Black Student-Athlete Collective Provides Community

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Last May, when it felt like everything was falling apart, UNC's Black student-athletes came together.

In the days following the death of George Floyd, Tar Heel student-athletes and staff members found themselves in need of community in a time when Covid made that uniquely difficult. Cricket Lane, UNC's Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Development, pulled together a group of Black student-athletes for a Zoom discussion.

Courtnie Williamson, a graduate student on the UNC field hockey team, was one the Tar Heels who joined that first call. "It was very therapeutic and much needed," she said. "I was feeling isolated but that gave me a way to be surrounded by people in a similar situation."

That first call has evolved into a new department group, the Black Student-Athlete Collective, which has proven to be a ballast in a tumultuous year. The group meets regularly, about twice a month, over Zoom and will transition to in-person meetings when that's an option.

"It's been an opportunity for us to get together and talk about our experiences and hear others' stories," said Lane, who remains an advisor for the group. "It's a place to be yourself."

Over the course of the past nine months, the focus of the group has continued to evolve. While in those early days the BSAC was mostly inward-focused, providing comfort to those in need of it, now it's just as much outward-facing. "It really started as a community for us, and then we thought, 'What can we do for other people?'" Williamson said.

The group was central to the organization of a march that hundreds of UNC student-athletes participated in on Franklin Street in August. BSAC continues to be a way for Black student-athletes to have discussions and lead with one voice on various campus and department issues.
A focus going forward is providing education on allyship and forming an ally group of non-Black students and staff.

But a central goal remains providing a safe space for Black student-athletes to be heard.

"Race as a topic can be hard to voice how it makes you feel," Williamson said. "Sometimes when we meet we talk about issues, but other times we just talk about life and what's going on with everyone. This is something I could have used at lots of times throughout my life and I'm grateful to have it now."

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