Minority sports reporters

No you shouldn't. But you also shouldn't be bitter about companies and SEs who are working to help minorities not as fortunate as you to try to catch up to you in this field.

 

pe - i don't think unleveling the playing field makes the playing field level and it's not right.

call me selfish, but when i look at candidates, i look for the person who'll provide the most quality and cause me the least amount of work as possible. i don't care if that person is gay, muslim, white, black or a woman. i have too much to do at work already without doing someone else's job and excusing them for that fact just because they are the same skin tone and gender as i. at the same time, i'm not going to hire someone of, say, muslim descent just because they're muslim if it's going to cost me an extra 40 hours of work a week.

i can't understand why everybody on this thread wants to continue to focus on people's race and gender as a premise to fixing the problem. how can anyone ask for anything more than an employer to simply hire the best candidate? isn't that what you call equality?

 

A very reasonable post. Wonder how long it takes before Boots, PEteacher or one of the others in that group rip you for it, Tom.

And PEteacher, the only thing 85bears expressed bitterness about was being told by people like you that he doesn't deserve to be where he is, that he has had too many advantages because he is white. You made up the rest on your own.

 

I think the problem is societal. Perhaps it's admirable that we try to do our part as an industry to fix it, but really it's gilding the lilly.

Until the government and the people of the United States find a way to begin bolstering the black and Hispanic communities of this country, individual industries are going to suffer from a lack of diversity, as well.

Here's where economic conservatism does more harm than good.

It still goes back to slavery. The government, state, federal and local, never made a fair attempt to get the black community up to speed educationally and economically. The proof shows up in the raw numbers of industries like ours.

 

Look, you want to know how screwed up the playing field is. I'll explain it to you. There is an opening on this board for a paper. That paper is seeking two people in sports. I guarantee you that they will not consider a minority for the hire. Why, because there is not a minority in the newsroom. What makes it worse is that the town is predominately African American. It's stuff like this that has many minorities flustered and leaving the business in droves.
You say society is the problem, well society gets its cue from the media.

 

Yes, the problems of the black community are caused by the media. Brilliant!

 

Don't be a jackass. No one is saying that but you know the media can influence. And if you don't well you really need to look at the profession a little harder.
This isn't about the black community. It's about minority sports writers.

 

Ok, I just looked through the pages of the A section of the Contra Costa Times. Not a single article covering minority issues in the Bay Area. Not even one.

Now, as it's commonly known, the Bay Area is as diverse at it comes. Asians Americans, blacks, Hispanics, gays, lesians, Muslims, etc. Who's going to cover those issues? Who's going to make the voice of the single Latino mother of four heard? Or the day trader trying to pay his mother's medical expenses? Or the gay high school student trying to pretend her can't hear the derogatory terms so casually used the the school's jocks? Or the Muslim girl soccer player coached by a male, despite religious customs forbidding them from being touched by a male they're not married to? Or the talented Asian athlete who'se parents continually tries to get him away from sports and into the medical field?

These aren't rare stories, folks. And they're not being told. Because all those white males in the newsroom, especially in the higher ranks, don't even know how to begin to go after them. One thought: Diversify!

 

Never said he doesn't deserve to be where he is. But being bitter for people telling him "he has had too many advantages because he is white"??? That's like me being bitter for someone telling me that I'm a human being, or that I'm 6-feet tall, or that I write for a living, or anything else that's a fact.

 

I don't think just because someone is white doesn't mean they can't tell a story about a minority, PE. Just my take.

 

Far to reasonable a take. It's not like we're reporters or anything. It's not like it's our job to tell stories. Because we're all superstar athletes and that is how we are able to cover other superstar athletes, right?

 

That's what I'm trying to say. I'm white, yet have very good repoire (sp?) with all the athletes I cover, white, black, male, female. It's how you approach the athlete and talk to them. I don't think just because you are a certain color or sex should dictate what, who and how you cover sports.

But I'm also jewish, so that maybe makes me a minority, which maybe gives me that edge over regular white people. Who the fuck knows. All this labeling shit of people is why we have not gotten further away from discrimination.