Over the summer two San Jose State student-athletes decided to form a group and organize Zoom meetings where Black SJSU athletes could voice their concerns about racial injustices occurring on and off campus.
Jordan Cobbs, a biology sophomore and SJSU linebacker, and Caleb Simmons, a kinesiology junior and guard for the men’s basketball team, said they wanted to bring Black athletes from San Jose State together because of the national attention to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Following Zoom meetings hosted by some Black SJSU coaches and faculty members over the summer, Cobbs and Simmons wanted to recreate the same sense of community in meetings with other Black student-athletes.
“I feel like I understand a lot of people in the group a lot better and they have definitely gotten to know me a bit better,” Christian Webb, a communications graduate student and linebacker said over the phone.
Although this group doesn’t have an official name and is not a recognized student organization at SJSU, the group members consider themselves “a community inside of a community.”
“It brings us closer to a lot of new people and new faces, new names that I learn and stuff like that,” Cobbs said over the phone. “Yeah, it’s pretty neat having that feeling.”
The group’s first Zoom meeting began with the Fall semester and have continued every Sunday since then. Committee members discuss a certain topic each week based on an agenda Simmons creates.
Topics change depending on who is expected to attend the meetings. Racial bias is frequently discussed and committee members can share their experiences.
Athletes from the football, men’s basketball, cheer and women’s soccer teams have attended these meetings.
The group has seen its numbers grow from two, to more than 10 Black student-athletes in total.
Cobbs and Simmons said they hope every Black student-athlete on campus will attend the conference calls.
“You can’t necessarily expect a whole crowd to come when something barely starts, so we’ve been taking our baby steps,” Simmons said over the phone. “But you know, we’re growing.”
However, Simmons said the committee wants to do more than talk. They also plan on organizing events to bring attention to some of the systemic problems they have experienced as Black people and Black student-athletes.
Cobbs and Simmons said they want to keep the relationships they’ve made with fellow committee members after their college athletic careers are over.
“The goals are . . . long-lasting relationships,” Simmons said. “Because some people are in different stages in their career, and they’ll still have a community to come back to and saying ‘Hey, the people I went to college with I’m still good with them to this day.’ ”
