Juulie,
That is a very interesting observation.
I think as a whole, Black people tend to not fall into those behaviors of discrimination the same way that non-whites I think do. In the Chicago Public League (mostly Black and Hispanic players and coaches) for example, there are several women that work Boy's basketball. Hardly anyone bats and eye to this or makes much of an issue out of it. But you would not even dare see that in conferences that are outside of the city.
Just look at the woman that worked the D1 Men's Tournament a few years back. She was the first women to ever work a tournament game and what conference did she come out of? The SWAC (or the MEAC, I just cannot remember for sure). She worked in a conference that is a conference of all predominately Black schools. The supervisor is a Black male and gave her an opportunity that she and no other women have really seen before or since.
On the basic topic in which you guys are currently discussing, I know that Black coaches tend to get more upset with me, mainly because they think I might be on their side and quickly realize I am not. But they never disrespect me for the most part or question my qualifications. I have been in several situations where white coaches have questioned my qualifications or my ability in ways that boarder on insulting. I had a coach one time write a letter to an assignor about a situation in which he had no idea what the rule was (I was right btw
). In the letter this coach used these words, "I am writing this to make Mr. Rutledge a better official." Now my question has always been would he have done that to my white counterparts? Not so much the letter, but the tone of letter and the use of those words. I personally think not. BTW, my partners on this game were also African-American and I T'd him up because in his effort to challenge a trivial matter he yelled, "Read the rulebook, read the rulebook, read the rulebook." The opponent was an all African-American team and he probably never had been faced with that kind of situation.
Oh well, I guess that is just a day in the life.
Peace