Race and Sports: The Role of Race and Money in the Cover-up of Sexual Assault at Pennsylvania State University Football Team

Running head: RACE AND SPORTS
RACE AND SPORTS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1RACE AND SPORTS
It is quite intriguing that a horrendous act like sexual assault of young boys at the
Pennsylvania State University Football Team was covered up by the administration. It is not
surprising that there must have been some vested interest and a nexus of unholy nexus involving
influential persons who had deliberately blocked any enquiry into the heinous crime that had
continued for a considerably long period of time. The sexual assault perpetrated by Defensive
Coordinator Gerald Sandusky especially and the complicity of Head Coach Joe Paterno had
allowed the episode of sexual assault for over fifteen years unabated (Delirium, 2018). In this
particular essay the issue of sexual assault at the Pennsylvania State University Football Team
from the angle of race and economic interest, which shall be the thesis statement. The approach
is to diagnose the role of race and money to let the crime happen for a long period of time and
also its role in letting the perpetrators of the crime go scot free.
The series of sexual assaults of the Pennsylvania State University Football Team had
started in the 1970s and had continued until the early 21st century. However the victims and the
issue was not brought into the limelight until the year 2011, and in the year 2012 he was declared
as guilty of the sexual assaults by the law court. He had almost made forty five children as his
target, whom he had molested either at the time of taking shower or had called during the Friday
nights under the pretext of spending time merry making as a customary ritual to usher in the
weekend. Most of his victims were young boys who were either in their early teens or were
teenagers. Naturally, they were vulnerable and had not the ability to stand up against him, as he
had very easily silenced him by means of threat of dire consequences. For the purpose of
blackmailing his victims he had clicked pictures and had filmed them at compromising positions
which he had threatened with revelation had they tried to speak up against him. Had it not the
effort of one of his victims John Doe’s complaint about the sexual assault he had faced at the

2RACE AND SPORTS
Pennsylvania State University Football Team in the year 2011, it would not have been possible
to acquit Gerald Sandusky with sexual assault. Along with Sandusky, the chief coach of the
Pennsylvania State University Football Team, Joe Paterno was also accused, as he had taken no
steps to either stop the assaults, nor had he tried to report the authorities to let any action be taken
against Sandusky. In the corresponding sections, the discussion shall be focusing upon ten aspect
of race and the money power in letting the incident be casted to obliviousness for so long (How
much did the Sandusky scandal cost Penn State in 2017-18?, 2018).
To explain the involvement of the factor of race in the sexual assault at the Pennsylvania
State University Football Team, it must be mentioned that in the United States of America, there
is this prejudicial attitude towards the people of colour and that makes white people get away
with crimes while the people of colour get labelled as criminals despite being innocents. More
often than not the people of colour are the ones who are victims of injustice of the society and
the societal attitude of observing quietism and covering up the incidents is also not very
uncommon in the country and that is proven by this particular incident from the field of sports.
One of the victims, whose enterprise had actually brought the incident to the forefront was John
Doe who had suffered sexual assaults continuously for three years when he was between the age
of eleven and fourteen, was a white male. Doctor Boyce Watkins had made a very controversial
statement which is quite pertinent given the social and political situation in the country which is
not conducive to the people of colour in the United States of America (Penn State Abuse
Scandal: A Guide And Timeline, 2018). Doctor Boyce Watkins had hinted at one of the possible
reason behind the covering up of the heinous crime is that the victim were potentially
predominantly people of colour which is why it had escaped much coverage. She had explicitly
mentioned of the fact that the victims could be either African Negroes or of African American