Article pointing finger at Racist Referees

[Forksref]

Wow, maybe I should darken my skin so I have an excuse for blowing a call against a white team.

Of course, I am sure the author of that article is doing all he can to increase the number of minorities in officiating. I think his article would have the opposite effect. Who wants to officiate when your name shows up in an article critical of your actions in a game? And...someone needs to tell the author that we have a few more pressing issues to worry about in this country.


"Is what you are doing getting you what you want?"

[tomegun]

Originally Posted by Forksref

And...someone needs to tell the author that we have a few more pressing issues to worry about in this country.

Screw that. Forget about this article and tell the same thing to the people who keep shoving "Octumom" down our throat!

[just another ref]

diverse: differing from one another

I don't see where the article mentions race. He may want a crew made of a doctor, a lawyer, and an Indian chief.

[JRutledge]

Here is a way to simply take away any claims. Give officials of all levels similar opportunities, then these comments go away. Until you do that, you will have these claims.

There was a claim a few years ago by a coach that said the officials were not Black. Then the state started putting officials in situations to take away that claim.

I do not know the situation here, I do not know if the claim is valid. But when you have a sport where many of the top teams and players are of a certain race and you never schedule officials that look like the participants, then you have these claims.

There was a nationally televised game on TV a few years back with three Black D1 Officials. It was such an unusual thing in this particular conference. I sent a text message to one of the officials working the game showing how surprised I was by this occurrence. He responded to me, "Hey, we thought the same thing."

Peace

[BBall_Junkie]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Here is a way to simply take away any claims. Give officials of all levels similar opportunities, then these comments go away. Until you do that, you will have these claims.

There was a claim a few years ago by a coach that said the officials were not Black. Then the state started putting officials in situations to take away that claim.

I do not know the situation here, I do not know if the claim is valid. But when you have a sport where many of the top teams and players are of a certain race and you never schedule officials that look like the participants, then you have these claims.

There was a nationally televised game on TV a few years back with three Black D1 Officials. It was such an unusual thing in this particular conference. I sent a text message to one of the officials working the game showing how surprised I was by this occurrence. He responded to me, "Hey, we thought the same thing."

Peace

People can "Claim" anything they want. Claims in and of themselves do not inherently contain ANY truth what-so-ever. Talk is cheap so I could give a rip what any person says. This (imo ignorant, irresponsible and inflammatory) journalist can right as much ridiculous crap as he wants. If we give it any attention what so ever we give him exactly what he wants... a reaction. Its like my 5 year old son doing something to irritate his 8 yr old sister... he does if for the reaction. If she pays it no attention he stops. If this guy gets no reaction, he has submitted a totally useless article.

Lastly... race has absolutely ZERO to do with capability in the officiating ranks. Luckily most assignors recognize this.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BBall_Junkie

People can "Claim" anything they want. Claims in and of themselves do not inherently contain ANY truth what-so-ever. Talk is cheap so I could give a rip what any person says. This (imo ignorant, irresponsible and inflammatory) journalist can right as much ridiculous crap as he wants. If we give it any attention what so ever we give him exactly what he wants... a reaction. Its like my 5 year old son doing something to irritate his 8 yr old sister... he does if for the reaction. If she pays it no attention he stops. If this guy gets no reaction, he has submitted a totally useless article.

Lastly... race has absolutely ZERO to do with capability in the officiating ranks. Luckily most assignors recognize this.

Unless I missed something in the article posted, there was not claim of "racism." I think that was the "perception" of the people reading this article and posted it here.

Also this to me is just like any other discussion we have about perception. We get all upset if people claim we are bias based on where we live, who we know and how we know them. I can tell you that in many cases assignors and our state assign people to situations based on race and how the perceptions of the contest is officiating by the people working the games. It is a backdrop of many games. And it is taken completely away by putting on diverse crews which this article seemed to be about. And when you make an effort to have diversity in crews, then it is funny how that claim goes away.

This is no different than other seen biases and like many others biases this is probably not fair either.

I have no idea if what the author is claiming is remotely true and honestly do not care. This is no different than someone giving their opinion and this topic happens to be from another point of view. How many articles have we read here where the motives of the officials are called into question. And how many times have people here been the people calling those individuals motives or actions into questions. The difference is most of us here do not know the individuals or the actual situation involved.

No, it is about race, so let us completely dismiss all claims when we sometimes embrace other claims.

Peace

[dsqrddgd909]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Unless I missed something in the article posted, there was not claim of "racism." I think that was the "perception" of the people reading this article and posted it here.

"Year after year, children's dreams are deferred by questionable calls that appear to be biased" (Original article in question.)

The original author did not use the word racism. He did use the word biased, and he says in the rest of the article that the risk of bias increases without diversity. I wonder what the author would deem acceptable diversity in the following situations? If we have two mostly African-American schools? Two all whiite schools? Two schools with sizeable Native American populations? Asian? Gay? Transgender? Muslim? Hispanic?

I know there is racism. I know there are racist people in basketball. I think we should encourage all sorts of people to become refs. But who will decide what is a diverse crew?

On a more general point, are we ever going to come to the place that Dr. King talked about?

[Brad]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Unless I missed something in the article posted, there was not claim of "racism."

You missed something.

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Unless I missed something in the article posted, there was not claim of "racism."

Then you're more blind than I ever imagined.

[GoodwillRef]

It doesn't matter what race or gender you are if you can referee you can referee. People are always going to point fingers at us and find a way not to hold the players and coaches responsible. I hate the race card!

[Juulie Downs]

Originally Posted by GoodwillRef

It doesn't matter what race or gender you are if you can referee you can referee. People are always going to point fingers at us and find a way not to hold the players and coaches responsible. I hate the race card!

There is a place for the "race card" ( I hate that term, frankly). But I don't think this article was it.

Originally Posted by Juulie Downs

There is a place for the "race card" ( I hate that term, frankly). But I don't think this article was it.

The "race card" did come back to bite OJ.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by just another ref

He may want a crew made of a doctor, a lawyer, and an Indian chief.

And then after the game, a doctor, a lawyer, and an Indian chief, walk into a bar. I'll let Mark Padgett finish the story.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

And then after the game, a doctor, a lawyer, and an Indian chief, walk into a bar. I'll let Mark Padgett finish the story.

If Mark is gonna finish the story, let's make it something practical. A doctor, an Indian Chief, and a chemist walk into a bar......

Originally Posted by grunewar

If Mark is gonna finish the story, let's make it something practical. A doctor, an Indian Chief, and a chemist walk into a bar......

I would like to beat Mark to the punch, but I'll reserve for him because he has the best zingers!

My take on the article: HOGWASH! (yes, I watched MASH a lot when I was growing up!) This ucking fidiot of a writer needs to come to my area, where I work with several African-Americans at various levels. I can tell you, racism never enters our minds when we work. One time, I was the only white guy on a 3-man crew headed to a small town where the only non-whites were my partners. I was the "token white guy" (crew joke!), but you know what? After the game, as we were leaving the building, many parents who were still around waiting for their kids complimented us, saying we were the best crew they've seen in recent memory, and we were very impartial. The visiting coach was standing outside his bus waiting, and he said the same thing. Matter of fact, he had been fearful that we would be so strict that the kids wouldn't play, but after watching us work, he said he would take us any day over the crews he'd seen, and he's been coaching nearly 30 years now. This writer has his blind man's glasses on and needs to take them off, and if he needs help, I'll just be glad to take them off myself!

Rant off...soapbox stored till the next ucking fidiot deserving of a rant comes along (and it's not me despite the signature!).