The above link text on ESPN’s main page directs to this page, in which they establish that the historically Black college and university in question is Bethane-Cookman.
Would it not have been easier simply to identify the name of the college in the link? I understand that some sites do clickbait, but it seems to me that they identified the school as HBCU first, and by name second, and is that not offensive?
No, not even a little bit. This reeks of manufactured outrage.
Would it be racist if a headline said something along the lines of “Sources: Ex-NBA’er Theus to be Ivy League coach, AD”?
There’s probably been a thousand headlines where a coach or player was noted as “going to the SEC” or “moving to the Big Ten” and you needed to click in to figure out which school. In this case, for most readers that a big name was going to an HBCU as opposed to a Power 5 school is in fact the most relevant and newsworthy detail, so you can’t even call it clickbait.
I was only offended because it took me awhile to comprehend “HBCU” and “AD”
I’ve seen HBCU used in other sports headlines/stories.
ESPN is probably calling attention to the fact that a big name will be coaching at a category of schools that may not historically have attracted well-known figures as coaches.
The name of that institution means nothing to me. The term HBCU does. So to the degree that I was unlikely to click on the link anyway, the HBCU tells me that the story is reasonably important.
Yes, HBCU is more commonly understood. Besides that it takes up less space than the school name, so I think that’s another reason why.