Trumaine Johnson v. USD saga, the whole hoopla brings attention to an important issue rarely raised on campus: the treatment of the African American and other ethnic minority athletes here at USD.
The purpose of my article is not to make assumptions or insinuate anything about what happened between Johnson, Bill Grier or USD. My purpose, rather, is to raise questions and evoke dialogue within a student body that is usually relaxing at the beach instead of engaging in conversation about race relations.
On a campus where only three percent of the student body is African American, it seems that the African American athlete serves USD Brass similar to how Sidney Poitier served white America in the ‘50s: their success marriages great social issues that must be addressed.
 With our eyes currently glued to our brackets it is easy to be blinded by the spectacle of a diaper dandy or a dazzling dunk. As spectators we never peer into the social and academic realities of college basketball. We fail to ask the important questions; we fail to realize that many of these student athletes are being pimped by their institutions as these institutions of higher learning are making millions off their talents. The University of Texas makes about 48 million dollars in revenue from their football program alone. And what do these students get? Recruiters offer the American Dream to students, but in reality it seems that is all it is: a dream.    
A study conducted by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida shows that 45 of the 64 tournament teams  from 2000 to 2003 graduated over 70 percent of their players. But only 20 teams graduated 70 percent of their African American players.
Where does USD fit into this equation? Based on the difficulty I have had finding these numbers regarding USD's graduation rate of minority athletes, I am uncertain. However, as I stated above, I am not writing this article in order to  ignorantly paint the wrong picture of USD. I am writing this article in order to get the ball rolling and open up dialogue.
The Vista Sports Section hopes to revive the spirit of Woodward and Bernstein and get critical.  In the upcoming issues, we hope to report on the social climate minority athletes face at USD. We want to highlight the positives that would come about if USD basketball had an African American assistant coach on staff, as outlined by Richard Lapchick's groundbreaking article. We want to ask questions that have never been asked before.

The policy for the comments section of The Vista website is currently under review in light of the University Policy found in the Student Code of Rights and Responsibilities, which requires students to acknowledge who they are when posting an opinion or statement in The Vista.