Fred Dauphin graduated with a degree in astrophysics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2020. The outdoor track and field program’s record-holder in the triple jump, he earned UAA All-Association honors three times, including a runner-up finish in the triple jump in the 2020 UAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, the last meet he competed in before COVID-19 ended the remainder of his senior season.

The UAA “Conversations About Race and Racism” series seeks to lift the voices of people of color and recognize the challenges faced in both athletics and academics at the collegiate level. By sharing personal stories, we hope to elevate the conversation about race to raise awareness and bring about change.

Standing Out in White Spaces

“I am consistently one of the only Black people in any space I am in. It is profound to walk into a room when no one else looks like you. The prevalent effects of that puts a weird weight on your shoulders, as if you are representing your race and/or the place you come from,” Dauphin stated. “I was one of few Black people studying physics at Carnegie Mellon. There was only a scattering of Black people surrounded by mostly white people in my classes.”

That factor added pressure to his already strong intrinsic motivation to succeed academically. “The most dominant factor is feeling like you are presenting something different from what people have seen in the media or from stereotypes they hold. A lot of people were surprised by my academic success. They realized I wasn’t just there to compete in a sport,” he noted. “Being one of the only Black people really helped pushed me to do my best, not just for myself, but for others who think I represent all Black people.”

He believes it is important to act with grace toward others. “You never know what someone else’s experiences from the past may be. It is possible that in the 18 years before someone came to Carnegie Mellon, they may never have interacted with someone who looks like me,” he remarked. “How you portray yourself may be very different from what they learned in their hometown or school. If you stand outside of that previous mindset, they can start to think about race in a different way.”

Misconceptions and Stereotypes

“I dealt with a lot of people assuming I got into Carnegie Mellon because of athletics. Many of these same people didn’t know there were no athletic scholarships at the school. I made sure to let them know I was there because of academics and my educational pursuits,” he described. “I talked to my family a lot about those experiences. My uncle talks about me a lot and when his co-workers would ask him what sport I played, he responded by saying that I am majoring in astrophysics and that it is possible for a Black person to get into a really good college based on their academic achievements first and foremost.”

One thing Dauphin heard regularly was particularly detrimental. “The weirdest comment that I heard was people saying I was ‘the whitest Black person.’ That restricts the qualities a person can possess, associating ‘good’ qualities like being intelligent, funny, likeable, or listening to certain types of music only with white people. When challenged, those who said things like that would invariably respond with, ‘I didn’t mean it like that,’” he explained. “I also used it as an opportunity to help further dialogue. It really made me think retrospectively about what it means to be Black or white in a biological sense and separately, what it means in a societal sense. Is intelligence reserved for white STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) students? If you are a Black person, are you supposed to like certain types of food and music?”

Another trait that was a topic of discussion was his dialect. “I heard multiple comments about my language and style, particularly my dialect. I was brought up to speak to adults in a way that was different from how I speak to my friends,” he divulged. “I spoke professionally to my professors as there is a level of hierarchy and authority that comes with that position. I would talk to them with respect as someone I was looking up to rather than the way I would speak with a teammate. A lot of students had misconceptions about what they thought my dialect and accent ‘should’ be.”

Challenges Being a Student-Athlete at a Predominantly White Institution

“Battling certain stereotypes and proving my worth were my biggest challenges. Being at a highly academic and very established university like Carnegie Mellon, I wanted to make sure people understood that I may have been an athlete, but I was a student first,” Dauphin explained. “I had professional goals like everyone else. I loved track, but my being on the track team was my reward for putting school and my studies first.”

He tried to use stereotypical comments he heard to have important discussions. “It is not easy to have difficult and deep conversations about race with those who have not been exposed to such dialogue before. I tried to use things they said or jokes they used around me to talk to them about race,” he recounted. “Sometimes I succeeded and other times I failed. The environment we are in now makes it imperative to have those important conversations with close friends and even others you may not know as well. It is important to support all types of people and their experiences, something I also learned at Carnegie Mellon. Adapting to a more diverse institution than my high school made me realize some things I have said or done in the past were wrong. It requires conscious effort on all of our parts to do that.”

Advice for Other Black Student-Athletes

“It is important to recognize that it can be a lot to deal with being a student, an athlete, and coping with racism on a regular basis. My experience in college was good for the most part without any crazy racist comments or incidents, but I realize my experience is not the same as everyone’s,” he acknowledged. “To people of color who are struggling, know that you are not alone. Others, based on race and/or socioeconomic status, have had these issues and thought about the things you are thinking about. Sympathy can only do so much. You need to connect with people who have shared struggles and experiences. Talking with those who can be empathetic is much more effective because they have gone through similar things and know there are different ways to cope effectively.”

As much as he believes in having deep conversations, Dauphin also stresses the importance of taking time away from racial injustice periodically. “This past summer with the George Floyd murder being all over the news, I wanted to be informed and know what was going on, but there were times it was all too much. I took some time off the internet to just be with myself or hang out with a couple of friends,” he recollected. “There are times to just put your phone down, play some video games, or watch a movie. It is critical to take personal time to take care of yourself.”

