Previous research on Black athletic ability has focused on the racial differences in anthropometric, physiological, psychological, and sociocultural variables. Many theorize that Black youth use sport, particularly basketball as a means of cultural expression and develop a playing style that is distinctively different from Whites. To date no known research has attempted to explore this concept objectively. The purpose of this study was to investigate college students' perceptions regarding differences in black- and white- players' movements in basketball. Specifically, this study examined targets' body movements under jump-shot and lay-up contexts. Two male recreational college students (1 black, 1 white) were recruited to perform a jump-shot and lay-up. Their movements were videotaped from a side view, and digitized into avi format. The targets' joints were tracked for each movement, using MaxTRAQ2D software. For each frame, joints were connected to form a stick figure on a black background. That is, participants viewed stick figures with no racial information. Fifty college students were individually shown the four movements in random sequence. Participants were then interviewed for 5-10 min using an opened question format. Questions focused on identifying targets' race for each movement, reasons for identification, and opinions concerning jumping ability between these two players. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Trustworthiness was established through peer debriefing and triangulation. Surprisingly 86% of participants correctly identified the targets' race. Qualitative data analysis revealed two primary themes and several sub-themes. The first theme centered on participants' actual observations (e.g. black player jumped higher, flew in the air longer, and moved faster, whereas the white player lacked these qualities). The second theme focused on participants' perceptions regarding their stereotypical views on different cultural groups in basketball. They defined movement features to identify the targets' racial information, with black being more flexible, fluid, natural, forceful, and show-offish, while white being more formal, stiff, mechanical, and had limited motion. The targets' athleticism (e.g. skill levels, body characteristics) also emerged as distinctions for identification. Interestingly, some even suggested that the black target had more emotion and charisma. These results, taken together with previous stereotypical studies, offer strong empirical support for the strength and influence of the participants' stereotypic views regarding different racial groups contributed to the identification of the targets' racial information. Overall, this study was a first attempt to explore the differences between black- and white- players' movements in basketball, and suggested that differences did exist in their movements.Keyword(s): multiculturalism/cultural diversity, research