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Black Coaches

ThrowBack13 said:
Well unlike most of you I am actually black. It is a big deal that two black coaches made it to the superbowl. The league has only been intergrated for 60 years. The first head black head coach was Art Shell in 1989. A lot of progress has been made. They haven't made a huge deal out of it.
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Exactly.
 
It is a big deal.

A far, far bigger deal than 99% of the storylines shoved at us during superbowl weeks.

Last year it was Jerome Bettis coming home. This blows that away in signifigance.

My suggestion to the original poster, and I mean just that, a suggestion, is to not assume that everyone has gotten to see the world through your point of view. Just as you have probably gone through things that most of us who haven't can't understand... I think it is safe for you to assume that other people have had different experiences with the world than you have.

It's not a big deal to you because you never had to think about what race the coach was. You grew up with the idea that you could conceivably be anything you wanted. It wouldn't have even occured to you that you couldn't be president or a football coach or anything else because of your color.

A lot of people didn't have that luxury. I can see it being a very big deal for a kid to look up and see that two people who look like him are not just at the Superbowl but IN CHARGE.

It is a big deal.

And all of this goes for other minorities or women or whatever. As a rule, if you never had to worry about it, don't get bothered when those that did have to worry about it get excited when milestones are passed.

I understand the frustration of people who don't consider themselves racist faced with the residue of racism they don't see as their fault... but you know what? It really wasn't very long ago that women and minorites couldn't even vote. And even less long ago when they had zero chance of getting some jobs.

Give it some time. It gets better all the time.
 
Metal Panda said:
You, as well as many others in the forum, have missed the point.

Yes...a society that did not look at the race or color of one's skin of each individual would be great. Yes, it is something we should strive for.

No, it is not a world we live in. And it's not just in America. The playing field is still not equal.

African American coaches have found themselves under the microscope over the years a hell of a lot more than white coaches, the same as Black quarterbacks. They have had a harder time gaining employment, and often times are the victim of backhanded racist quips (half of the Dolphins board I used to frequent called Lovie Smith the "Rooney Rule" interview when the Bears were interviewing him. God I'm glad they were proven wrong.)

So this truly is a milestone, and it is not reverse racism, because white coaches have never had to go through what Black coaches have. White America needs to quit finding excuses to be defensive, because truth be told, how hard have we had it? Yea, exactly.
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It's good that you know everything about white people. If you were the stereotypical white guy growing up in the subdivision with white picket fences you don't need to assume that was all of us. I can't speak for anybody else but I've worked hard for what I have, I guess I missed out on the free white people money or the free college education because I'm white. I ended up in the Army. The lieutenant colonel in charge of my unit is black and he's a fine leader IMO. He's a much better leader than the white commander that I actually had to go to war with. I get tired of being accused (whites in general, not me personally) of being threatened by the success of black people. Sure that may be the case sometimes but I think it's in the minority. I've seen other countries too and I know we are way ahead of them. Iraqi kids used to continuosly taunt black soldiers who were in the guard towers. It was eye opening for me. They would call them all kinds of bad stuff.
 
muscle979 said:
It's good that you know everything about white people. If you were the stereotypical white guy growing up in the subdivision with white picket fences you don't need to assume that was all of us. I can't speak for anybody else but I've worked hard for what I have, I guess I missed out on the free white people money or the free college education because I'm white. I ended up in the Army. The lieutenant colonel in charge of my unit is black and he's a fine leader IMO. He's a much better leader than the white commander that I actually had to go to war with. I get tired of being accused (whites in general, not me personally) of being threatened by the success of black people. Sure that may be the case sometimes but I think it's in the minority. I've seen other countries too and I know we are way ahead of them. Iraqi kids used to continuosly taunt black soldiers who were in the guard towers. It was eye opening for me. They would call them all kinds of bad stuff.
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Not to speak for metalpanda, but I think his point wasn't so much that white people don't face obstacles as it was that white people rarely face obstacles because of their whiteness. Being white is a disadvantage about one one thousandth as often as not being white be.

There are pleny of other ways life can be hard, I don't think metalpanda was saying otherwise.

Edited to add: I thought the rest of your post was really interesting.
 
