RE: For the record
I agree that the invisible divide does exist. Over the years, that divide has become less and less significant for our family. Do you know why? Because my daughter loves basketball and my son loves football. Through sports we have interacted with, and in many cases become friends with familys we would not have normally had the opportunity to get to know. Man, it's one of the truly great things about sports.
I think sports has done more the reduce the divide in this country than anything else over the past century.
In regards to coaches and racism. Whether certain races are better at playing certain sports due to physical certain physical attributes is debatable. Taller, faster, stronger, shorter, quicker...there are legitimate better fits for certain sports, IMO. Itellectually, though, I think we are all on equal ground. There is nothing stopping members of any race from learning and loving a sport to the point of being able to coach it well.
When I look at blacks in coaching, I can't imagine any reason why black coaches should not at least represent the same precentage as blacks do in the general population of this country. And since there are so many blacks training and playing at the highest levels of football, I would expect that the number of coaches to maybe be a little higher than their percentage of the general population.
If blacks are say, 12% of the population of the U.S., I would think there should be 14 to 20 black coaches in D1 (119 schools). I would also expect there to be some asian, hispanic, and other minority coaches as well. There is a bias there, just like there was a bias against black quarterbacks, just like there is a bias against white cornerbacks and running backs...just like there is a bias against white basketball players. Are these attitudes purely racism? I don't think so, some are just tradition and some are habit. But racism has certainly been a factor.
I'll give you this example. Why are there so many white european basketball players making progress in the NBA. There are more grade school and junior high white basketball players in the U.S. then any other country in the world (and it's not even close), yet the increase in white players in the NBA in recent years has primarily been due to european players. Is it because, when it comes to player development and recruiting in the U.S., black players tend to get the nod over white players at the younger ages? Is that racism? No, I think it's bias. I think it's habit.
Anyway, I'm glad we hired a coach who is higher profile and successful and apparently very competent. I'm also glad he's a black coach. It's good in terms of the demographic of the school and the community in which EMU is located. It's good in terms of recruiting. And, in my opinon, it is the right thing to do within the landscape of D1 football.
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