Embarrassing Situation
The New York Times reports Only Three N.F.L. Head Coaches Are Black. ‘It’s Embarrassing’
“N.F.L. insiders say it will take more than the Rooney Rule to diversify the league’s leadership. Their immediate goal: Increase offensive coaching opportunities for minority candidates, who are often overlooked.”
Rooney Rule
The Rooney Rule is a National Football League policy that requires league teams to interview ethnic-minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operation jobs. It is sometimes cited as an example of affirmative action, as there is no quota or preference given to minorities in the hiring of candidates. It was established in 2003, and variations of the rule are now in place in other industries. The rule is named after Dan Rooney, the former owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and former chairman of the league’s diversity committee.
Diversity Math
- There are 32 NFL teams
- There are 3 black coaches
- The percentage of blacks in the country is 12.1%
- The percentage of black coaches is 9.4%
Mercy!
But even more shocking is the fact there are 0% female NFL coaches despite the fact that females are over 50.5% of the US population.
Where’s the outrage over this blatantly sexist policy?
And what about Hispanics? They comprise 16.7% of the population. Again, more outrage is needed.
Economic Gender Gap
Unfortunately, it’s not just sports either.
Just yesterday, I commented Allegedly, There is a Gender Gap in Economics
I was right on time.
Today we learn Brainard Says Fed Faces ‘Large Challenge’ to Become More Diverse.
Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said she’d been taken aback to hear of the difficulties black female employees face at the central bank, and that the monetary authority faces formidable difficulties in increasing their representation.
“It was eye-opening to hear how black women feel about their roles at the Federal Reserve,” Brainard told a session entitled “Women in Central Banking” at the annual meeting of American Economic Association in San Diego on Friday. “They don’t see themselves” celebrated at a bank whose history has been dominated by white men and whose halls are adorned with photographs attesting to that.
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
I hardly know where to start. But obviously we need universal race and gender quotas.
I propose we start with the military.
I assure you women, properly trained can be as mean and cruel and willing to blow heads off as any man.
The troops ought to be 50.5% (no more, no less) female.
Yet, according to the Defense Department, women only make up 20 percent of the Air Force, 19 percent of the Navy, 15 percent of the Army and a shockingly low 9 percent of the Marine Corps.
There are 38 four-star generals but only 2 of them are women.
Where’s the outrage?
Must Start in College
We have to start somewhere, and college is the correct place. Fortunately, on that score I have progress to report.
Adversity Scores
Please consider Adversity Scores: The Latest Dumbing Down of US Education
If you are black an SAT score of 946 is equivalent to an Asian score of 1223.
Surely this is solution to everything.
Cannot Stop With Race
But we cannot stop with race.
I will not be happy, nor should you, until 50.5% of NFL coaches are female.
Returning to the Fed
Meanwhile, let’s return to what I had to say about the Fed in Allegedly, There is a Gender Gap in Economics
Diversity at the Fed Needed
Instead of more women or blacks on the Fed, I suggest we try actual diversity of economic opinion and not gender for gender’s sake.
What’s most needed on the Fed is an Austrian economist who proposes dissolving it. That would be diversity. Instead, expect more group think nonsense about race and the Phillips Curve.
Good Ole Boy Network
To become a Fed president you have to think, believe, and act like a good ole boy. Janet Yellen is best not thought of as a woman, but rather a good ole boy.
Now that Brainard has chimed in, my stated view cannot possibly be right.
We need to rectify the situation promptly starting with race and gender quotas in college admissions, the military, and of course, professional sports.
But what about enforcement? I am glad you asked because I have the perfect solution.
Diversity Police Needed
We need more diversity police.
And they better be 50.5% women, 16.7% hispanic, and 12.% black.
Addendum
This issue goes back a long way for me. In 1998 I was asked point blank by the president of Harris Bank (now Bank of Montreal, BMO), “From a diverse standpoint who is best qualified for a managerial promotion“.
I named a name in one second flat. It was a black woman. Interestingly, my answer would not have changed had the president left of the word “diverse” from his question.
If this Q&A seems improbable to you, here is the background.
I was an AVP, but a non-manager. The president was 6 managerial levels higher than my manager.
But the question did not shock me in the least as I was very well known and outspoken. At every meeting, no matter how many people were present, I asked a pointed question. On at least 4 occasions, I fired off emails to the president. I spoke my mind.
Addendum 2
Martin Luther King called for judging a person on their character and not their skin. Discrimination should not be tolerated.
