Hello all,
I am an official in Jersey. I have some knowledge about this situation. After reading this article, I talked to some high ranking members out here both black & white. What I was told is that there story has some merit. The assigners have a circle of officials that they use and a lot of black official are out of that loop. I have been told that people are looking in to this now. There is also another issue that was not brought up in the article. There are black official getting varsity games, but most of these officials are being assigned to work games only in the inner-city, where they are getting no exposure. Places where most white official do not want to go. So there are several issues here. I just hope this article will help people take notice and fix this situation

Here in CA state games are assigned to try to "MATCH THE PLAYERS" If 75% of the players are a minority the state trys to match with 75 % of the refs being a minority. Recently at our asoication meeting this issue came up in a subtle way. The officials that were speaking the loudest claming some type of "discrimination" were no where to be seen the last several years at our association summer clinic. Nor did I see any of those same officials at any of the other camps that I attended. Is their a possibility that discrimination exists in some associations? YES! But that exists in all areas of life, work, and schooling. What do you do? Don't b*tch, moan, and whine. Get involved. Run for office in your association. Ask to see the bylaws and make sure that they are applied equally and fairly. Don't go to every association meeting and complain that "I'M NOT GETTING TREATED FAIRLY AND HOW COME I DON'T GET THE GAMES THAT I WANT OR THINK I SHOULD GET." Work from within and be positive. Do you think that I got to where I am because I am a certain color? No I got here because I work very hard. I study continuously. I put in my time doing Rec. games refining my game management skills so I can apply them on a nightly basisi at upper level games. I go to camp. I stay in the gym to be in the best possible shape. I watch my game films and critic myself continully. Will you ask yourself if you are doing everything you can to make yourself better?

I believe if you do your job and do it well you will get the recognition that you deserve. There will always be isolated cases of racism and reverse-racism as well. You just have to keep working hard.

Re: Even though I know I should resist I can't
 

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.

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.

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

My BS flag is in limbo. Who works the playoffs and the finals? I know that teams like fairfax and dominguez(sp?) are always strong. Are the officials on their games always black?

:confused:

Getting no exposure to what?

I also am confused by this statement. Best ball is often played in the "inner city", leastwise where I grew up (NYC). Ergo best teams. Black officials get to work games with best teams.....how is that a setback to their career?

I cannot speak for this area. I can tell you working in the inner-city is not always what it is cracked up to be. It is also a misconception to think the best ball is player there. Here many of the best teams are in the suburbs. So if you are only working in one area, you can get lost out there. Officials is more than just working the best ball, it is being seen by the right people. If the right people are not working in the inner city, that can be a major setback if you ask me.

Peace

Varsity ref jobs a matter of black or white
 

Let's keep it real! Let's look at the road one may need to take to move up the ladder. There are some officials who move fast because there good. There are those who have to spend tons of money to attent a whole lot of camps, who catch a break like that. There are some who have everything set up for them. not what they know, but who they know. It's easy to see alot of officials working on the college level who clearly are not even athletic and can't even run the floor well, but they are part of that good old boy club. I am a firm believer that if this was not an issue, these officials would not have had this meeting. And the fact of the matter is, those officials who have came foward and spoke up, may face more rough roads ahead. Alot of officials will never even touch this topic with a ten foot pole, because they no it exist and they don't want to get less games in the future for getting honest. I personaly am gonna see if we can have a meeting like this in my area, because the state of officiating has a race isuue that needs to be addressed here!

What you just described is a system of racism...choosing the officials for a game based on their race...whether black or white, it is simply wrong. Imagine if the playoffs happened to be 90% of one race (pick either one), does anyone think it is fair to disqualify officials because that have enough of the 10% race despite the fact that they might be better. It doesn't matter which race you view it from, it's not right.

That said, I agree with that that those that often complain the most and don't get the better games are those that do not work to get better (black or white).

California
 

Just wanted to reply to the California official. I work in the S.F. bay area and I have never heard of his 75% policy. I and every other member in our association works games with all genders and races. There is no matching of race to games.

Good officials move up, average officials stay where they are and poor officals eventually stop officiatng. As far as I have seen race has nothing to do with it.

Re: Even though I know I should resist I can't
 

You're right: you should have resisted, and I'm calling you out on it. You projected a false dichotomy onto Rut's argument, one that is so outlandish that it seems that you intentionally misread his post. He's already clarified himself for you (and FWIW, I don't think that anyone else needed his words clarified), so I won't do that for him.

What I will do is express my great frustration with you on this matter. The header to your post said a lot about you and what you think about Rut, and what reasonable people might believe you think about lots of other things. Look, I've had my fair share of run-ins with Rut around here, and I admit to reading his posts with a more critical eye than I read those of many others. That does not mean, however, that I go into those readings with the idea that Rut is an idiot and that my job is to shout that to the world. You seem, on the other hand, not only to read Rut's posts critically, but to view them as an opportunity--if not a call--to jump on his head with both feet, no matter how ill-considered your own ideas.

Have you never heard a member of a minority group speaking of the necessity of working harder to get the same opportunities, rewards, etc? If you have, are you so incomprehensibly blind, naive,or provincial as to believe that this is never the case? This notion is all that Rut was talking about. Not exactly the stuff of radicals.

I earnestly suggest you explore and act on one of three possibilities: 1) apologize to Rut for your woefully myopic and belligerent reading of his post and cut him a wee bit of slack on future readings of his posts, or 2) apologize to Rut for your woefully myopic and belligerent reading of his post and stop responding to his posts, or 3) apologize to Rut for your woefully myopic and belligerent reading of his post and stop reading anything he posts.

PS: if your woefully myopic and belligerent misreading of Rut's post was not indeed intentional, I refer you again to the above suggestions.

Varsity ref jobs a matter of black and white?
 

For those of you who don't have this issue in your areas, you need to really thatnk god. Once a former D1 official (african american) told me that about time an official of color get's a break he is usually up in age. He said that it's easier for an official of color to move up the ladder on the woman's side, then it is for the men!

I will put it this way. I spoke to an assignor recently about working in his conference next year and a friend of mine suggested that we crew up with another official in this conference. BTW, all three officials would be Black. The first comment that the assignor made was, <b>"Three Black officials going to all white schools?"</b> Now he was mostly kidding and we will work in his conference next year as a crew according to him. But the fact that the statement was made suggests to me that race can be a factor and many times a big factor in where people might get picked up or not picked up.

I have also never worked with a female official on a HS game Boy's varsity game outside of the Chicago Public League Assignors. I do not think that is because there are not women capable, there are people not allowing them to work those levels. You ever wonder why the only women to work the NCAA Men's Tournament came from a traditionally Black Conference (SWAC). The gatekeepers to opportunity are not sharing the wealth.

Peace

I am a New Jersey ref and officials need to be judged on their ability alone. My board is probably 70 percent white, 25 percent black and 5 percent Hispanic. I've seen white officials get good games, I've seen black officials get good games and I've seen Hispanic officials get good games. All the races on our board seem to get along rather well, although this is only one person 's opinion.

However, one place where I believe there is a bias is with male/female officials. There is a perception on our board that female officials are given the opportunity to move long the ranks a bit faster. My perception is that if there is a male official and a female official with the same ability that the female official will generally get the better assignment. It seems that female officials have a better chance to "move up" than male officials.