Friday, November 04, 2005

Racism? In Sports?

First this:

"On Tuesday, in discussing last weekend's 48-10 loss to TCU, DeBerry said it was clear TCU "had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did."

"It just seems to me to be that way," he said. "Afro-American kids can run very well. That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me that they run extremely well."

DeBerry first discussed the topic Monday, telling The Gazette of Colorado Springs the academy needed to recruit faster players and noting, "you don't see many minority athletes in our program."

And then this:

"You have to be careful the way you say things sometimes," the Penn State coach said. "Poor [Air Force coach] Fisher DeBerry got in trouble, but the black athlete has made a big difference. They have changed the whole tempo of the game. Black athletes have just done a great job as athletes and as people in turning the game around."

What's most interesting isn't the quotes themselves, but the reaction. People seem basically split into two camps: the outraged, and the people who heard these quotes and said to themselves, "Yea, that sounds about right." There's such a stigma against noting that there are differences between races and genders in this country that anything, even if it's demonstratably true, that notes them are taboo.

These comments are different than, for example, Larry Summers' comments about women in math and science (as, in that case, he was presiding over two departments - math with zero senior women, and chemistry with one or two women - that woefully underrepresented women, even with respect to professorships as a whole) since - last I checked, they're both coaching teams with no reported discrimination (at least with race, DeBarry had a little religious problem). Also - if you look at the Pro Bowl rosters from 2005, they're not exactly lily White. In fact, the only position that is even mostly white is Quarterback (50%). And, breaking it down more, the three white quarterbacks (Manning, Brees, Brady) are all pocket QBs, whereas the black quarterbacks (Culpepper, Vick, McNabb) are all known for scrambling. Literally every speed-based position (Safety, cornerback, reciever) is completely black. And last I checked, I don't think anyone will claim that white people are kept off football rosters due to their skin color.

cranked out at 10:49 AM | |