But there should be equality of opportunity, not quotas based on race or gender. Give everyone a fair shot and then let the best people succeed.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Competition overwhelms racism in sports…eventually. I can remember Bob Gibson mowing down legendary hitters all over this country, but staying in segregated motels while on the road.
I also remember the greatest NBA player-coach, Bill Russell’s answer to a smart aleck reporter’s question, “Do you consider if a player’s color is white when deciding your starting lineup?”
Bill’s answer, “Yes: I play two at home, one on the road, and none if we’re behind in the fourth quarter.” I don’t recall him ever being asked if he was racist again.
Men are definitely winning the race to the grave. I’d like a quota to be established to normalize this and give women a fair shot.
Women in the US live about 7 years longer than men. Shall we fix that too?
NFL = “Not For Long” — Jerry Glanville, 1988
Follow the $$$. Goodell is doing anything and everything to expand the NFL and that includes a serious injection of politics, entertainment (Hollywood) and international exposure. Fortunately, NFL games from the 70s, 80s and 90s are still available on Youtube so I can get my fill of violence.
Mish,
We need 50.5% of all plumbers to be women as well…
Currently, the percentage is about zero… what’s up with that?
Is there not black dna in many Americans?
The “Whopping Race Gap” is in the players…68% are black, 28% white, 4% other. The same NFL players who kneel at the flag claiming minorities in America are downtrodden and oppressed. No wonder viewership is down?
Diversity requires one group of humans to say they are different from another group of humans which is a false statement.
Mish, I’m African American…been following you for about 10 years now. Escaped Chicago in 2013. I think all everyone ask for is a fair shot.
Not true.
Is it a fair shot when a musician attempting to be hired by a symphony plays the requested piece of music behind a no see screen?
Agreed. A fair shot is what America’s about.
That is right, but you have to define what you mean by “a shot”. A shot at gaining education to apply, or applying, or by gaining a position, or at deciding who gets a position, for example. There is discrimination of all kinds everywhere, that is what people are, they have preferences and dislikes and we are all subject to that of others, one way or another. My own view is that rejection by another is either their loss, or for the good of both. So I don’t complain of discrimination. It is often obviously small minded, but if that is how people are or choose to be, well probably we are better off in another environment, being our own architects with what is fairly available to us. That is no small quantity in modern times, I think we should be thankful for the possibilities that do exist that our forebears never could have dreamed of, and just act responsibly with those. I’m not black btw, or from any “marginal group”, but pointless discrimination I am very familiar with, as well as its more ugly relative, persecution. Have to be wise enough not to get caught up in it, because that is own loss – we are wasting time telling others how they should be, though if they are obviously unkind there is no crime in letting them know either.
What percentage of NFL payers are black?
Is it 60%, or even higher?
Because they are over-represented by a factor of at least 5-to-1, does that mean that the coaching ranks must be equally skewed?
The diversity initiative has created discord in my office, which has reduced productivity. My manager barely got into an engineering program and barely graduated with an engineering degree, he should not be the first to assess the competence of candidates. Despite those known facts, he never invited members of staff to interview candidates whom they would be mentoring. As a result, we have people who should never have been hired, sucking valuable productive time from those who can produce.
Adding to that, there are many members of staff who will retire in the next 24 months. Since they were excluded from the interview process and are disgusted with the skill level / work ethic of their understudies, they certainly are not putting forth enough effort to train the next generation. You might think that’s enough time to bring new people up to speed; but not in a highly regulated, bureaucratic company where it takes at least 3 to 4 years.
I would like add that I would prefer co-workers / management who are average chess players than tic-tac-toe champions.
Interesting anecdote. But we can’t build public policy on your personal view of your personal workplace, believe it or not.
The term “Hispanic” is extremely imprecise, apparently encompassing black, brown, Asian, white, purple, etc. people with a Spanish surname or descending from someone with a Spanish surname. Therefore, GIGO results when attempting to measure anything with such a floppy definition. If the attempt is to measure a non-white population, “Hispanic” fails. A more accurate definition would be Spanish Indian or Spanish native American. However, unlike American Indians, Spanish Indians and their descendants do not need to provide proof of tribal membership. Anyone, like white man Bob Menendez, can claim to be a Hispanic minority, no proof required. If Elizabeth Warren had enacted this strategy, she might be president. “Latino” is also inadequate, and several Latino countries are almost purely white. And Quebec is accurately described to be a Latino country, but is not considered as such. It is also unprecedented to utlize European colonization to create a definition of a minority group. Are the Irish and folks from India the same group because of colonization by England? We should not be forced into following such nonsense, due to the shame of Mayans and other Indians who would wish to be identified as anything but.
