
January 23rd / 25th, 2009
"Black Coaches Victims of Jim Crow"
Several years ago Gene Cheek appeared on Triad Today
to promote his book, “The Color of Love”. His is the compelling true story
of a white boy growing up in the Jim Crow South with a white mother and a
black step-father.
Back then, and prior to 1967, interracial marriages were illegal in many
states, including North Carolina. Cheek’s biological father had been
physically abusive, leading his mother to seek a divorce. Eventually she fell in love
with a black man and bore him a son. Soon after the birth of Gene’s step-brother,
a Forsyth County judge deemed Mrs. Cheek to be an unfit mother, and
ordered that 12-year-old Gene be removed from the home. In time, North
Carolina became civilized and women like Beth Cheek were eventually allowed to marry
outside of their race without fear of retribution. And as the laws changed,
so did attitudes.
A 2007 Gallup poll reported that 77% of Americans approved of interracial
marriages (compared to only 4% in 1958), and in 2008, 43% of white voters
elected a black man to live in a very White House. Yet, despite the apparent
progress made in race relations, prejudice and discrimination are alive and
well, especially in the Deep South.
The latest manifestation of that problem is the controversy over the dearth
of black head coaches in major college football programs. Late last year,
Auburn University came under fire from civil rights activists for hiring Iowa
coach Gene Chizik, a white man with a losing record, over Turner Gill, a
black coach with a winning record at Buffalo.
At first, the criticisms and commentaries focused solely on the issue of
discrimination based on race, that is, until ESPN broke the story within the
story. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach reported that two SEC coaches had told him that
Gill would never get the Auburn job because he is married to a white woman.
Their predictions proved accurate.
Shortly thereafter, Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, an African-American,
told the Orlando Sentinel that he had been passed over for every
head coaching job he applied for with Southern universities because his wife
is white.
Clearly, white administrators and white alumni sports boosters rule college
football in the South, and until that dynamic changes, men like Gill and
Strong will continue to lose job opportunities, not because they are black, but
because they didn’t marry within their own race.
Certainly we have come a long way since the days when little Gene Cheek was
taken from his white mother because she had taken up with a black man. But,
sadly, those same prevailing sentiments and prejudices have taken longer to
die out than we had hoped. The Black Coaches Association has filed a lawsuit
to force major college football programs to hire more head coaches of color.
But even if that effort results in a few more campuses opening their doors to
black coaches, the nearly unspoken problem of prejudice against interracial
marriages will continue. That’s because you cannot legislate for tolerance
or against ignorance.
It is ironic that our new president is, himself, a product of an interracial
marriage, so I am hopeful he will make good on one of his promises. Early
on in his campaign, Obama pledged to sit down with our enemies and effect
change. Well, I know where he should start. Instead of flying to Iran or
Cuba, I think he should hop a plane down to Alabama, and make those Jim Crow
college leaders eat some crow while he shames them into the 21st
century, and threatens to pull their federal funding if they don’t toe the line.
How poetic it would be for a mixed-race president to perform a shotgun
wedding between white racists and black coaches.
Such reform is long over due, and an executive order could speed the
process.
The South may be strong on school ties, but who you tie the knot with
should have no bearing on employment.
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