I would like to think we have hit rock bottom when The New York Times launches a major research project and runs a feature article decrying the underrepresentation of minorities ... wait for it ... in the third-base coach position in baseball.
Yes, we have reached the level of micro-management of race quotas that a disparity in a single coaching position is a cause of major worry for The Times:
About 40 percent of the players in Major League Baseball are black, Hispanic or Asian, and the sport is seen as a leading example of diversity, yet a curious disparity has emerged in a corner of the game.Wait a second. The Times has missed the big story here.
Among baseball’s 30 teams, only 23 percent of the third-base coaches are members of minorities, compared with 67 percent of its first-base coaches. The disparity has existed for decades but it is now about twice as large as it was in 1990, based on an analysis by The New York Times.
The question is why.
Minorities appear to be heavily over-represented at the first-base coach position, coming in at 67%.
Which means ... wait for it ... there is a "curious disparity" at the under-representation of non-minorities at the first base position.
The question is why is The Times obsessed with race counting only when there is the possibility of anti-minority bias, not anti-majority bias?
And the even bigger question is when is The Times going to accept that not all racial disparities are the result of racism, because if numerical disparity equaled racism, then The Times should devote an entire news section in perpetuity to the NBA.
Thomas Sowell hit the ball out of the park, and did not look at the third-base coach as he rounded third and headed home, with a column titled Bean Counters and Baloney:
This may seem to be just another passing piece of silliness. But it is part of a more general bean-counting mentality that turns statistical differences into grievances. The time is long overdue to throw this race card out of the deck and start seeing it for the gross fallacy that it is....
No one says it is racism that explains why blacks are overrepresented and whites underrepresented in basketball. Bean-counters make a fuss only when there is a disparity that fits their vision or their agenda....
In countries around the world, all sorts of groups differ from each other in all sorts of ways, from rates of alcoholism to infant mortality, education, and virtually everything that can be measured, as well as in some things that cannot be quantified. If black and white Americans were the same, they would be the only two groups on this planet who are the same....
The bean-counters are everywhere, pushing the idea that differences show injustices committed by society. As long as we keep buying it, they will keep selling it — and the polarization they create will sell this country down the river.Yes, it is the polarization they are selling, but we're not buying it anymore.
(Thanks to Soccer Dad for alerting me to The Times' story.)
--------------------------------------------
Related Posts:
Saturday Night Card Game
Legislating While Black
Is This The Week The Dream Died?
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
You know where there's a bigger disparity? Ownership of big city US newspapers.
ReplyDelete"And the even bigger question is when is The Times going to accept that not all racial disparities are the result of racism, because if numerical disparity equaled racism, then The Times should devote an entire news section in perpetuity to the NBA."
ReplyDeleteand
"Yes, it is the polarization they are selling, but we're not buying it anymore."
It's the same old tactic: divide and conquer. Alinsky/leftist Rule 13="polarize." Oldest "trick" in the book. But your last statement hits is on the head - we're wise to the tactics, and we're not falling for it anymore.
Oh, you are deliberately throwing red herrings into the pot. More minorities coaching at first base sounds legitimate, but wait a minute. First base is the lesser position in terms of responsibility and prestige. It is the third base coach who relays the signs, and makes the critical decisions as to when to send the runner home. The first base coach just collects the various paraphernalia that hitter wear---if they happen to get on base--and chats with whoever is in the vicinity of first base.
ReplyDeleteSo, despite your transparent attempt to portray equality by equating the two positions; the disparity between the positions supports charges of racial discrimination.
All of the above is my TIC attempt to demonstrate how racial arguments are formulated in our post-racial society.
Snap! We're different from eachother in obvious and unobvious ways. No, can't be.
ReplyDeleteI saved that post in my favorites by Thomas, as spot on reasoning that we need to get over the fantasy that we are all the same.
We aren't the same. Whaaaah, life's not fair. Some are this and I am that. They have this and I have that.
Yes, that's correct. I am what I am, by my own free will. But most of what I am, is not ever gonna be what someone else says it should be. Doesn't go down that way.
Acceptance, pure and simple, that some things are out of your control, makes the journey easier. Forcing non-acceptance is a full time job for others, but the truth always remains the same.
I am what I am and have what I have, by my own free will. Sadly, my freedom to even feel that way is under attack by the left and all it's factions, the government will now decide for me. I have that right, right? Not my creator, my God but the elected officals and gov't orchestrate my very being.
The people will not have that. Not one little bit.
Last year, Razor Shines was the Mets' third base coach. This year, he is the first base coach.
ReplyDeleteThe decision to move him was made either by himself, or the manager Jerry Manuel, or the general manager Omar Minaya.
I doubt that racism played part in that decision. And if watch as many Met games as I do, you surely agree.