im all for equality of death in wars and the workplace (currently 97% males die in wars and 92% of deaths in the workplace)
so today now
can we pass laws in all countries that in the next war that women and men with have to go to the front line in equal numbers
NO EXCUSES
That is where we are trying to get to. But it isn’t fair that a small number of well connected men and a smaller number of well connected women should be the only ones starting wars, yet everybody else (except them) has to fight them.
So let’s put all the kids of senators, Presidents, etc. into the front line of any war, regardless of color, gender, or any other characteristic, and see how many wars they start.
Doing that, in addition to getting out of the way of everyone stocking up on the same guns those well connecteds get to avail themselves of, and we just about may be starting to get somewhere useful.
Better to arm the politicians with medieval weapons and let them have at it.
I like that idea a lot. Let them put their own lives at the same risk they are willing to put others.
The goal of progressivism, is simply to ensure all outcomes are solely determined by policy. And not in any way, shape nor form, by anything even resembling individual merit. That’s it. All of the above mentioned silliness, makes all the sense in the world, once you’ve got your base model and requirements calibrated for reality. It only seems strange if you don’t.
This is no different from maintaining a Fed, an overgrown government, activist judiciaries, runaway “democracy” and all the other progressive pathologies. All which are also there, solely to facilitate shifting control of economic resources: From those competent and productive enough to create them, to middlebrow progressive leeches who are not. This is why banks are bailed out; why incomes rather than property is taxed; why state enabled ambulance chasers on the make are arbitrarily empowered to tun roughshod over contracts (and lack thereof); why arms sales are restricted (to those not directly beholden to the progressive leeches themselves, of course); why productive people are being forced to fund universal indoctrination of children to believe in obvious drivel from “Climate Change” to “Reparations” to “womens suffrage”; why central banks are around to debase the competent and hand the spoils to barely literate banksters; lawyers and other connected backmarkers devoid of any real merit nor usefulness etc., etc. etc.
There are a million slightly different means by which to rob someone competent in order to hand his output to connected idiots. None of them differ even one iota, in their real effect nor intention. But they do serve as a shield of obfuscation, obviously able to divert the attentions of the uncritical and well indoctrinated: From the rather obvious fact that the one and only meaningful effect of the entire pyramid of blatant nonsense, is just about wealth and power transfer: From competent individuals, to a progressive leeching class of undifferentiated middlebrows, clinging desperately, and by any and all meas necessary, to all the unearned privilege their self righteous middlebrow selves manage to cling to.
“The goal of progressivism, is simply to ensure all outcomes are solely determined by policy.”
The goal of progressivism is progress, the driver of change in our society.
Progress has been somewhat beneficial: medicine (progressed from leaches to antibiotics), electricity (thanks again progress), and cars (yet more progress), just to scratch the surface.
Why don’t you just go find a field and live in a self built hut and you can live in a progress free paradise. You will likely be very lonely, because most other people love progress and progressivism.
The wonders of newspeak……….
Political progressivism does not, despite what gullible newspeak adherents are told to mindlessly regurgitate ad infinitum, have anything to do with “progress”, per se. Instead, it postulates that the “progress” you speak so highly of, can be legislated. As in, achieved by political dictat. By Dear Leader telling everyone else what to do, as well as how much they have to fork over to him, for the “privilege” of being told what to do. That’s the reality of progressivism. Not childish, feelgood platitudes about how those who are not uncritically pumping their fists for The People’s Republic, somehow “being against” “The People.”
Left alone, like free people, people make progress in the areas they, themselves care to make progress in. That’s real progress. While progressivism, is the exact opposite. Newspeak notwithstanding.
The problem is “progress” is subjective.
Progressives noticed that teacher certification tests had some races passing at higher rates than other races. They changed the test to take out “cultural bias,” but the same disparities existed.
So….progressives simply dumbed down the test to allow more people of certain races to pass and thus become teachers.
Progressives then pat themselves on their back at the progress of getting more underrepresented minorities as teachers.
Sure it is nice to have more role models of different races, but is it really progress to dumb down an already too easy to pass test?
