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Christian McCaffrey
feels sting of stereotypes as white football player
7:42 PMWhen we think of racial stereotypes in sports, we think of black men not being intellectually capable of playing quarterback, wide receivers and basketball players being nothing but self-indulged “divas” and black athletes only marrying white women.
But what about the other side?
Stanford running back and Heisman Trophy runner-up Christian McCaffrey recently explained to Sports Illustrated how race affects the perception of him as a collegiate running back because he’s white.
“When you read about white athletes these days and white skill possession receivers specifically, one word you’ll always find is tough,” McCaffrey said. “You’ll rarely see explosive, athletic, stuff like that. … You get a little bit upset.”
McCaffrey has a point: Last season he broke the NCAA single-season, all-purpose yards record, led his team in receiving and rushing yards — the only FBS player to do so in the country — broke the Rose Bowl record for all-purpose yards and still lost the Heisman to Alabama running back Derrick Henry by almost 300 votes.
When you type his name into Twitter’s search, fellow white running back Danny Woodhead’s name pops up alongside McCaffrey’s.
But while it can be frustrating to be taken serious as a white rusher — and that arguably led to some of McCaffrey’s success last season — there’s a long history of racial stereotypes portraying black athletes as intellectually inferior to their white counterparts.
Academic research has found that the media connects the success of black athletes to their superior natural ability — “They were just born that way” — compared to white athletes who had to, ironically enough, work twice as hard to be successful at sports.
McCaffrey, the son of Super Bowl-winning wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, has a fair point about the preconceived notions of him as a white running back, but is that really the worst thing in world?