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Old Wed Feb 21, 2007, 10:21am
cmathews cmathews is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cheyenne, wyoming
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
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.
yes and that is wrong, some very smart and influential people worked to make it so that didn't happen any more.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
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.
Using race or gender as a hiring factor, by definition excludes people who are not of that race or gender.....thereby making it discriminatory and socially wrong....however I don't live in a vacuum I know it happens, it will continue to happen, and it will affect both genders and all races at some point. I just have a problem with it when it appears to be a double standard.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
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
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The officials lament, or the coaches excuses as it were: "I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was going to blame you"