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The Undefeated by Lonnae O'Neal  

The athletes, former athletes and coaches had gathered at Temple University to tell war stories. But the conversation wasn’t about diving catches or buzzer beaters, heated rivalries or fearsome opponents. Instead, they detailed the other defining aspect of their playing days: what it felt like to compete while black and female on the tracks, fields and courts of America.

They talked about the need to find a supportive community and the feeling of always having to be an ambassador for the race. They detailed the heavy weight of assumptions about how fast, strong or aggressively they played—and how their hair looked while they were doing it.

The women spoke of “an overcompensation of composure because you’re in a hostile environment—even on your own side at times,” says Marirose Roach, an attorney and former scholarship track and soccer athlete at Temple who now plays semiprofessional football in the Women’s Football Alliance.

There’s “constant pressure not to act out,” she says. Not to get stigmatized or kicked off the team. “You have to keep your composure so you can excel and get to the next level. It’s just like an added obstacle.”

It feels like carrying the weight of black history strapped to your back. Which, for athletes, can mean the difference between being a champion and an also-ran. Or even taking the field at all.

For black women, navigating the obstacles of race and gender, stereotype and burden, requires a dexterity that constitutes a whole other layer of athleticism—an ability to contort in plain sight, often without being seen. That is one of the findings of a new study by Morgan State University that details the history of black female athletes and the myriad coping mechanisms they’ve come up with to get themselves, body and soul, across the finish lines of sport and life. It’s a guide to the game within the game that they have played for more than a century and, despite great successes and modern adaptations, one that continues to this day.

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Kayla Cohen, a graduate student in sports business at Temple University, and an accountant for the Philadelphia Flyers, says her time as a field hockey player was brief because she was told she was too aggressive.

Hannah C. Price for The Undefeated



The findings are given voice by athletes who compete in different lanes or fields of play but who share common experiences that can include alienation, uneven opportunities and simply a self-doubt that comes from wondering whether you should be there at all.

Kayla Cohen, a graduate student in sport business at Temple, recalls her brief time as a field hockey player at a largely white high school. “I was playing predominantly against white girls as well, and I remember I was being really aggressive, and I know my team was behind me—they loved it.” But after one game, as the opposing teams exchanged high-fives, every girl Cohen passed said, “You need to calm down,” “You need to calm down,” “You need to calm down,” one after another. The opposing coach apologized, but Cohen remembers getting really quiet and feeling sad.

She never played with that same intensity again. The following year, she quit the team.

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Prince Malachi is the founder of The Oracle Network and the Streetwear brand Y.A.H. Apparel

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