I'm not sure that baseball gets the credit that it is due for reflecting our nation's racial breakdown almost to a tee across the board. White, black, Hispanic, Asian. No other sport comes close and when TIDES grades the sports it gives A grades to the NBA and the NFL when they don't come close to our national demographic breakdown. Makes you wonder.......
Baseball, still America's pastime and always will be America's Greatest Game.
from Giants Extra:
POSTGAME NOTES: Sanchez was “the man” for Giants, and he took the best kind of beating – Giants Extra:
— Jackie Robinson day is always a cool one at the ballpark, and the Giants and Dodgers added a twist tonight. Jon Miller and Vin Scully took turns introducing the starting lineups over the PA system, with each player getting a “Wearing No. 42″ from two of the broadcasting greats. Scully, by the way, received a half-standing ovation and loud cheers. That might have been a first for a Dodger at AT&T Park.'via Blog this'
Dr. Mark Perry explains the absurdity of this type of "racial grading" better than I can.....
from Carpe Diem:
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/04/should-the-nba-wnba-and-nfl-get-race-letter-grades-of-a-for-the-racial-diversity-of-their-players-vs-us-population/?
Should the NBA, WNBA and NFL get race letter grades of A+ for the racial diversity of their players vs. US population?
US POPULATION
| NBA | WNBA | NFL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| % White | 63.0% | 19.0% | 20.0% | 31.0% |
| % Black | 13.1% | 76.3% | 73.0% | 66.6% |
| % Hispanic | 16.7% | 4.4% | 0% | 0.7% |
| % Asian | 5.1% | 0.2% | 0% | 1.1% |
MP: There seems to be some rather inconsistent and twisted “diversity logic” here that TIDES is using for assigning its “race grades” for racial diversity in professional sports. The NBA, WNBA and NFL all get “race grades” of A+ for the racial diversity of their players, even though blacks are significantly overrepresented relative to their share of the US population (13.1%) in all three sports (76.3%, 73% and 66.3%, respectively), and all three of the other racial categories (whites, Hispanics and Asians) are significantly under-represented relative to their share of the US population in all three sports leagues.By any realistic metric or concept of “racial diversity” that reflects America’s racial representations in the general population (e.g. the racial diversity standard that is usually applied to university student populations, etc.), it would sure seem that the NBA, WNBA and NFL all deserve letter grades of F for racial diversity, which I have assigned above. Apparently, the only minority group that matters to TIDES is blacks, since the NBA, WNBA, and NFL all get letters grades of A+ for racial diversity, even with the significant under-representation of other minority groups like Hispanics and Asians. This seems like a pretty Orwellian approach in the sense that apparently according to TIDES, “all racial and gender groups are equal and important for purposes of diversity in professional sports, but one group is apparently more equal than all of the others.”Bottom Line: Does this type of mechanistic, head counting of professional athletes by race/skin color, and then assigning race letter grades to professional sports leagues for their racial diversity, really move us further in the direction of Martin Luther King’s vision of a colorblind society? I really can’t see how it does. Am I the only one who finds this “racial head counting” and assigning of “race letter grades” to professional sports both simplistically childish and offensive? Does anybody else object to the fact that this institute is probably funded at least in part by the taxpayers of Florida, and the students paying tuition at the University of Central Florida?
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