Weed and kicks. Tats and swag. To Nteta's ears, this sounded familiar, like the coded language sometimes used by politicians to indirectly talk about race. "To be fair to Cowherd, he didn't explicitly racialize this," Nteta says. "He simply said college athletes. But from the blowback he got from civil rights groups, it was clear that he was talking about young black men."This piqued Nteta's curiosity. In politics, researchers know that negative racial attitudes can impact support for government initiatives like health care and welfare. For example, if you're white, and you believe that African-Americans tend to be, say, lazy, and you also think a particular program is likely to benefit blacks, you're far more likely to oppose that program."So the question was," Nteta says, "does race play a role in opposition to or support for this overarching issue of paying college athletes?"Two and a half years later, Nteta and his colleagues have done enough work to produce a tentative answer: Yes. When it comes to arguments over NCAA amateurism, race definitely seems to matter.Read More: Four Years a Student-Athlete: The Racial Injustice of Big-Time College Sports
Happy to cheer athletes, so long as those athletes aren't being paid? Photo by Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Racial resentment plays a role in our political divides. What about college sports? Photo by Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
In a study, racially resentful whites who were primed with images of black athletes were more likely to oppose pay-for-play. Photo by Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter (right). Photo by Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
