Raven's Story
Raven Sulaimon
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas, as the youngest of six kids. My mom is from Jamaica, and my dad is from Nigeria. I was super lucky to have both cultures implemented in my household growing up, and I was always aware of where I came from and my heritage early on. My family is super competitive, all of my older siblings played sports, ranging from track to basketball to softball and even dance. I played YMCA soccer and softball, but my first experience competitive/travel sports was actually doing gymnastics. I unfortunately grew too tall for the sport, and found another outlet through volleyball. I saw my sister play in high school games and club tournaments, and I loved the energy of the game and the fast-paced nature of it all. I started when I was almost 10 years old, and I immediately fell in love with the game and haven’t looked back since.
Even though I felt that I was a part of diverse teams growing up, I always felt that I had to go the extra mile to prove myself. I found that working twice as hard to get half of what others had was definitely true, as myself and a lot of my Black teammates were in charge of a lot of our own recruiting while a lot of my white peers had the assistance of the club’s resources. Whenever I went to ask for help, I was constantly told which places I couldn’t go and what places I “should” look at instead of being asked what I wanted out of my future college and how I should go about the process according to these wants. I didn’t receive proper recruiting assistance until the summer of my junior year, when I went to a different club and the new director helped me coordinate the last few deliverables I needed to receive an offer from Penn. Put short, I was constantly put into a category of a Black athlete who would take the first offer that comes to them , and I was never asked about my own personal goals and ambitions. Even though I have always wanted the most for myself, the club experience I had for a large part of high school continually tried to make me accept the bare minimum while I saw my white teammates exceed expectations with unwavering support. Penn is the place for me and I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else, but the process it took to finally commit made me doubt myself more than I ever should.
My idea of racial equality means that there are opportunities for everyone to succeed their goals and fulfill their ambitions, and providing the extra assistance necessary to marginalized groups who historically have been intentionally placed further back. While we cannot change the past, we can remember the effects and implications they had and work toward creating an equitable future where Black athletes are no longer just valued for their athletic contributions, but also for the qualities that make them outstanding off the court. Setting Black athletes for post-graduate professional success is rarely mentioned in mainstream media, and this platform is willing and able to acknowledge this gap and provide a long needed resource for Black athletes to achieve outside of the court as much as they do when they are doing their athletic craft.