Are Black Athletes More Susceptible to Sexual Abuse?

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Although well-publicized instances of sexual abuse — including those at the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Penn State and San Jose State — have affected student-athletes from a wide range of backgrounds, Black men may be disproportionately susceptible to sexual assault due to their overrepresentation in the largest college sports — football and basketball — and their reliance on athletic scholarships to cover education expenses, according to a report by INSIGHT Into Diversity.

In 2020, a group of 40 Black men who were former athletes at Michigan stated that they were “particularly vulnerable” to decades of sexual violence because of their race and lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The men said they were abused by Robert Anderson, a former team physician in UM’s athletics department, who sexually assaulted more than 1,000 college athletes who came to him for medical appointments and sports physicals throughout his nearly 40-year-long career. Approximately 40 percent of the students he assaulted were Black men, according to attorney Mike Cox, who represents 174 victims in a federal court mediation against the university.

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