Posted on 08/12/2010 10:54:55 PM PDT by jazusamo
The bean-counters have struck again— this time in the sports pages. Two New York Times sport writers have discovered that baseball coaches from minority groups are found more often coaching at first base than at third base. Moreover, third-base coaches become managers more often than first-base coaches.
This may seem to be just another passing piece of silliness. But it is part of a more general bean-counting mentality that turns statistical differences into grievances. The time is long overdue to throw this race card out of the deck and start seeing it for the gross fallacy that it is.
At the heart of such statistics is the implicit assumption that different races, sexes and other subdivisions of the human species would be proportionately represented in institutions, occupations and income brackets if there was not something strange or sinister going on.
Although this notion has been repeated by all sorts of people, from local loudmouths on the street to the august chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States, there is not one speck of evidence behind it and a mountain of evidence against it.
Ask the bean-counters where in this wide world have different groups been proportionally represented. They can't tell you. In other words, something that nobody can demonstrate is taken as a norm, and any deviation from that norm is somebody's fault!
Anyone who has watched football over the years has probably seen at least a hundred black players score touchdowns— and not one black player kick the extra point. Is this because of some twisted racist who doesn't mind black players scoring touchdowns but hates to see them kicking the extra points?
At our leading engineering schools— M.I.T., CalTech, etc.— whites are under-represented and Asians over-represented. Is this anti-white racism or pro-Asian racism? Or are different groups just different?
As for baseball, I have long noticed that there are more blacks playing centerfield than third-base. Since the same people hire centerfielders and third-basemen, it is hard to argue that racism explains the difference.
No one says it is racism that explains why blacks are over-represented and whites under-represented in basketball. Bean-counters only make a fuss when there is a disparity that fits their vision or their agenda.
Years ago, a study was made of the ethnic make-up of military forces in countries around the world. Nowhere was the ethnic make-up of the military the same as the ethnic make-up of the population, or even close to the same.
Nearly half the pilots in the Malaysia's air force were from the Chinese minority, rather than the Malay majority. In Nigeria, most of the officers were from the southern tribes and most of the enlisted men were from the northern tribes. Similar disparities have been common among various groups in many places.
In countries around the world, all sorts of groups differ from each other in all sorts of ways, from rates of alcoholism to infant mortality, education and virtually everything that can be measured, as well as in some things that cannot be quantified. If black and white Americans were the same, they would be the only two groups on this planet who are the same.
One of the things that got us started on heavy-handed government regulation of the housing market were statistics showing that blacks were turned down for mortgage loans more often than whites. The bean-counters in the media went ballistic. It had to be racism, to hear them tell it.
What they didn't tell you was that whites were turned down more often than Asians. What they also didn't tell you was that black-owned banks also turned down blacks more often than whites. Nor did they tell you that credit scores differed from group to group. Instead, the media, the politicians and the regulators grabbed some statistics and ran with them.
The bean-counters are everywhere, pushing the idea that differences show injustices committed by society. As long as we keep buying it, they will keep selling it— and the polarization they create will sell this country down the river.
” Nearly half the pilots in the Malaysia’s air force were from the Chinese minority, rather than the Malay majority “
LOL....The most successful people in Malaysia are the Chinese and the transplants from india. The Malays (bumiputeras” are very nice people, but they are almost inherently not ambitious. As one who lived there and did business there, I can attest to this.
Asians are also better at mathematics than us honkys. M.I.T. would be almost 100% asian, if they went by merit alone.
Life isn’t equal, and neither is talent. Sowell can live with it, and I can too.
Well said...Yes, Sowell can live with it and is not hesitant to speak out about it.
Wow.
Few people speak as frankly about racial issues as Dr. Sowell.
Most of us have had enough of quotas and the concept of equal outcome. That is, equal opportunity is not enough; we should expect equal success in each area of life as well.
Racism is a terrible thing, but it is not the cause of all inequalities, as Sowell astutely points out.
yitbos
Tom is about as close to being a perfect American as I can conjure up. I may get a chance to meet him this fall, as my attorney in Palo Alto is a good frind of his. If I am that fortunate, I will endeavor to post the conversation as best I can.
Thanks for the Ping.
Yes you can....especially if you are devoid of morals or ethics, or a thug or sociopath like Obama ;-)
LOL - I never thought of that. But I do have one point of correction. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers once had Donald Igwebuike (below), to my knowledge the only black place kicker in NFL history - unless the late Reggie Roby did it.
Where are the 4'2" Asian women basketball players?
Wasicsm!!!!!!!!
Everything he writes is a keeper, isn’t it?
thanks jaz...simple truths from the Dr...
The bean-counters are everywhere, pushing the idea that differences show injustices committed by society.
The article reminds me of a statistics course I took. For the introductory lecture the professor talked about the misuse of statistics, specifically disease “hot spots”; areas where a disease is more common than in other places. He dropped a large handful of beans on his desk – they didn’t evenly scatter but had several clusters; “hot spots”. He pointed out that some clusters were just random, not the result of any problems.
The bean counters in the article take “All men are created equal” to the absurd. Yes, all men are created equal under the law. There it ends. Genetics plays a part and I firmly believe culture plays an even bigger role.
The “injustice” noted in the article are created by the culture of the people involved, not by society at large. Who are the heroes of the NFL? Quarterbacks and running backs, not place kickers. Why the imbalance in engineering schools? Asian kids seem to be more interested in actually producing things, white kids seem more interested in high pay areas like money management and business administration.
Definition: RACIST - anyone who disagrees with Liberal Democrat Dogma.
“Tom is about as close to being a perfect American as I can conjure up.”
Absolutely! As he says, he was born with four strikes against him: black, poor, in the South and during the Depression. Yet he’s the essence of the American dream and gives the lie to everything the race baiters are saying.
Reading Dr. Sowell’s Article Today had me laughing Out Loud and shaking my head at the same time.
Almost gave myself a seizure. @:-P
I love you, Dr. Sowell! :)
I certainly hope you do get to meet Dr. Sowell and will appreciate you posting about it here, he is a great American.
So very true, onyx. So simple a statement but I never thought of it that way. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.