Joshua Pinckney is a senior men’s tennis student-athlete at Carnegie Mellon University. An active member of the Plaidvocates, a peer health and wellness advocacy program for student-athletes, he founded the Diversity and Inclusion committee in the organization and is a student-leader involved in numerous other areas of campus life. Pinckney is double majoring in international relations and politics & Hispanic studies with a minor in sociology and is beginning to pursue a career in diplomacy.

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.

Tennis and Predominantly White Institutions

“In my recruiting process, I only looked at PWIs (Primarily White Institutions) so I never expected to have Black teammates. Since coming to CMU, I think I've only seen one team (Wesleyan University) with more than one Black player on the roster at any given time. Most don't have even one. I understood when I chose Carnegie Mellon that having teammates who could relate to my experiences and understand me wasn’t going to be my reality," he explained. "I was the first Black varsity tennis player in my high school's history and at CMU (as far as I know) so my expectations were met in that sense. I wasn’t ready for quite how isolating it would be, though. I am one of maybe two dozen Black student-athletes out of more than 400 total.”

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