Eka Jose is a senior track student-athlete at Washington University, double majoring in biology and anthropology: global health and environment. She swept the triple jump titles at the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships in 2019. Jose, who is the co-president of WashU’s BLAC (Black Letterwinning Athlete Coalition) chapter, earned All-America honors in the triple jump in 2020 after qualifying for the NCAA indoor championship, which was canceled due to COVID-19.
The UAA “Conversations About Race and Racism” series seeks to lift the voices of people of color and recognize the challenges faced in both athletics and academics at the collegiate level. By sharing personal stories, we hope to elevate the conversation about race to raise awareness and bring about change.
Culture Shock
Jose started her U.S. education in the third grade in Kansas City, Kansas after she and her family moved from Nigeria. “We came from Nigeria and settled in a predominantly Black area. When I was entering the fifth grade, we moved to Kansas City, Missouri, which was predominantly white,” she described. Now I was in a whole new environment. There were two of us Black kids in class and that experience continued through high school. It was pretty difficult, but I got used to not having other Black students in my classes from the time I was in the fifth grade.”
Jose learned the art of code-switching during this time. “I became a more reserved person as being the only one in class who looked like me, so I focused on certain ways to appear or to approach others. I only got to talk to other Black people at track or in the hallway,” she explained. “I switched how I communicated with people. Once I saw Black or minority friends at track, I was completely different. Seventy to 80 percent of the team was Black and at least 80 percent of the jumpers were. Once it was 3:15 p.m., I was in a completely different dynamic. It was a chance to catch up on what everyone else was doing and had been talking about during the day. I didn’t feel comfortable engaging on that level in my classes.”
Underestimated Intelligence and Misconceptions
“It was challenging navigating coming to the U.S. in the third grade. I believe it came from a place of innocence, but my peers perceived that I didn’t know what was going on in school. It was essentially ‘Let us teach you what we are doing here.’ I remember this happening with the class starting long division. I already knew that from the year before, so I just went ahead with other learning,” she pointed out. “There was a misconception that I didn’t fully understand what was going on, including from teachers and especially in English. My parents speak other languages, but English is my first language.”
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