I know seeing the word "racist" in the title of this blog made some of you a little nervous. I understand that because talking about race in this country is such a touchy subject. A lot of times people are afraid to say what is on their minds for fear of being branded a racist which in this country is one of the worst titles a person can recieve.
When Kanye West told the world that George Bush doesn't care about black people the most powerful man in the world went into spin mode and almost forgot that an American city was destroyed in his attempt to prove to anyone who would listen that he does in fact care about black people.
Last week the Air Force head football coach, Fisher Deberry, almost
lost a job he's had for over 20 years for saying something that was perceived by some as being racist and insensitive. While commenting on his teams loss Deberry said "We were looking at things, like you don't see many minority athletes in our program." When asked to elaborate he said "It just seems to be that way, that Afro-American kids can run very, very well. That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me they run extremely well." Hmmm...ok.Two days later all hell had broken loose and Deberry was on TV fighting back tears and apologizing for offending anybody. But what exactly was he apologizing for? I mean other than the fact that he used the term "Afro-American" which, if I'm not mistaken, we put out to pasture sometime in the early nineties, what did he really say that was so bad?
Our fear of any discussion involving race shouldn't eliminate common sense observations. I watch college football as well as the NFL and to put it bluntly black guys are faster than white
guys. Now don't get me wrong probably 99% of the white guys in the NBA and 85% of the white guys in the NFL are all faster than THE KING and as you can tell from my profile I am black. I'm also fly but that's a different subject. Anyway as I looked at football this weekend I noticed something very interesting. The cornerback position is based solely on speed and there's not one starting white cornerback in the NFL. Not one. That's not the same as making a presumption about the intelligence or character of cornerbacks, black or white. It's just a fact. Plain and simple. DeBerry didn't offer any cultural or empirical evidence about cornerbacks; he just said he would like faster ones, and as the NFL demonstrates, the fastest ones are black. That isn't even debatable.Mostly I hear objection being raised by white administrators and the mostly white media, a sort of misplaced white liberal guilt, if you ask me. Oh, there's plenty of bigotry out there that needs to be identified, but DeBerry's statements aren't among the top 1,000 on the list.
The coach didn't say his school should lower admissions standards to let in more black students, as Paul Hornung said Notre Dame should do. DeBerry didn't do an Al Campanis and say somebody lacked the necessities (primarily the intellectual necessities) to do a specific task. And he certainly shouldn't be lumped in with the likes of Jimmy the Greek, who gave a drunken anthropology lesson of how the big black buck (to use his words) was mated with the big black slave woman to produce the best athlete.DeBerry didn't insult any race or ethnic group. He offended some folks who confuse politically incorrect public speaking with bigotry.
20 comments:
I think sometimes people can take words with dual meanings and use them however they wish.
I'm not sure why folks are up in arms about this one. He told the truth and I don't think it was offensive. If I were a footballl coach and I looked at my starting lineup and didn't see any brothers on the field, I'd assume we were in for a long season.
I know there are a couple of white receivers in the NFL that can fly, but Air Force is not pulling in that type of talent.
I say, 'Move on - there is nothing to see here.'
I definitely can't be offened by the word Afro-American when people in my hometown still say "colored".
Anyway, I didn't see any malicious intent behind Deberry's comments.
"a sort of misplaced white liberal guilt"
I like that. I wish people would not concern themselves so much with being PC and let's engage in honest discussion about race and how it has affected and still affects our country. I believe it was Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. Dubois (I can't recall which one) who said that race would be the biggest issue of the 20th century in the U.S....it also seems true of the 21st century.
I totally agree with you DDot. You are one smart man!
10 31 05
Hey, some Canadian researchers showed that Blacks of the Diaspora do have more fast muscle twitch fibers. Folks shd let this go. Oh BTW DDOT, I added you to the blog roll. And to answer a comment you made, I am a conservative in principle but don't think that too many real conservatives are out there. GWB is an oligarchist, not a real conservative. Also, yeah I believe in God, but the Establishment clause exists for a reason and I strongly agree with it! To get a better insight into my thinking, here is an article to charge you:
http://mrigmaiden.blogspot.com/2005/10/transgenderism-intersexuality-and.html
@Pink Lady you are very right. people do it all the time!
@James Manning Well put sir...
@ Jackie Excellent point
@brownsoul you know what maybe I always agree with you! Great comment
@GP You wouldn't be patronizing The King would you? LOL! You think you can get away with stuff just because we're cool.
@Mahndisa I read the article and....well...words escape me right now.
Air Force needs more Polynesian cornerbacks and Chinese linebackers. Oh, and replace the defensive tackles with white guys from accounting.
If you didn't guess, I'm rooting for Army.
Hilarious Grant....
Mahndisa, I don't think Ddot read that article because nothing escapes him!!!!!!! BTW: I can't believe you wrote that ridiculous message on my blog! You are so wrong for that!! :)!!!!!!
