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Originally Posted by cmathews
Because hiring someone based on race, gender, sexual orientation or anything else other than skill and ability, is discrimination....something that I thought this country was trying to get away from.
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Let me put it to you this way. There was a time when the only people that worked these games at all looked like a certain group of people, despite who was on the court and who were the top performers and where they came from. In some of these conferences there were no players of certain colors or races even allowed to participate at a particular school, whether they were in the South or the North.
I was watching Kentucky-LSU last night (the very end of the game) and there was only one Black official on the game when the vast majority of players were of that same color and even one of the head coaches were of that same color. And that is with the Supervisor of Officials of the SEC being an African-American.
Race and gender can always be a factor in hiring. If I work for a company where the vast majority of my clientele is of one race or gender, it is perfectly legal to hire people that look like the vast majority of that clientele. That is different than excluding people just because of their race or gender. This is the reason you see a lot of female official working D1 Women's ball because the coaches and all the players are female. It only makes since to have people that can relate or have similar backgrounds to the players. Part of our job is to be able to deal with players and coaches in very hostile situations. I am sure the assignors want people that are used to situations with certain kinds of players and coaches. If you have never worked with potential D1 players, you might have a harder time dealing with those kinds of players when the lights come on.
Peace