ThrowBack13 said:
Well unlike most of you I am actually black. It is a big deal that two black coaches made it to the superbowl. The league has only been intergrated for 60 years. The first head black head coach was Art Shell in 1989. A lot of progress has been made. They haven't made a huge deal out of it.
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I understand this. We all know that everybody has the same rights now under law but understandably people want to see that that is the case in reality. This is proof that it now is the case. Everybody in the coaching field has an equal chance to be a champion head coach of an NFL team. At this point we need to do our best to shed feelings that we are in some kind of power struggle. That's not the case and it shouldn't feel that way.
 
nopony said:
Not to speak for metalpanda, but I think his point wasn't so much that white people don't face obstacles as it was that white people rarely face obstacles because of their whiteness. Being white is a disadvantage about one one thousandth as often as not being white be.

There are pleny of other ways life can be hard, I don't think metalpanda was saying otherwise.

Edited to add: I thought the rest of your post was really interesting.
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Maybe this wasn't what he was implying but the reality is that you are right about discrimination being a bigger problem for non-whites but on the same hand those people will look at me as a white guy and assume that I have had an easier life than they did and that I think I'm better than they are. I don't pretend that that is as difficult to deal with as being profiled by police or something but it's not nice either.
 
RonnFin46 said:
Before you all go crazy just listen to what I have to say. As you can obviously tell from my avatar I am not black. But I am not racist either, I have black friends and have nothing against black people or any other people. But one thing that does bother me is how everyone keeps talking about how Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are the first african-american coaches to make it to the superbowl. Thats great, seriously what an accomplishment. But we do not have to hear about it all the time, they are turning this into a race thing where its the black coaches vs the white coaches. It shouldnt be that way, they need to stop talking about races and talk about the teams. They should be proud of themselves that they were the first ones to do it, but thats enough. Its not really one for the record books and if I were an african-american person i would actually feel somewhat ashamed because it looks as if everything they do is is looked at with a microscope. They should be treated like people and because they are black they are making it like it is a bigger accomplishment than it really is. I mean yea they are going to the superbowl and dont get me wrong its a hell of an accomplishment. But they are blowing this race thing up too much. What do you guys think?
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I agree this is a about 2 good coaches and 2 good teams not the color of ones skin. Congrats on both coaches and teams to getting to the superbowl.
 
I think that it is known that they are the first black coaches to make it to the Superbowl. I do not think it should be ran in the ground on Super Bowl Sunday. These guys are terrific football coaches. I don't want to sound like I'm taking anything away from their accomplishments because I'm not. I'm sure they don't want to be remembered as the "black coaches," but instead as the coaches who led their teams to Super Bowl 41.
 
RonnFin46 said:
Before you all go crazy just listen to what I have to say. As you can obviously tell from my avatar I am not black. But I am not racist either, I have black friends and have nothing against black people or any other people. But one thing that does bother me is how everyone keeps talking about how Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are the first african-american coaches to make it to the superbowl. Thats great, seriously what an accomplishment. But we do not have to hear about it all the time, they are turning this into a race thing where its the black coaches vs the white coaches. It shouldnt be that way, they need to stop talking about races and talk about the teams. They should be proud of themselves that they were the first ones to do it, but thats enough. Its not really one for the record books and if I were an african-american person i would actually feel somewhat ashamed because it looks as if everything they do is is looked at with a microscope. They should be treated like people and because they are black they are making it like it is a bigger accomplishment than it really is. I mean yea they are going to the superbowl and dont get me wrong its a hell of an accomplishment. But they are blowing this race thing up too much. What do you guys think?
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I agree to an extent.

A buddy and I were talking about this. Actually We were talking about this issue before both Lovie and Dungy made the superbowl. I was basically stating how it could be possible that black coaches and black QB's are cursed from winning superbowls, obviously I was proved wrong this season.

My buddy made a good statement and he basically said that he doesn;t believe they are cursed, it's just the fact that there aren't that many black coaches to begin with. I tend to agree with that statement.

Personally, I think it's an accomplishment for the african-american communities. I am happy for them, but you're right, that shouldn't even be brought up.....

who cares about the color of coaches.
 
Pointing out skin color for anything, good or bad, is wrong and not what we need to focus on as a people. Simple as that. Sure, it seems important in the short term, but its so very shallow and ultimately irrelevant.
 
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