Posted on 06/10/2007 9:27:27 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
The departure of former University of Kentucky men's basketball coach Tubby Smith may have stifled the progress being made to improve race relations in Lexington, a community leader said yesterday.
Smith, who left in March to be the coach of the University of Minnesota, was among the topics discussed by community leaders during yesterday's Lexington Forum meeting.
The race issue surrounding Smith, the university's first black head basketball coach, came to the forefront when he was named as a candidate for the job. That was, in part, because there has been a longstanding debate about whether former UK head coach Adolph Rupp was a racist who resisted integration.
Smith said he left because he felt wanted in Minnesota.
P.G. Peeples, president and chief executive officer of the Lexington-Fayette Urban League, said he listens to basketball call-in radio shows and has heard some "bone-chilling and scary" things since Smith left.
"When Tubby Smith was hired as a coach, it was a galvanizing moment in the state of Kentucky," he said. "His departure has left a lot of concern in the minds of African-Americans as to whether he was ever truly supported during his tenure."
Peeples called for more awareness of how Kentucky is perceived in the country on social issues such as race.
"The nation looks at us," he said. "And I think, right now as a state, we have fulfilled the stereotype again."
The forum, made up of community leaders, convenes monthly to discuss local issues. It first discussed race in 1984.
In addition to Smith's departure, the panel also discussed the division among minorities, particularly within the Hispanic community.
Enario Romero, a member of the Lexington Hispanic Association, said one of the bigger barriers is "the language and the stereotype that has been placed on many Hispanics of being illegal."
Romero said many Hispanics also live in the same part of the city because of language separation and family connections, and this further divides them from other communities.
It's up to everyone to take an interest in incorporating all types of people and break divisions, he said.
"The majority wants everybody to kind of adjust to them, to learn their culture," Romero said. "I think there's a lot of people who are threatened or feel uneasy when they meet someone different."
Bingo. They loved him up there early on when he was kicking behind and taking names. He hit a dry spell and you don't do that at Kentucky without taking some heat. That is not fair, but that is just the way it is. Take that from someone living in Alabama. I've more than seen my fair share on ridiculous expectations. The shape of the ball is just a little different.
Tubby has been/was/is an excellent coach and he will continue to be. The peter principle just came into effect. Nothing more, nothing less.
The main problem with Kentucky hoops and Alabama football will always be there will be plenty out there that want to scream racism once any chance presents itself. That probably won't change in any of our lifetimes. Again, just the way it is.
Sorry he didn't work out for you, but as they say "your loss is our gain".
Compared to the coaching we've had in the recent past, he'll be both less corrupt and more competent. :)
That is a racist remark! Diversity makes us better! /s
Tubby Smith was not fired or forced to leave Kentucky at all. He made the decision, and it was the right one for everyone. I was one of his biggest fans but even I was ready for a change.
Tubby Smith won a championship with Rick Pitino’s recruits, and that was about it. The Urban League is just a league of morons anyway, who cares what they think, I don’t. He left on his own, and it seemed to me Tubby had a decade long honeymoon period,and got no where near the critique by press and fans that other coaches received. I am glad he is gone and I hope the era of coaches wives sitting at the games with Ashley Judd the abortionist shill are gone with him. I won’t say what the urban League can do with their illegal invader apologetics.
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