He found that Carnegie Mellon put a major emphasis on mental health. “In my experience, the school made mental health as much a core value as physical health. I would like to see going to therapy or talking to someone about mental health as normalized as going to your physician for a check-up,” he described. “I have a strong group of friends and a close-knit family that have helped me through my trials. Others may not have those outlets to the extent I have, and it is important to seek out someone to talk to.”

Role of Allies

“I would like to see allies understand there are specific times and places to talk about issues that will yield constructive results. I don’t see value in yelling at someone over Facebook. I see value in personal messages and conversations,” he commented. “Getting to know someone else’s side of the story and sharing yours can make inroads in racial understanding. Race has this connotation that causes people to be afraid to talk about it and be honest about their feelings. Being afraid to go deeper than what is on the surface is a roadblock to important dialogue.”

Dauphin sees an ally’s most important role to be speaking up in spaces where no one looks like him. “People who may be causing racial tension will be a lot more upfront with allies than they will with people of color. That gives allies the chance to help us by talking to their families and friends about racist things they say and do,” he communicated. “The other thing is to educate yourself and normalize conversations about race. It starts with just having heart-to-heart talks with your friends about what is going on in their lives and what their perspectives are. We all learn from others. I don’t know what it is like to be white and/or affluent.”

He has been inspired by the example set forth by one of his friends. “I have a white friend who is very self-aware of his privilege. He took it upon himself to learn the perspectives and experiences of others who are not as privileged as he is,” he said. “There are many ways people are privileged that they may not think they are, including being able-bodied or being middle class, which is far more privileged than being in a lower economic class. When people want to become more aware and teach themselves, they learn what things they can do in their own lives to bring about positive change.”

Role of Teams and Teammates

“It is imperative for those in leadership positions, whether upperclassmen, captains, or participating in SAAC (Student Athlete Advisory Committee), to practice what you preach on and off the playing surface. That goes a long way because people are looking up to you and that goes beyond just the sport,” he articulated. “I hope that I provided that for the team when I was a captain, specifically to the other jumpers, someone who exemplified hard work because I cared about the team so much. I wanted my energy and aura to resonate with others the way it did with me when I was younger and was looking up to our captains and upperclassmen.”

Dauphin believed the camaraderie of the team was paramount to his positive experience. “I was around people who really cared about each other. I got the impression that everyone was part of the program for a reason. We were competitive and wanted to win UAAs, but mostly we were there for one another,” he reported. “That teamwork and leadership is imperative when talking about race. It is up to the leaders to have those conversations when a comment or joke has a stereotypical precognition about someone or something. Setting the tone, even if it is as simple as saying, ‘I would like to talk to you about this later,’ can go a long way for younger people.”

For those winter sport athletes who do not compete in a fall sport, the beginning of their time together is without a coach. “In a new year, we have a lot of first-year student-athletes who come in at various levels physically. Those first couple weeks of training without a coach are crucial for the team dynamic,” he explained. “We had better seasons when we set the tone early in terms of practicing hard and setting goals. This same thing can be done talking about race and other things that may make people uncomfortable, when you take it seriously, set goals, and build it into the team dynamic.”

Dauphin described how team discussions about uncomfortable, but important, topics became a part of his last two years at Carnegie Mellon. “We worked with a group called Pittsburgh Action Against Rape. We did a training module called “Boys to Men,” an 8- or 9-week program where we sit with teammates once a week to talk about consent, rape culture, comments in the locker room, and how to treat others,” he announced. “It was extremely important to talk about these things openly and they were exposing us to information we may never have thought of in the first place. It is powerful when you can use awareness to change how people think. When we heard an inappropriate comment, we could say, “Boys to Men” to someone who had been part of those discussions and it helped people become more aware of what they were saying. In addition, they have a chance to correct themselves and look closer as at their comment could be seen as offensive to others. The same concept could have a powerful effect with race.”

Being Intentional About Building Relationships

“(Head) Coach (Gary) Aldrich talked about how he only has us for two hours a day, but what we did with the other 22 hours had a profound effect on the team. (Assistant) Coach (Jose) Rivera talked about his personal experiences and how many of the same issues he faced are things that still exist today,” he stated. “The head coach and his or her staff are role models for the team. When coaches are brave enough to talk about race, it can make everyone more comfortable.”

Not having an indoor track meant that the Tartans’ indoor team was scattered in location and times for practice. “We sought to bring the team together during meets by having upperclassmen cheering on teammates at different events, both as a way to support each other and to get to know everyone, as there were a lot of people we wouldn’t see at practice,” Dauphin explained. “I tried my hardest to talk to everyone, even if it was just a little bit. As a senior jumper, it may seem like I didn’t have much in common with a first-year woman distance runner, but we were both part of the team and a small conversation about each other’s day or classes could make it easier to have deeper talks down the road.”

He admits that not everyone is as extroverted as he and said the team dinners were a key element in people on the team getting to know others. “Every Monday and Wednesday, we would have a buffet team dinner together at school. Most of the team was there except for those who had a test or pressing homework,” he recalled. “That is where the most intimate conversations happened. We really got to know each other outside of practice and meets. People would be there anywhere from half an hour to two hours, talking and eating, laughing, or whatever the energy was that day. Sometimes we just did homework together. It was making the effort to get to know one another and learning about each other that made it easier later on to have important discussions about any topic.”