Breaking the System
2/1/2021 11:00:00 AM | Volleyball
How volleyball's Alexis Cheatum plans to fight social injustices
When Alexis Cheatum was 11 years old, a friend invited her to come to a local volleyball camp, despite having never played the game before. Upon arriving at the gym, Cheatum knew something was off.
What was off though, was not the fact that she showed up to a volleyball camp wearing basketball shoes. And it was not her turtle kneepads. Nor the ankle socks she wore. As she gazed around the gym and saw other girls dressed like her, she realized what was off had nothing to do with how she dressed – it was how she looked.
“I was young at the time and at first, didn’t take into account that my friend and I were the only two black girls there,” Cheatum recalled.
I really do have a vision that one day it will stop being a shock to be ‘the first black person.' It will be like ‘Okay, this is what I’m used to.’ It will be normal.- Alexis Cheatum
Even at a young age, Cheatum’s outgoing personality had always allowed her to quickly get along with others, so finding someone to partner up with when her and her friend were broken into smaller groups was never an issue for the Austin, Texas, native.
Yet, she found it odd how everyone at the camp was virtually in the same boat – not knowing one another, trying to meet new people – and somehow, it was her friend who was left alone because one of the girls was more eager to be with a group of three white girls than someone who was black.
“At the time, I was naïve, thinking maybe that girl was shy,” Cheatum said. “Now that I’m older, I see the premise behind her actions.”
That premise of being looked upon differently because of the color of one’s skin is something that the now junior outside hitter seeks to change.
Growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, Cheatum was no stranger to hearing racist remarks at school and being put in uncomfortable positions.
“It’s hard to be one against maybe 10 people laughing at a joke and you have to laugh with them, even though the joke is pertaining to black people,” Cheatum said.
Despite putting on a façade that everything was okay when it really was not, Cheatum has overcome that silence throughout the years. Now, her voice has never been louder, and it bears responsibility, too, as those around her quite literally follow her lead.
Back in August 2020, Cheatum wanted to use her platform as a member of the Houston Volleyball team to speak up for those who never had the courage to do so. Through the help of teammate Torie Frederick, Cheatum organized a student-athlete led march across the University of Houston campus to be a voice of change and raise awareness about racial inequalities.
“While we may be student-athletes for only four years, we are black for our entire lives,” Cheatum said in front of her peers at the march.
With a younger sister that has watched Cheatum become an active member in the community, her work with local leaders resulted in Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner putting together the “Mayor’s Challenge,” an initiative that focused on encouraging students from Houston’s local universities to vote in the 2020 election.
At the announcement of the initiative, Cheatum found herself standing alongside Mayor Turner and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and during the event, spoke on stage about Houston’s student-athletes organizing for social justice and using their platforms to create the change they want to see.
Her plan to “break the system,” as she calls it, is something she feels is needed in order to create a world where it is normal to have black owners of a sports team. A world where it is normal for a black woman to be an athletics director at a university. A world where seeing people that look like her in authoritative and powerful rolls becomes normal.
“I really do have a vision that one day it will stop being a shock to be ‘the first black person,’” Cheatum said. “It will be like ‘Okay, this is what I’m used to.’ It will be normal.”
Volleyball helps us so much because there are so many life lessons and so many trials you have to go through. This program really prepares you for real-life scenarios.- Alexis Cheatum
Part of that vision for Cheatum is becoming a lobbyist and working with big corporations and the government, something she hopes to use as a springboard into Congress and become a United States senator. Before she reaches that point though, Cheatum wants to make sure the conversation regarding race and social inequalities remains ongoing in order to continue making progress.
Some of those conversations for her have been within the Houston Volleyball team and having teammates who are comfortable asking questions about race has given Cheatum a sense of pride for being around such a supportive group. With so many people from so many different walks of life, the program has opened doors for Cheatum because of how accepting everyone is.
From someone like Karly Berkland, who grew up in the cornfields of Iowa to Sequoia Wattles, who enjoys spending time on the beaches of Southern California when she is home, the different perspectives of everyone’s upbringing is something Cheatum finds unique and credits Houston Volleyball for changing her life.
“Volleyball helps us so much because there are so many life lessons and so many trials you have to go through,” Cheatum said. “This program really prepares you for real-life scenarios.”
The real-life scenarios that Cheatum and those that look like her go through, like the one she experienced at that first volleyball camp when she was just 11 years old, isn’t always pretty.
Yet, what keeps her going is the fact that what her and so many others are doing is not just to keep up with the latest hashtag and be part of the most popular trend.
Rather, it’s a movement. And one that as she puts it “is not going anywhere.”
For more information on Houston Diversity and Inclusion Council – “Coogs' All-In” – click here.