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I have read the post(s) regarding "sensitive issue", with guarded concern. BigDave raises the question of color versus competence as it relates to the assignment process. He relates definite knowledge that at the last JuCo tryout that, "...all officials that were picked up were black males or females." He then clearly states, "My problem with this is, are the best officials getting promoted?...what does this say to the up and coming official (myself) about staying consistent and working towards the JuCo goal?"
Subsequent responses range from a benign and banal defense for "Black officials", grandiose ideation about a five year career, unsubstantiated and incorrect statistics about the participation of women and blacks in the sport and tangential comparison of business and society to the original post. The question is pointedly and correctly addressed by LadyRef.
The veiled reference in BigDave's post is that perhaps the best official's were not selected because they were Afican-American. He clearly identifies the process as being a problem for him and questions it's impact on the up and coming official. Surely, we can agree BigDave is not speaking about the up and coming African-American official and we can obviously agree that he is not of that genre.
I would point out to BigDave that putting incompetent or the least competent official on the floor, would be a bane to any assignor. His/her continued employment in that capacity, is directly impacted by the people they employ. The assignment process however, is rarely an objective event.
Criterion for obtaining games differ greatly from conference to conference, association to association, as well as, on the various levels (elem., highschool, juco, college and the pros). Add to this mixture nepotism, friendship, gender, indebtedness, indenture(the five year rule) and ethnicity, we can all agree, this process has historically been both prejudicial and extremely subjective, irrespective to the specter of "unwarranted" promotion.
I submit to you that this process will remain arbitrary until someone with a litigous spirit, willing to lose to gain, attacks it in the proper arena. Perhaps, it will be LadyRef, the most courageous view to this post.
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