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Originally posted by WeekendRef
1) Are you saying (In so many words)that the people that assign the "many conferences" in your area will not hire someone unless they are better / work harder and prove themselves first ??
or are you saying :
2) The people that assign the "many conferences" are all racist and will not hire a black /hispanic unless they have no choice .
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No what I am saying that as an African-American, to get noticed is we have to be better or different to get noticed. For example if one guy is white and another guy is Black that both officiate, it is not unusual to see the Black guy to have to excel more in order to get the same chance.
Let me put it to you like this. The Chicago Public League about 3 years ago would take their city champion to the State Finals in all sports that I was aware of. Now the Chicago Public League or Sports Administration is run by mostly Black people. The CPL would also was allowed to take 3 officials from the CPL and they would work the IHSA State Finals. If you look when this system was in place, almost all of the State Final officials with very few exceptions came directly from the CPL (which was picked only by the CPL). So it was kind of understood that one of the main ways to work the State Finals was through the CPL and if you were not from Chicago, the numbers were not very encouraging. You can take from that how you want to, I am just telling you that many officials that were working State Finals or had very good résumés as officials did not work anywhere else or were not given many opportunities to work in suburban conferences. Now things have changed a little and if it were not for many coaches white and Black that did not raise concerns, we might be in the same boat again. For the record, the IHSA got rid of the automatic bid for the CPL to send a team to the State Finals and took away their right to pick the officials that would go work the State Finals as well.
Quote:
Originally posted by WeekendRef
If you were trying to say the former then I say congratulations to the assignors for wanting to hire officials that are better, have worked longer and proved themselves .
If you are trying to say the latter then you are really really making a strong statement by essentially calling all the assignors in those "many conferences" racist . That is quite a statement for one to make .
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There is a difference between "personal" racism and "institutional" racism. If you personally feel that an individual has things they do not like about a certain group of people that is "personal" racism. If an assignor or group of assignors do not hire qualified Black officials to work games that would be "institutional" racism. I personally do not care much for "personal" racism because I cannot do anything about that or change personal attitudes. I can do something about "institutional" racism because that is more hurtful and can affect opportunities. I can tell you that in speaking to a lot of Black officials in my area we talk a lot about the hurdles we have to overcome. We talk about why we did not get hired and why when we get hired there are not many that follow. I have been personally fortunate to excel and to get many opportunities, but I do not understand why officials that I would work with anytime are not getting hired over people that in many cases cannot get a single playoff game. It does not make since to me and many others in the Black officiating community. Or when the criticism from certain coaches comes up, they point out the only Black official on the game when we were all working the same game.
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Originally posted by WeekendRef
I will not even dignify the whole white people (Sorry someone who is not Black /hispanic) can bring a friend and nobody cares at all comment because that is just ignorant......oh yeah I forgot I am not from your area so what would I know .
Your area must be a real interesting place .
Sorry for the venom in this response but I just found your comments really insulting..... and I still can't figure out why .
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You are not bothering me. You asked a question and I answered. You either accept the way I feel or you turn the other cheek. I can confidently say that when many Black officials get together in my area (I know a lot of them) we talk about these issues and we wonder why some of us work some places and we cannot work other places. You can stick your head in the sand, but this is a real concern with the officials that look just like me.
Also I live in a metropolitan area where people mostly live in communities with people that look like them. There are not many communities that are that racially mixed. It is not unusual that you have a game where an all white team plays and entirely Black team and both teams are in the same conference. I had a game like that Tuesday. It was also not the first time this season and it will not be the last when I look at my schedule. I know if I decided tomorrow to not work a single white school I would have maybe two games in a year. I do not live in the Chicago city limits and I cannot afford to only go to certain places and work for certain people
Peace