North Coast Online

Looking For Racism In All The Wrong Places

Much ado today over the New York Times article about a study that found racial bias in basketball refereeing.

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.

Black refs are said to have done the same in reverse.  Now, before getting too outraged (one way or the other,) don't we need to know the race of the player fouled?  I mean, if a black player fouls another black player and a white referee calls it, is that really racist?  And the same goes for a black referee calling a white-on-white foul, which, of course, in today's NBA is almost statistically impossible.

I think this might be another number that proves little.

Waiting For The Backlash

Here's one of the silliest reactions to the Virginia Tech shootings I've seen yet.

Asians fear backlash after Virginia Tech shooting
Virginia Tech student Jiyoun Yoo was terrified when she heard a gunman had rampaged through her campus, killing 32 people. When news broke on Tuesday that the gunman was a South Korean student, her fear took a new direction.    

"I'm from South Korea, so I am a little bit scared," said Yoo, 24, as she walked on campus. Only one person was responsible for the massacre, she said, "but maybe it will affect all South Korean students."

We hear this sort of stuff over and over again.  After 9/11, the media eagerly anxiously awaited signs that racist America would punish Arab-Americans for it.  Never happened, but the fear that it "might" keeps those who believe that the United States is a racist hot-bed alert for any signs of it.  And their foolish insistence makes young South Korean girls like Jiyoun Yoo fearful.

Look, your average American of non-Asian descent (and that would include whites and blacks alike) can't distinguish the difference between Chinese, Viet Namese, Malaysians, Japanese or Koreans to begin with.  And the idea that people would take out their supposed anger on anyone of the same race as the gunman is simply without grounds.

America is now so "unracist" that Don Imus lost his job for making a nasty joke about black women -- and no one much objected. But journalists with nothing of consequence to report, print the fears of young schoolgirls anyway.  And the myth lives on.    

Pigs Can Fly

Wow.  This happens about once every, oh, I don't know, century.  I agree with Eleanor Clift.

Deep, Deep Implications

Rod Watson is all worked up that the Eden school district won't talk to reporters about a bunch of students caught shoplifting on a school-sponsored trip to Florida.  His implication, of course, is that white suburban kids are being shielded from the consequences of their acts, while poor city kids would be held up for public ridicule -- by the very same press that Eden officials won't talk to.  Though Watson doesn't frame it just that way.

Do It For Their Self-Esteem

Well, that settles it -- Clarence is obviously a racist's heaven. 

'The Magic Negro'

Wow.  You can hardly pass up an article with that title.

A Real Apology

Virginia's legislature recently passed a declaration apologizing for slavery.  Walter Williams has a suggestion for them.

The next time the Virginia General Assembly gets into an apologetic mood and wants to pass another resolution aimed at its black citizens, here are my suggestions:

1. The Commonwealth of Virginia apologizes to its black citizens for not protecting them from criminals who prey upon them and make their lives a daily nightmare.

2. The Commonwealth also apologizes for our government-sanctioned school system that delivers fraudulent education, thereby consigning many of its black citizens to the bottom rungs of the economic ladder

Makes sense to me.

Black Like He

Eugene Robinson thinks that questioning Barack Obama's "blackness" is ridiculous.  And he's right, but let's remember that Barack's a liberal.  I might be wrong, but I don't recall Mr. Robinson defending Clarence Thomas or Condoleezza Rice against similar questions.  Of course, they're not liberal.

Well, This Should Clear Things Up

Virginia (the State of) has apologized for its role in slavery.

Virginia's General Assembly has adopted a resolution, expressing "profound regret" for the role the US state played in slavery.

The resolution was passed by a 96-0 vote in the House and also unanimously backed in the 40-member Senate.

Although non-binding, the resolution sent an important symbolic message, its sponsors said.

Lawmakers also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans" in Virginia.

Non-binding?  What would a binding apology entail.  Never mind, I'm sure it has something to do with trial lawyers.  OK, so they've apologized, and then what?  Actually, I thought the whole issue had been put to rest ten years ago when Bill Clinton apologized for slavery while on a visit to Africa.  That wasn't good enough?

Will more apologies be required?  Would it help if the other 49 states, for example, apologized?  And don't forget the cities.  Atlanta comes to my mind as probably the largest American city that benefited from the slave trade.  Surely, Atlanta should apologize.

Of course Atlanta's majority black now and is largely run by African-Americans.  So maybe that exempts it.  It might even count towards white reparations, who knows?  It all sure is confusing, though.  If I didn't know better I'd be tempted to think that all this apology and reparations business was just money-grubbing on the part of some and pandering to the money-grubbers by others.

Thank God that's not the case.

Silence

Leonard Pitts abhors the rise in African-American AIDS cases and gets it partially right.

Because while poverty plays a role in those ghastly numbers, while access to health care and lack of information are factors, who can deny that the main reason for this plague is the silence, the closed-mouth social conservatism, the priggish moral rectitude of a people still ill at ease discussing sexuality, homosexuality, drug use and other realities? Instead, we mouth piety, prayers and platitudes while the world burns down around us.

I can't help but wonder if the American black tradition of not questioning other blacks' behavior -- especially when whites are around -- doesn't play a part in the silence, too.  Either way, it's incredibly self-destructive.

[UPDATE:] To his credit, Pitts has written several times on the efforts of Bill Cosby and lately Oprah Winfrey to point out that many of the problems faced by poor, black Americans are caused by themselves.  But each time he does so, he can't resist mentioning that conservatives (and he always mentions Limbaugh) will gloat.  He's wrong on that one.

We don't gloat, we're just happy.  We're excited to see a significant part of America's population finally beginning to take responsibility for its behavior and hoping that it will begin to solve them.