No White Sports Journalist
could write this opinion piece and keep his job. Fortunately Jason Whitlock is African American because he makes a very interesting argument.
It’s already starting to happen. A little-publicized fact is that the Colts and the Patriots — the league’s model franchises — are two of the whitest teams in the NFL. If you count rookie receiver Anthony Gonzalez, the Colts opened the season with an NFL-high 24 white players on their 53-man roster. Toss in linebacker Naivote Taulawakeiaho “Freddie” Keiaho and 47 percent of Tony Dungy’s defending Super Bowl-champion roster is non-African-American. Bill Belichick’s Patriots are nearly as white, boasting a 23-man non-African-American roster, counting linebacker Tiaina “Junior” Seau and backup quarterback Matt Gutierrez.
Unfortunately I think Jason misses the underlying argument. I’m willing to bet really good money that its not that the Patriots and the Colts have more white players but rather that they have more players that were raised by two parents instead of one. In this way, race serves as a rough measure for how many parents raised a child.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:45 am
I’m unclear as to what your point is in this post, Steve. Are you saying that two-parent families are superior to one-parent families, that white families are disproportionately two-parent, or that the victimization status of a writer influences the standards of political correctness he/she is expected by his/her superiors to adhere to?
October 24th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
My point here is rather simple. A player behaving destructively towards the team is more likely to come from a single parent family. Statistics show that more African Americans are raised in a single parent home than Caucasians.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
You have data for the second point (statistics do show more single parent families among AAs). Do you have data for the first point? A player behaving destructively towards a team is more likely to come from a single parent family?
October 25th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Not the best source but I ran across it while reading the article.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:50 am
Interesting, very interesting, here was my hypothesis when I met YOU for the first time….: I was truly convinced (well, meanwhile I know better) that you were raised not by two parents, no, not by one parent, I believed that you were raised in a children’s home with NO contact to the outside world. As a matter of fact, I believed that you were raised by wolves….
Seriously - playing the game of touching the borders of political correctness, of racism in general, has proven to be a game with fire. I am a nice girl, and do not play these kinds of games, cause sooner or later, things start to smell funny.
October 26th, 2007 at 7:49 am
I asked how a player (raised by a single parent) is more destructive towards a team. Not a larger scale commentary on crime in this country. Whitlock is talking about players who are selfish. Not necessarily players who are in trouble with the law.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:31 am
You asked two questions. My response was related to your first question. I’m unaware of studies showing more selfishness in children raised in single parents homes. However, I have found in general this to be true though certainly not absolutely.
October 26th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I’m unsurprised that you thought I was not raised by two parents when you first meet me. Faced with outlandish loud personality for the first time many people erroneously conclude that I’m insecure fishing for attention. Ironically, its my confidence that is the cause of my outlandishness. I’m confident which enables me to behave more like I want in more situation then most.