The Offensive Obvious

A wild stir of controversy recently started when Air Force football coach, Fisher DeBerry, stated that he thought his football program suffered due to a lack of African American athletes. He said the following:

“It’s very obvious to me the other day that the other team had a lot more Afro-American players than we did, and they ran a lot faster than we did. It just seems to be that way, that Afro-American kids can run very, very well. That doesn’t mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can’t run, but it’s very obvious to me they run extremely well."

All of this resulted in a fine for DeBerry, with many calling for his firing due to the offensive comments. But, wait, wasn’t DeBerry just stating the obvious?

Anyone who watches football knows that the majority of players are African American. Furthermore, over 90% of Wide Receivers and Running Backs (speed positions) are African American. So.

Yes, they are faster.

And, no, that’s not racism.

Acknowledging that one race differs from another when looking at the aggregate is not a form of racism. Now, does that mean every African American is fast while everyone else

is slow? Of course not. However, it does not change the fact that, on the aggregate, African Americans are faster. You can’t complain of bigotry when someone is simply stating a fact.

Now, some scream that the reasons that African Americans are faster are entirely social, and DeBerry is still being offensive by implying otherwise. However, he didn’t imply otherwise. He simply said that “Afro-American kids can run very, very well.” And, guess what, on the aggregate, they do. Again, it’s just a fact.

Still, honestly, I think anyone who argues that the apparent African American athletic superiority is entirely social is being clearly ignorant of the facts so they can cling to their notions of all races being equal. However, these same people fail to understand a key point: Differences do not equal inequality. Nor do they equal inferiority. I can understand racial sensitivity given the horrendous history of our country, however, preventing people from stating the obvious does nothing but contribute to the problem. Anyone who doesn’t recognize that African American athletes are faster (on average) is just being ignorant.

And ignorance is what causes racism in the first place.</spa

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