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Hobby Forum Index » Sport - Basketball » Dribbling While Black
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| Ubiquitous |
 Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 5:52 am |
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Guest
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The New York Times brings us shocking new evidence of America's deep-seated
racism:
An academic study of the National Basketball Association,
whose playoffs continue tonight, suggests that a racial
bias found in other parts of American society has existed
on the basketball court as well.
A coming paper by a University of Pennsylvania professor
and a Cornell University graduate student says that, during
the 13 seasons from 1991 through 2004, white referees called
fouls at a greater rate against black players than against
white players.
Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public
policy at the Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell
graduate student in economics, found a corresponding bias
in which black officials called fouls more frequently against
white players, though that tendency was not as strong. They
went on to claim that the different rates at which fouls are
called "is large enough that the probability of a team winning
is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the
refereeing crew assigned to the game."...
"Basically, it suggests that if you spray-painted one of your
starters white, you'd win a few more games," Mr. Wolfers said.
But that's not really a solution, is it? Sure, the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s
might have won more games if they'd spray-painted Michael Jordan to look like
a player of pallor, but that would have been demeaning to him and the fans.
If the NBA is ever going to move beyond racism, it's going to require a change
in attitude--one ref at a time. In the meantime, kudos to the New York Times
for courageously facing this problem. Too many Americans have believed for too
long that the reason blacks can't succeed in the NBA is that they just aren't
good at basketball, as if they lacked some sort of "basketball gene" or
something. It's time to lay that foul stereotype to rest.
--
The trouble with American journalism, in short, isn't that it's too skeptical,
but that it's too willing to throw skepticism to the wind when it suits the
agenda of proclaiming every war a Vietnam and every Republican president a
Nixon. |
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