Black Dominance in Track

In my blog I wish to further my understanding of Track & Field culture, and also the basis for several Track & Field stereotypes. My own experiences in track and field have sparked my interest for finding out more about its culture. When I run, I don't think about my surroundings, who I'm racing, or what the other runners times are like. I think about how I want to beat my last time, and run faster than I have before. When I ran in high school, I found myself an outsider in this respect. Most of the runners on my team would look at everyone they were running against and size themselves up against the competition. I found that the competitors most feared were the black runners. I would win a race and be happy about my time, but some of the praise I would receive from teammates wouldn't be about my time or simply my victory but it would be "wow you were the only guy in your heat that wasn't black" or "you beat the black kids!". I thought of these comments as offensive and ignorant. I didn't like the connotation of the white kid who is faster than the black kids, and I also disagreed with the assumption that just because they are black, that the other runners were faster. Even as a senior after I had distinguished myself as the fastest runner in our district in several events, my teammates were still amazed that I was faster than the runners of a different skin color. Underclassman would even approach me and say "i have a bunch of black kids in my heat, I'm going to get smoked" and other such comments. By this point I had noticed that the majority of the top sprinters were black athletes, but I still didn't believe that that was the cause for their success. If people merely looked past color, they would notice that the top athletes were all in phenomenal shape, regardless of skin color. They are amazing athletes who have worked above and beyond the rest to achieve a status of greatness.