Re: The Academy, NextGen, U18 & U21 Premier League and On-Loan Thread
Oh yes I'm sure every club when looking for a new manager goes "right guys, we need a new manager, although we must make sure not to hire any African Americans, they aren't suitable candidates". If you are looking to hire someone, the only thing that should be taken to account is their ability to perform the job you require them for. Skin colour should have absolutely nothing to do with it. Unfortunately for many many years it did have something to do with it, which is a great injustice I don't think many would disagree. I believe as a nation we're at a point now where it doesn't have something to do with it, and the Rooney rule introduces it back in again.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
That quote seems quite relevant here.
Me, I'm a white male. I plan on living abroad, and potentially I may live in a country where I'll be an ethnic minority. I will seek employment and I will want to know that the reason that I gain interviews and (hopefully) eventually employment will be down to the that I was deemed most suitable for the job, not that I was filling the fudging white guy quota.
I understand that it is "just an interview", I believe that if I was offered such an interview for a role because of my skin colour that I knew I wouldn't have got an interview for if it weren't for my skin colour I would find that pretty fudging offensive.
Do you really think this will help put right decades of discrimination? Oh the whole slave thing is ok because when Fergie retired they had a short meeting with Paul Ince to tick the Rooney Rule box and then decided to hire someone who they actually thought would be suitable for the role, I'm sure that made Mr Ince feel fantastic about the whole situation, we've put the situation right folks, no need to feel guilty anymore \o/
Anyway...That Luongo's looking pretty good for Swindon eh?
Well considering that before the Rooney rule, only 6% of coaches in the NFL were black despite being 12% of the population and approximately 60% of NFL players, I'm gonna hazard a guess and say that perhaps race did have something to do with whether the owners considered these individuals suitable candidates to even waste their time interviewing. Indeed, by 2003, the NFL franchises collectively had managed to hire a total of 6 black coaches in their history. This is all obviously a coincidence though.
Even on the playing field, Black players, until very recently anyway, were rarely chosen for the 'thinking roles' on the pitch. Perhaps that has something to do with why they were rarely even picked for interview, despite being a huge % of the playing population.
I think a lot of studies and real life experience show actually that colour (and name) very much have something to do with it. Perhaps this is your own way of not feeling the guilt you seem to think you should have for your ancestor's actions but minorities still undergo very real discrimination and in the USA (not quite as much here imo), structural violence is still very much present, especially with black Americans.
It isn't really relevant is it because blacks are still judged by their skin, still mostly grow up in a different situation to whites. Their life expectancy is less, mother and infant mortality higher (in some areas, like NYC higher than places like the West Bank and Gaza), schools worse, unemployment higher, 'random' stop and searches by the police ridiculously higher, especially to search for drugs (despite evidence showing that blacks are no more likely to be carrying drugs for personal use than hispanics or whites), a huge incarceration rate (40% of the total prison population, a male born in the early 90s has a 1 in 3 chance of spending time in prison in the US, 1 in 3 of black Americans now are involved in the prison system in some way) etc etc.
When we live in a post racial society, then we can remove all rules like this. Considering that we're not, its a joke to quote a man who lived for equality to argue for a situation in which there was and still is no equality.
Firstly, its not analogous at all to compare a black and white man, as all around the world, whites are often seen as superior to others (by non-whites). Secondly, if you get the interview that you otherwise wouldn't have gotten because of your race and then wowed them in the interview and got the job because you're
well qualified for it, which is the important point (ie, you're not displacing someone who's white and better qualified simply because of your colour), which would not be successful.
Let me explain the Rooney rule in the simplest possible terms for me:
Give interviews to ethnic minorities who previously have not even been given the chance to interview, despite their high % as playing staff and population
Give the job to the qualified person, regardless of colour
% of coaches who are black has gone from 6% to 22% and they have shown themselves to be as good as white coahces
A black coach has now won the superbowl
Nobody is saying that this will right years of discrimination and indeed your little example is strawman extraordinaire. This won't help erase the memories of what happened before. This doesn't help erase the structural violence that blacks face on a daily basis in the USA. What it does do is give people an opportunity to prove themselves to a panel, who otherwise, whether for reasons of race or not (not of course, we're living in a post racial society where no-one is judged or discriminated against because of their colour right!
), would not have had the chance.
The correct way of phrasing what will always be an inadequate analogy is that after Ferguson retires, the Man Utd board interview Ince because of the McFadden rule. He wasn't going to get an interview otherwise. Whether that is due to race or not, you can decide for yourselves. Once in the interview however, Ince dazzles and they decide to give him the job because they feel like he is the best candidate. A few years later, Man Utd are going along as normal, winning trophies left, right and centre. Its as if there's no difference in coaching between the white and black man.
Of course, we all know this example is crap because Ince is a brick manager, regardless of his colour.
The crux is, this is an attempt to correct a historical wrong that, despite our moving into this utopian post-racial society, was still very much going on. It doesn't make Whites equal to blacks. It isn't perfect. But it is a step in the right direction. And its certainly better than effectively saying let blacks drown in history and continued structural violence and discrimination.
http://www.lasentinel.net/index.php...black-coaches-in-the-nfl&catid=106&Itemid=196
I'm sure Tomlin felt very offended at his 'token interview' when he won the superbowl. Infact, all minorities were offended by this flagrant racism.
I'll stop there because this is already long enough!
