Black Jerseys

[just another ref]

I played in an independent tourney many years ago. Both teams showed up in the same color gold jerseys. Our team was all white. Their team was all black.
Officials identified us as "black" and "white." Nobody seemed to have a problem with it.

[bainsey]

Originally Posted by just another ref

I played in an independent tourney many years ago. Both teams showed up in the same color gold jerseys. Our team was all white. Their team was all black.
Officials identified us as "black" and "white." Nobody seemed to have a problem with it.

I love it.

Few things anger me as much as racism, but when we get excessively sensitive to it, it doesn't lend much to the end game of equality.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

I've had games where the team with predominantly white players wore black jerseys, and the team with predominantly black players wore white jerseys. Everyone (players, coaches, officials) smiled the first few times fouls / violations were called. Even a few fans chuckled. By the middle of the first quarter, it was a non-issue.

Originally Posted by just another ref

I played in an independent tourney many years ago. Both teams showed up in the same color gold jerseys. Our team was all white. Their team was all black. Officials identified us as "black" and "white." Nobody seemed to have a problem with it.

Just like God, Dr. Naismith, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. intended it to be. This would be a pretty boring planet if we were all the same color.

[NoFussRef]

The neighborhood I grew up in was like "Hands-across-America". We had 2 Black kids, 2 White kids, and 1 Japanese-Hawaiian. We went to each other's 3rd Birthday parties and attended school together all the way through 12th grade.

We played ball in our dead-end street, be it football, baseball, basketball we were happy to be outside. (Don't see this activity from kids much anymore).

Anyway to get to the butt-feathers here...

We would often rotate our match-ups while playing basketball, weather permitting, we would play "Shirts-vs-Skins". Often it would be the 2 Black kids on one team -vs- the 2 White kids on the other... yet we would still play shirts and skins! We just didn't think about it, hey if that kids a different color than you don't pass him the ball. Duh.

[Butterfly182310]

I've run into this issue with partners over the years. Initially I'll admit I was unsure how to address it, but now with "political correctness" screwing with the moral foundation of our country, my position is "if the team didn't want to be called black, they wouldn't be wearing black...it's black!"

The two colors I have difficulty with are orange and purple. Those I'll change to a single syllable color, most likely red and blue.