Playing while Black: A look into Black student-athletes’ lives

During the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Track Conference, Kaelin Triggs kneels. “This country has a tendency to hold us down on our knees to make us seem smaller than them,” Triggs said. “Until they let me stand free on my own without the hate they give, I guess I will have to continue to kneel.” Triggs also competes on the cross country team and explained how it feels to be a Black man in a sport dominated by white athletes in the US. “There are many races where I am the only black person toeing the line. It is extra baggage on my shoulder every day of having this feeling that I have to prove my worth. The assumption and stereotype is that black track athletes can only be sprinters and not distance runners.”