Progressives literally lowered the academic quality threshold of teachers in the name of progress. What about the students? Most of these subpar academically teachers will wind up teaching in poor and minority school districts.
Isn’t that just setting those kids to be further behind academically? But look at progress not in terms of academic results, but in judging people by their skin color!
Progressivism is the codename for Marxism in the US. Marxism is not acceptable to American ears. I heard a Marxist say it himself.
There are a great many ways to make a living in the United States. Being a professional basketball player is high on the visibility scale, but invisible on the % of Americans scale. By my calculation, there are 450 NBA players, and many aren’t even American. There are 375,000,000 other Americans … approximately. You do the math.
OK, so in the NBA we pretty much have a meritocracy, and lo and behold, it results in an overweight of African-Americans.
A definite hypothesis could be that there are some genetic characteristics of African-Americans that lead to this outcome. But, obviously, the first thing to do is to rule out any cultural factors. For example, New Zealand are always at or very near the top for Rugby, despite being a nation with just about everything going against them (few nearby neighbors to learn new things from, tiny population, poor by other rugby nation standards). But rugby is central to their culture, and they kick ass.
So, even if we rule out cultural factors, we are still saying that on minuscule (450 NBA players in an American population of 375,000,000) section of our society it helps to have an African-American genetic background.
What about the rest of America.
Please drop this meme Mish, when you think twice, you know it is beneath you.
You seem to be accepting of the claim that “it helps to have an African-American genetic background” in terms of NBA prospects. If so, then you naturally would accept the claim that other races have some “genetic backgrounds” that make it “helpful” in other areas?
I don’t think race should be used to discriminate or favor on opportunities. Let everyone have a fair chance at life.
In terms of Rugby…very few countries on earth have kids playing rugby as their primary sport from a young age. That right there gives New Zealand a leg up in the sport. New Zealand is better than the US at rugby, because they have young kids groomed into the sport. Our young kids are groomed into football, baseball, basketball, etc…
I don’t get your comment on New Zealand being poor by other rugby nation standards… 1st of all poverty doesn’t matter much, many of the best athletes come from poverty. Croatia made it to the World Cup championship game with poverty by European standards and as a country of only 4 million people. 2nd of all, New Zealand has a GDP per capita on par with Japan, South Korea, and Italy….New Zealand is a country with a nice standard of living.
Hi Moon:
Maybe I’m not making my point clearly – I’m trying to avoid talking about genetics in a detailed manner. But here goes.
Height is one aspect of genetics we happen to understand better than most – if we are given a genetic sequence for an individual, we have trained models to predict height to within an inch. This is because when we applied advanced statistical tools to a large number of people’s genomes whose height we did know, the model identified particular positions where height was “coded” for (it isn’t anything like as simple as that, even for height, just so you know). So we happen to have a situation where we understand the link between a genetic pattern and a human characteristic. Couple that with the fact that height is a key driver of success in the NBA and we have one sport where genetics can have an impact.
I contrasted this with rugby, where New Zealand would not be an obvious choice as dominant. Sports like rugby adhere to a fairly simple pattern of success identified first in soccer – that nations with more people (bigger pool of players to pull from), richer (have money to invest in training the kids) and are close to multiple other soccer nations (can spread ideas and have continuous competition at a high level to force innovation) tend to perform best on the World stage. New Zealand is not blessed with the standard advantages, but the model is also susceptible to culture – and as you point out, the best young kids in New Zealand are funneled into well organized rugby from an early age.
Thus my point is that even in a sport where a single human characteristic has an inordinate impact (height in basketball) we need to make sure there are no obvious cultural or other advantages that can partially, or maybe fully, explain the outcome.
So let’s look at the NBA and African-american dominance, but instead of race (which is a cultural term, not a genetic term ) let’s look at height and ask two questions:
Is there a higher percentage of people over 6′ 8″ in the African-American community wrt to other American communities and America as a whole?
Are African-Americans who are over 6′ 8″ tall disproportionately represented in the NBA?
Q1: Is there a higher percentage of people over 6′ 8″ in the African-American community wrt to other American communities and America as a whole?
