The Ringer has 19 people writing about the NBA

zing!

 

Some are even less. Conn is a general longfrom guy. Ryan and Litman are editors, podcasters and writers who span pop culture and a few sports (but have a passion for the NBA). Sherman was hired primarily for college football.

 

This yeilds an interesting question, is tokenism for tokenism’s sake good enough? And is this actually about the larger problem, or is it about throwing stones? Let put it this way, if that list included one black person, would it not be an issue? Or would the post just read “Really Bill, only ONE black person covering the NBA?”

The list of 19 is (I think) 10 white men, six men of color, three women. Not ideal, though not the worst in a white male-dominated industry.

Now this is all symptomatic of the fact this job is in a lot of ways bullshit. It slants toward some level of privilege, especially for young people coming in. Becuase of the history of our country, that slants toward white folks, sadly.

Then you have competive factors, like the fact there’s literally a site that was launched as the black Grantland. Since many places want black talent to avoid this kind of criticism, and at the moment the supply seems somewhat limited, it stands to reason, some places will have a paucity of Black faces. And while that sucks, Bill Simmons’ dopey self hiring a black movie writer who is a guest on “Sources Say” every other week isn’t actually an answer to anything.

 

Presumably - especially for someone of Simmons' stature, and the Ringer's reach and breadth - there are alternatives to "tokenism."

 

I echo that take on privilege. Used to be you got a broader spectrum of socioeconomic experiences in the business. That’s less and less true. The industry pays so little that, to be young and be in it, it helps to have parents who can, you know, pay for their lives.

 

And let’s face it, if you grew up with less, and you have the skills to earn more while working less and have more security, the choice isn’t that hard.

 

However true these observations may or may not be about the macroeconomic imperatives of African-Americans; or 21st century business models; or unpaid internships, etc., ad inf., things don't change unless we change them.

If we want more African-American journalists - and we do - we have to help create them.

If Mr. Simmons is reading here, he can reach out to the sports journalism program at Morehouse College. Begun by Ralph Wiley and endowed by Spike Lee and Charles Barkley, I'm sure they'd love to help staff up the Ringer.

Morehouse College | Journalism and Sports Program

 

I wondered the same thing. My guess is to get a writer for each team.

 

Who cares what race they are, honestly? Why does everything have to come with a “yeah but” if they don’t check off x amount of diversity boxes? And why can’t you just go read NBA content somewhere else if you don’t like it?

 

A lot of people.

 

74% of NBA players in 2015 (last stat I could find) were black.

0% of Ringer's NBA crew is black.

Good one, Simmons.

You have to try really hard to accomplish that.

 

Well then I guess this whole messageboard is a sham since we don’t know what race the posters are