One of the complaints that you hear in the debate over modern immigration is that “they don’t try to assimilate into ‘American culture'”. I too find it annoying that I have to “press 1 for English” and I feel that governments and private companies printing documents or packaging in multiple languages is a waste of resources. But I can tell you that “assimilation” is taking place–and one of the surprising places you can find it is in girls’ youth sports.
I’ve refereed a lot of basketball in almost 20-years and I can tell you that the “face” of players in our area is definitely changing. A recent middle school girls game here in Oshkosh featured two teams almost completely made up of “students of color”. African-Americans used to be the only minorities you would see playing girls’ sports in this area. But this game featured players from Central America, Native Americans, Asians, African refugees and girls from families that came here from Southwest Asia.
At a recent tournament in Winneconne, two girls were playing in Burkas. The National High School Sports Federation has amended its rules to allow for Muslim girls to wear head coverings–as for decades having something on your head on the court was strictly prohibited. Those girls were also wearing long sleeve undershirts and compression tights–with high socks–to abide by their religious code of “modesty”. I hadn’t seen that on the court until maybe two years ago.
What makes this trend great is the traditional roles of females in the cultures from where these families came is not conducive to playing sports. And I think that those kids take great pride in breaking those social norms. While they may not be the best players on their teams, those children of immigrants and refugees seem to play with a greater joy than the daughters of “townies”. Sports is giving them a chance to interact with their peers, to express themselves in ways that their mothers and grandmothers likely never had, and to be a little more “American”–given our national obsession with all things sports.
The one thing that I also notice is that the new diversity on the court isn’t being matched by diversity in the stands. It seems that the older generations aren’t turning out to show full support for their daughters by attending games. While it’s possible that those parents may have to work during game times, I fear that perhaps there still isn’t “acceptance” of the new role their kids are taking on in society. When I start getting yelled at in several different languages from adults in the stands, I’ll know that the parents are “becoming more American” too.