Most analysis of height in America are granular to the decile level at best (i.e. the 90th percentile for White and Black Americans in a CDC study showed little difference in height) so it seems that genetics is not at play here, unless there is a long tail for height patterns in African-Americans that has not been teased out in the data. However there are other angles of speculation based on genetic diversity – black Africans are claimed to have the most genetic diversity of any human sub-population and thus have the smallest people (e.g. Baka Pygmies, and Khoisan) as well as the tallest (Dinka, Nuer, other Nilotic Groups and some Sahelian groups like the Fulani). So it is not outside the bounds of possibilities that there are long tails in the genetics statistics in more genetically diverse groups. As a side note, it has also been speculated that the upper-Nilotic Groups moved up the Nile and were originally caucasians, and thus that most NBA players are caucasians – caucasian is not synonymous with “white skin”, but I digress.
Net net – there is no direct evidence that African-American communities have more people over 6′ 8″, but it is possible.
Q2: Are African-Americans who are over 6′ 8″ tall disproportionately represented in the NBA?
Let’s take the “American” part of “African-American” first – basketball is a much more popular sport in America than in most of the rest of the World. And just like rugby in New Zealand, American kids who display early talent (and height) are often given much more encouragement and support than in other countries. So at the national level there is a cultural bias for American kids over other kids. It is not inconceivable that there is also a cultural bias within African-American communities that favors basketball and other sports over other careers because sports are more popular in general in the community. Sticking with antipodean examples, the Australians are sports crazy, and outperform their expected level at a wide range of sports despite their relative isolation and small population.
Stepping back from basketball, and sports in general, to the rest of society: as I pointed out using the NBA stats, the number of people in America who make their living in sports as athletes is pretty small in percentage terms (e.g. there are about 480,000 NCAA althetes, of which only a small percentage move to the professional level). Since we have no clear way to analyze the impact of genetics on the most simple example, basketball, we should be very careful about applying any patterns in a tiny percentage of people to America as a whole – just as there are a tiny number of pro athletes, there are far more ways to make a living in America than via pro Sports.
I’d advise Mish against adopting a line of argument that relies on a tiny percentage of people in a tiny percentage of occupations. With a few minutes of analysis any extrapolations turn out to be very tenuous, and I’m being generous.
“Height is one aspect of genetics we happen to understand better than most – if we are given a genetic sequence for an individual, we have trained models to predict height to within an inch.”
#1 Besides height, genetics is proven as fact to play a significant role in the physical structure of the human brain leading to intelligence, personality, fast twitch muscles, testosterone levels, among many other things.
#2 Even with these things being genetic other factors do play a role like culture, diet, etc… For example, proper diet can boost height or hinder it. In the US Civil War most soldiers were between 5’6” and 5’8”. Genetics didn’t improve for height over this relatively short time frame. The diet improved for height.
“Stepping back from basketball, and sports in general, to the rest of society: as I pointed out using the NBA stats, the number of people in America who make their living in sports as athletes is pretty small in percentage terms (e.g. there are about 480,000 NCAA althetes, of which only a small percentage move to the professional level). Since we have no clear way to analyze the impact of genetics on the most simple example, basketball, we should be very careful about applying any patterns in a tiny percentage of people to America as a whole – just as there are a tiny number of pro athletes, there are far more ways to make a living in America than via pro Sports.
I’d advise Mish against adopting a line of argument that relies on a tiny percentage of people in a tiny percentage of occupations. With a few minutes of analysis any extrapolations turn out to be very tenuous, and I’m being generous.”
Kids all over the country and even much of the world play basketball. Basketball players are not limited to the NBA. Don’t most kids play some sports even if unorganized on the recess playground? If they excel they tend to try out for the junior high team, if they excel there they move on to the high school team, and so on…?
But Mish wasn’t extrapolating for players in the NBA, but rather NFL coaches to the comparison of the population as a whole (ignoring gender in affirmative action within the NFL head coaches). It is the affirmative action pushers who argue that NFL head coaches should be more diverse, Mish is pointing out they are ignoring other diversity – which is a fair point.
18 year old males must register for the draft, females do not. Other genders I’m not sure.
Loony times.
Mish, wow. Tread carefully! You are white, straight and male, sharing verboten facts.
yep, streng verboten, my freund
Hey Mish, don’t forget Native Americans….the original oppressed minority!
We East Asians are way underrepresented in sports, entertainment and politics. Many of us came to US as slaves long ago. SJW are so hypocritical that they care only of the protected class and suppress another long suffering race (especially by trying to reduce our opportunity for education).
I came to US for liberty. Unfortunately, liberty has left US long ago. And SJW openly embrace lies. I may see complete collapse of Western Civilization, very unfortunately.
What’s next white basketball players who can’t jump or shoot hoops?
You are inviting a major SJW backlash.