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Outlook: Mean streets to sporting elite: the build up

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Mean streets to sporting elite

21/07/2020 GMT

Mean streets to sporting elite: the build up

BBC World Service - Outlook, Mean streets to sporting elite: the build up

Racism, gang life and the quest to build America's first black high school rowing team

Arshay Cooper faced racism, poverty and gang violence to captain a pioneering black high school rowing team

Arshay Cooper likens his childhood on the westside of Chicago to "what soldiers experience in war." His father absent, his mother battling an addiction to drugs, Arshay and his three siblings struggled to put food on the table, or to heat their tiny one-bedroom apartment. 

From a young age Arshay was aware that in his neighbourhood, “the big question wasn’t what college you were going to go to, but what gang you were going to join.” Still, he knew the life of a gang member wasn't for him.

So when he came across an unusual sight in his school cafeteria one day - a rowing boat with a notice: "Join the Crew Team" - he was intrigued, but wary.  The next day the boat was still there, and this time they were offering free pizza to anyone who signed up. The decision to join would lead Arshay to become captain of the first ever African-American high school rowing team in the US, take him and his team-mates into the elite, white-dominated world of amateur rowing - and change their lives for ever. 

Arshay Cooper has written a memoir, A Most Beautiful Thing, which has been turned into a film of the same name. The memoir is available now, the film will be released on 31 July. 

If you'd prefer to hear this story all in one go, search for the Outlook podcast version called 'Mean streets to sporting elite' or download it here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08lf5gd

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Maryam Maruf

Picture: Arshay Cooper during rowing practice with the Manley high school crew.
Credit: Heather Stone courtesy of Tribune Content Agency

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