Minority sports reporters

Couldn't agree with you more.

This business needs to spend more time improving its product and less time getting involved in social engineering.

People of all races, creeds, colors and genders get screwed in journalism, largely because too many of the decision-makers are getting involved with nonsense that has nothing to do with producing the best possible product.

Sadly, there just aren't enough good or great gigs to go around for all the "qualified" people.

Regardless of demographic.

 

It's the opposite there, buster. The reality is, diversifying may be "social engineering" but, even more so, it's "improving its product." It's also in the best interest of product quality to diversity the newsroom, especially in sports departments.

 

Well in short, minorities don't just attend big j-schools. There is thing called Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I am a graduate of one and there are schools of talented minorities who attend these respected institutions. The problem is that sports editors only look at the resumes of people at Syracuse, Missouri, Northwestern and not adding the ones from Florida A&M, Hampton and Howard.

 

Buster? :

You state that like it's fact, but it's just opinion. Diversity for diversity's sake accomplishes nothing but diversity. Would the NBA be a better product with more white players? Not if the white players aren't any better than the ones they're replacing. Journalism needs the best talent it can get, period, be it black, white, brown, green, purple. The business needs more people like Michael Wilbon, not because he's black, but because of his talents, just as it needs more people like Joe Posnanski.

 

Buster, bro, fella, they're all the same.

Anyway, I agree that diversifying just to diversify does nothing. I don't think anyone would argue that. But the industry needs more Michael Wilbons, because he's black, much badly than it needs Joe Ponanskis

 

It is just as insulting for us white males to hear how we're being handed jobs as it is for black males and females of any race to hear that they are being handed jobs. Please keep that in mind as you post on this topic.

I'm a white male and I have worked my freaking ass off to get where I am. I don't like insinuations otherwise.

 

I don't think it's nearly as insulting. So you've got a newsroom with 20 white guys and one black guy and who do you think gets the stronger "He's only in his job because he's white/black vibe?"

I suggest you take that chip off the shoulderpads and chill.

 

No chip.

 

Well, I've been white all my life and never worried whether people thought I deserved my job or not.

 

Congratulations then.

I'm just trying to say that not every white male is automatically granted membership into the good ol' boys network.

I'm on the record somewhere here addressing the dangers of networking taking precedence over quality of work. I definitely think that undermines any diversity efforts. Papers think that they can post about 1 in 50 openings, hire a black guy and then pat themselves on the back about it. I get that.

But being white doesn't automatically give you access into the secret club. So, on some level, white people can empathize with being closed out.

 

Well, I can't argue with that, because I've never heard of Joe Ponanskis.

If you're telling me the industry needs more Michael Wilbons because he's a better columnist than Posnanski, fine. But if you're saying the industry needs more Wilbons because he's black, well, I think that's twisted.

 

Sigh ...

Just to bring another voice to Chick Writer's thought five pages back about following up on positions to see what happened to positions that were theoretically slotted:

I applied for a job once at a paper and was pretty much told by someone who knew the SE that they were targeting a diversity hire. But I kept checking in with the SE ... three different women/minorities turned down the position and the company eventually froze the position rather than hire a white male for the job. So, yeah, it happens. Trust me, I don't present this as another white male woe-is-me tale, just as an anecdote about something that I've experienced.

I'm all for the diversification of sports sections and newspapers in general. As I said earlier, there's hardly any color in my newsroom. All white, save for one Asian woman. We could certainly stand to diversify. But how do you do it? Look, when I was job searching, I kind of shied away from any job that hit Journalism Next a week before it hit JJobs. I figured my chances weren't going to be great because those were positions that were intended to be diversity hires. Good for those papers for recognizing a need for change. You can't (legally) tell white folks not to apply for jobs. You can't discount resumes you get because you can tell one woman is black and one man is white, seeing as that's kind of the reverse goal of affirmative action.

I just think no one should get a job based solely on color ... whether that color be white, red, Puerto Rican or Haitian (props to Phife Dawg). Though, if a sports editor discounts any applicant of color because he feels "uncomfortable" with them, he should be ashamed of himself. I thought we'd hit a day and age where you could truly make a colorblind hire. Joe Schmoe should be the best man for this job, not just because he's black and we want to diversify ... and on the same point, not just because he's white and we're more comfortable around white people.

Good lord, that was rambling ...