Quote:
Originally Posted by fullor30
Ha, I know plenty of bald, angry, white guys.
You're right about the perception of course and the only way IMHO to overcome that is to be 110% professional. Make the crowd/person admit to themselves that they prejudged you and they were wrong.
It has to be tough. The white official is 'quiet' and the black one is labeled 'angry or surly'.
We have a black ref in our area, a new young guy, with dreads. I know it's going to be tough for him to move up.
It's hard fighting first impressions.
That said, the assigner who took those games back is gutless.
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I would hope there would be a desire on the part of any assignor that is turly interested in developing young and/or new officials to have a sincere conversation(s) to help set expectations and give helpful tips for ways to improve as an individual and advance.
I'll share a related experience: My daughter played YMCA league hoops a couple years back. Most everything about that league was inconsistent with the exception of a young, black official who sported corn rows. I'll never forget the first time I saw him when we entered the gym that season. It was like..."OK, this might be interesting". I volunteered to run the book or clock, whatever, and got to know him. He cared about doing a great job for the kids and had an excellent attitude and disposition. In fact, he did a great job of helping mentor newer partners (that looked more "the part") as the season progressed.
Sometimes looks can be a red flag. Sometimes they mean relatively nothing....which was my experience with the YMCA official. He's going to have a fun career if he sticks with it.