There is a documentary titled “Citylax”. It is about 6-7 years old, and it shows how hard it is to bring a sport to a new area. A 5th grade teacher who loved lax wanted his students to play. He gathered equipment from a lot of his friends (suburban friends), got them to volunteer time, painting fields, coaching, reffing, uniforms. They wrote grant applications to US Lax. The parents didn’t know the rules or how to play. These kids weren’t going to camps or taking private lessons for speed or stick skills. My kids played for the team a few times just because they needed the numbers to field a team. One game was cold and snowing, and the kids had their ‘uniforms’ (a tshirt) on over their snow jackets and jeans while the other team looked like it was sponsored by Nike with polypropylene and cleats and gloves. Even with all this support, the program still struggles and i dont think it will ever be self supporting as the fa miles cant aford to pay $200 or so for a season, and that’s after equipment. The inner city high school teams can be good, but nothing like the suburban schools where the kids are playing year round, traveling the country all summer, going to camps and tournaments, and going to academically elite schools that are preparing them for college apps, testing, and all things college. They are definitely double dipping in the college prep pool.
There are some people of color playing lacrosse, but the numbers are still overwhelmingly white. My child who plays is Asian, but she grew up playing on the suburban club teams where she was often the only player of color.