CHASS

Scott Brooks

Assistant Professor
Sociology

College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

There is an old adage that says that for a happy and healthy career, you should get involved in a subject that you will love. Assistant Professor of Sociology Scott Brooks took that advice to heart, combining his love of sports, particularly basketball, with his interest in sociology.

Brooks sees sports as a way to investigate issues and myths of race, particularly popular myths involving race and athletic ability.

"My goal is to show that genetic and racial explanations for notions of dominance in sports are not sufficient," he said. "As sociologists say, 'race is not real, it is a social construct.' It is a human invention and a way to stratify people, but not a physiological fact. My work shows that social factors must be considered: networks, planning, hard work, where one lives, and impression management.”

“It is important to understand how people become who they are,” he added. “I am fascinated with people’s lives, their stories, and how they think, strategize and plan.”

Brooks was inspired to work with athletes by his mentor, UC Berkeley Professor of Sociology Emeritus Harry Edwards. Edwards served for many years as the team sociologist for the San Francisco 49ers and is considered the foremost authority on race and sports.

“Dr. Edwards and I established a relationship after I graduated from college,” Brooks said. “He was my first role model. He has blended activism and social justice with being a professor and uses sociology in the real world towards increasing opportunities for blacks.”

“It has been a dream of mine to work in sports, à la Dr. Edwards,” Brooks added. “I chose to attend the University of Pennsylvania over Michigan for grad school because of the combination of Philadelphia being urban and having several professional sports teams.”

Brooks hit the ground running in his first semester, when he was given the assignment to go into the city and study a group of people. “I jumped at the opportunity to figure out why basketball was such a big deal in Philadelphia.”

He got involved in his research, serving as a coach in one of the premier youth summer basketball leagues in the nation. The “coaching bug” bit him and, since coming to UCR, he has served as an assistant coach at nearby Ramona High School in Riverside.

“I have a love-hate relationship with coaching,” he said. “I love building relationships, seeing growth, and making a difference in the lives of younger people. However, I hate the foolishness that comes with hoop dreams. I wish that more people would use sports as a part of their means to an end and not think of it as a whole means, in and of itself. Some kids and parents are too career minded and really miss critical steps in understanding what is needed to be successful.“

In the classroom, Brooks enjoys using his experiences both on and off the basketball court to help him teach his graduate-level research methods course. “I love to tell stories and believe that that is my greatest teaching method,” he said. “Some stories are from coaching but most are just life stories.”

Though some find race and ethnicity to be delicate topics, Brooks said he finds them “as American as apple pie.”

"I was advised by a professor in grad school not to study race and ethnicity because I’m black. He told me that it would be predictable, even stereotypical, and that I should study some other area instead where there are few scholars of color," he recalled. "This spurred me on. I have always been intrigued by American culture and society generally, and we are a country of displaced natives, slaves, and immigrants. What could be more American than studying race and ethnicity?"

Brooks’ newest book, Black Men Can’t Shoot (University of Chicago Press, 2009), examines the careers of basketball players, beginning as youths, and traces how they evolve from good players to great players, and in some cases to college prospects. What he learned goes beyond the basketball floor and into people’s daily lives, emphasizing planning and hard work.

“The findings offer a theoretical perspective on how to understand career trajectories and mobility,” he said. “Anyone interested in how to advance in their career can gain something and see some overlap. I focus on what kids do who are not extraordinary and don’t have deep resources. This is the case for most of us and I believe many of the concepts and strategies are universal.”

Brooks said the book is the first of a series.

“As you might imagine, spending four-plus years doing something will yield a lot of experiences, knowledge, and friendships. I expect to write two other books based upon the fieldwork-one on coaching and another on the league in which I coached,” he said. “Then, I would like to do a global study on sport. I’ve also got a few other projects, totally unrelated to sports, but you’ll have to wait to read about them.”