Q: OK fine! There's a lot of racism! But we can't do anything about it! You can't change hearts and minds! I've flipped from denial to helplessness! Talking about racism depressed me and makes me feel bad, because we can't do anything about it! So, can you stop talking about it?
A: No, we won't stop talking about it. Yes, we can do something about it. Let's look at one specific example of a reduction in racism, driven by racists themselves! 🙂🙃
This man is Bear Bryant. Bear Bryant was a football coach at Alabama in the 60s. Alabama was a very racist place.
Alabama had a "whites-only" rule for their team. Black high school football players from Alabama were denied the opportunity to play for their closest major University.
(Note: Yes, I've said in other places that playing college football itself is racist and exploitative. But also, not being able to play college football because of your race, is also racist! 🙂🙃 It's complicated...)
Bear Bryant is no kind of civil rights activist. He's a football coach, which means he barely cares for white players. 🤷🏿♂️ But he knew something no one else did...
Alabama was not as good as everyone thought they were. They were only one of the best in their all-white conference.
The best Black high school football players from Alabama and across the South, went to California to play college football. But California doesn't even live, breathe, and dream football! Bunch of hippies. Soft.
Alabama would probably smoke USC if they played them. Right?
USC had a Black quarterback, a Black running back, and a Black full-back.
A stadium full of racist Alabama fans, suddenly realized that the SEC was no longer the best conference in football, and that you can no longer win a football national championships with an all-white team.
Another overlooked benefit of being able to support talent from all backgrounds: Your talent from privileged backgrounds becomes higher talent. Wait, what?🤔
In the front row of the team picture see number 77. That's Big Matt Womack. He's an NFL body beating up on college kids.
He doesn't need Alabama to be a whites-only team for him to earn a starting spot.
He can compete with Black kids. Polynesian kids. Vikings imported directly from Iceland. Nebraska farmland strong kids. Doesn't matter.
This is not "Black people are better athletes." That's an incorrect interpretation.
Good football players are extreme outliers of physical attributes and athletic abilities. Winning at football is about recruiting the best talent.
Football teams that apply a filter of race, cannot match the talent level of teams that do not have such filters. A team that refuses to recruit white players, or refuses to recruit Black players, cannot compete with a team that recruits players of any background. 👍🏿
Alabama football desegregation was not driven by Black players or fans, or by civil rights activists. It was driven by racist football fans, who decided that racism was important, but winning football games was a little more important.
Understanding the incentives in the system, can allow us to understand the leverage points to change the outcomes.
Alabama fans may not have been any less racist after the team desegregated. But the outcomes for high school players in Alabama improved. 👍🏿
Harder to see: A similar advantage is to be had in having the head coach selection process be less racist.
Call me a cynic, but I don't think appeals to decency will result in less racism. I think "appeals to things that the system values more than racism" work better.
So in the case of pro football:
"More racism, but less Superbowl!" Or "Less racism, more Superbowl!" Take your pick!😃
Even harder to see: A similar advantage of being less racist is to be had in every aspect of US society. 👍🏿
@mekkaokereke oh completely! i explained DEI programs to my conservative family, but framed it in terms of DEI being pro-business. they made an instantaneous 180 and i no longer hear those anti-DEI rants from them
@kellogh@mekkaokereke When it's positioned as political correctness taking jobs from the best candidate, it's easy to dislike. I work for an international advertising holding company. It's REAL easy to see just how critical diversity is in my profession. Messaging and products that don't match the cultures we sell to will always under-perform.
@deborahh@timbray@mekkaokereke
1% is massive. Say 8 billion global, that’s 40mn women. That’s equivalent to the entire cities of New York, London and Paris all suddenly having massive complications. Every single person.
@mekkaokereke so it's self-serving... but that's ok because the whole point is, racism isn't just morally bad, it's self-sabotage. diversity is strength and monocultures are fragile.
and maybe with that fait accompli, attitudes can follow. well... working on that…
@paulcox Yes. Because racism is a lie that's much easier to maintain with a little distance. There were at least some Alabama players whose first sustained exposure to a real live Black person was on that team. At least a few of them became less racist as a result of those encounters.
In general, having close Black coworkers does a lot to reduce racism.
Which is part of why there is less anti-Black sentiment among working class white folks, than wealthy white folks.🙂🙃
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