Honestly, I think this much ado about nothing.
I mean of course you're not supposed to "say that" because when you do, you open up the slippery slope for other people to say "well blacks are inferior when it comes to intelligence" and ish like that.
However, it's absolutely true right now that we tend to excel in sports such as Football, Basketball and Track because right now -- we are faster.
This could be an enviromental issue, a hereditary issue etc. But I think people are going way too far with this and are wayyyyyy too PC about it.
All he said was we need more speed. At least that's all I heard because when you here words like "speed" "quickness" "fast" "urban" "inner-city" certain things are Already in your head.
So I really have no problem with it and I don't think he is/was a racist.
10 31 05
Hello GP:)
DDOT; YOU have nothing to say? I am surprised. But ironically, most people couldn't address the issues without having a brain tumor OR relying upon their religion so that it blinded them LOL! See what I mean? I try NOT to use religious arguments to justify positions, as religion is so personal and secular reasoning is a bit more objective IMO. But anyway, that is some craziness eh?
They gave Paul Hornung (GB Packer fame)the same grief when he said Notre Dame needed the black athlete to get wins because they were to slow. It's so taboo because when they say terms such as urban, faster, and athletic players we know what the hell thier talking about.
I'm cool with just keeping it real, we do have faster players.
Well why don't we just look at the prison population and conclude that all blacks are criminals.
When people say things of that nature it just puts us in the physical strength category which makes us good for workin dem fields for the masta ya know.... Why are they not saying, we need to get some blacks up in here to see why our space shuttles are loosing tiles? I just think it does nothing to change the perception of black men as the strong buck when one makes a statement like that. Do I think he is racist? Well..yes..that's my call!
His way of thinking is the cause of those quick reactions to blacks that often result in the white women pulling her purse closer and even worse, death.
Well I don't think he was being racist at all. I think he was trying to be polite about it.
I am from Michigan and I will say that I wasn in an American History class a year ago and it was evenly divided by whites and blacks, in terms of the # of people in the class. However, the instructor was white and used the word blacks instead of African American and a lady (who was black) in the class jumped out of her seat and called him a racist and was extremely rude to him for the rest of the term. He was surprised because for 90 years he had been polling his classes and his students did not like to be called African American. I was surprised because I thought the term African American offended blacks. I have heard a lot of people here in Michigan in the Public Eye refer to African American and stay away from the term blacks. So I am not sure what term to use. I am white, call me white.
ddot: I heard about this the other day, and I was not sure what to think. My conclusion - it is not on the Jimmy-the-Greek style, but the more I think about it, I think it is more subtle (so I am inclined to side with MIZPOWDERPINK).
I did a little search, and found the following article: "Sport and common-sense racial science" by Brett St Louis (Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego, USA).
It is a very dry paper - but it basically says that there is a strong feeling in the US that most Americans believe in racial differences in athletic ability without any scientific evidence to support those thoughts. Folks just look at the best people playing the game, and presume that the same holds true to the entire population.
I am not really a sports fan, but I don't say, "That footbally player is really fast - he must be black." Or "My team sucks. They need more speed - hope they recruit a black player." I want someone that runs a really fast 40 - whether he be black or Polynesian.
Hope that doesn't keep me holding the Saran Wrap.
whas up?
imma go back and read your post now just wanted to see what was crackalacken!!! lmao!
Thank you for saying that! Sometimes thoughtful people are afraid to say anything for fear that someone will misinterpret them and accuse them of racism or being prejudiced. I think sometimes black people (and I'm still confused sometimes as to what the currently accepted term is) are just as racist as white people.
And I think adrianne's argument is flawed because it fails to take into consideration scientifically demonstrated differences among races. Just because one race runs faster than another doesn't necessarily make them 'superior.' It just means they run faster (and make better football and track stars). Maybe we should celebrate and enjoy and appreciate our differences more instead of letting them separate us?
Oops I did not mean 90 years, I meant 10.
Adrienne said "First of all racism refers to beliefs and practices that assume inherent and significant differences exist between human beings."
That is not racism, that is fact. People are not equal, they are not the same, and there is nothing wrong with that. Putting intellect aside, if we are talking about physical features, why is it racist to say one group is bigger, faster, taller than another? If everyone in the world was the same, it would be a pretty dull place.
I was in China in May and the people there generally are short relative to non-Asians. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, but the majority are never going to be considered for the NBA. So what? It doesn't make them inferior to taller people. It makes them shorter than taller people. It takes prejudiced people to make the logical leap of equating shorter with inferior.
The guy is not racist for saying he wants more black folks on his team no more than the person who sought Chinese people for a sport that favored shorter people.
Intellectual Insurgent said...
"sought Chinese people for a sport that favored shorter people"
Ping Pong!
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