IT’S A LOT MORE THAN “JUST WIN BABY”

The ESPN show called The Sports Reporters posed an interesting question Sunday AM. The moderator pointed out that there were only three head football coaches in Division I Football who were Black. The obvious implication is that this is simply a case of blatant discrimination and a person using only the numbers will come to the following conclusion; it is the hatred that majority whites bear toward Blacks that is the sole reason for the lack of Black faces in the coaching ranks.

It is not nearly that simple.

I would be classified as a small contributor to my university, not doing too much beyond buying season tickets and making a contribution to a children’s hospital. However, alumni have a major voice in who is selected as coach because the alumni is where the endowment money is. The coach meets with alumni once each week and hypes the games, shows tapes, answers questions, pretends to like everyone, and sort of raises money for the university by pitching a building fund, a hospital wing, and so on. There is a rapport between coach, chancellor’s office, and alumni, and this rapport is necessary for him to keep his job. As an example, I would point to the former UCLA basketball coach (white as snow Jim Harrick) who was fired because the chancellor and athletic director couldn’t stand his manner on the golf course; he violated some NCAA rules and was dumped. He was white and a winner on the court, but a lousy golf partner. I would note that basketball is considered a "black only sport" so a black coach would be OK, but only OK.

I am of the age of school integration at every grade, integration of university student and faculty, and associated some with lots of Blacks while in school. I have been the only white employee in an entire Black division of a company, in the minority white part of a work force in another, and as the head of a department and CEO of a company I hired, not only Blacks but any man or woman, no matter how weird, who I thought could do the job. I also associated with Blacks in sport (football) and while in the service. Both of those last endeavors require uniting toward a common goal and there was no racism tolerated and it certainly did not visibly exist, particularly in the service.

I’ve been there-done that.

So what is the “there and that” that I’ve done? Start with our formative college years. In school the Blacks separated themselves from the university as much as they could, even going so far as to have a separate graduation ceremony for themselves in which they received “honors” for absolutely nothing. Their speaking on campus was racist as were most of their actions including stealing copies of the student newspaper every time something “they” didn’t like was printed and “occupying the university” whenever they deemed it necessary. Most were “passed” by faculty more interested in numbers of Blacks and Hispanics passing than if the student learned anything. While in college I also had Black teachers, some of whom were as racist as they could be, throwing race into Chemistry Class if they could get away with it. I was also in the era of preferential treatment for Blacks in student acceptance into the school, a process designed to freeze out qualified whites and Asians and load up on unqualified Blacks and Hispanics. The line of Blacks by the copy machines around every finals time was clearly a racial group that was stealing what others published and taking credit for it. That they were allowed to get away with it caused plenty of private resentment and anger.

In the real world of jobs, I found myself in a Black only division of the most anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, and anti-White atmosphere you could imagine; when I was a minority white member of a completely “diverse” work force the Blacks would huddle by themselves and most of the conversation had to do with Blacks as victims, including blaming white racism any time a white won the state lottery, or beat a Black in some contest, etc. I have had Black managers, and almost all were totally incompetent, racist, and had backup from “upstairs” to keep their jobs. I had no problems with any race or sex when I managed small and large numbers of employees, but I found out much later my Black employees grouped by themselves and blamed me for their shortcomings. I fired anyone regardless of race, sex, or age who didn’t perform. I didn’t give a shit and I was afraid of nobody, a part of me that everyone recognized. I also knew the “game” with both women and minorities and had a video taping device in full view inside my office (women have become worse than Blacks as a legal threat from a work force).

So, based on all my past experiences, what is my attitude toward hiring a Black head coach who gets hired plainly because of race (Wittingham at Notre Dame being the most obvious example)? What is my opinion toward a totally qualified Black who needs to communicate with alumni, an alumni who have been immersed in Black racism for twenty or more years, or ever since their freshman year in college? To put it in personal terms: would you or would you not be scared to death if you awoke in a hospital emergency room and found two Black doctors hovering over you, sure in your own mind that they didn’t pass through med school on their own merits?

Well?

That is the problem. Nobody white who is over forty likes the special benefits given to Blacks on every level or the racist ramblings of Black political leadership. I would go even further. There are two worlds out there, a Black world and a world containing everyone else. There is no longer any rapport between the white and Black races, there is just a feigned cordiality. A relationship in which what is unspoken is more voluminous than what is. A Black head coach won't be hired too often because the Alumni experience with Blacks is almost all negative. A coach MUST be able to raise money from the entire alumni; get us to buy shirts, hats, and blankets from the student store before games; get us to donate money to the school, and a coach must especially associate with the wealthy alumni and help get those million dollar endowments. As a perfect high profile example: since Pete Carroll arrived at USC and started winning, season ticket prices have doubled, attendance at games has gone from 45,000 to 90,000, requirements for alums to donate to various university schemes is a requirement in order to be “eligible” to buy said season tickets, and you better have your name on the “building fund” for the new on campus basketball arena should you hope to qualify for a seat that isn’t very high or very low in the end zone.

Then, of course, a coach who has all this “panache”must win. So, yes prejudice is why there are only three Black coaches in Division I schools, but it goes a lot deeper than plain dislike.