Race to the Finish

"Give me five players like (Jackie) Robinson and a pitcher and I'll beat any nine-man team in baseball." - Manager Charlie Dressen of Brooklyn Dodgers

As an aging sportsman, the Olympic torch protests all across the world disgust me. The Chinese treatment of Tibet is unquestionably horrible, but protests on carrying of the torch relays are ridiculous to say the least, and such protests do not achieve anything. All they do is to dishearten the athletes who work so hard to showcase their talents against their peers from across the world. Olympics should never be about politics. If you want to punish China, stop buying Chinese goods (that’s like 80% of what is sold in WalMart), stop wearing Chinese merchandise (chances are half of what you are wearing today is made in China) and only if you can, stop eating Chinese food.

Hitler standing in the bleachers on one fine day of 1936 Berlin Olympics must have urinated in his pants multiple times seeing an African American (Jesse Owens) leaving the ‘Superior Race’ in the dust for all sprints. Not only Owens set 6 world records (4 individual and 2 team); he did it all in 45 minutes. It is beyond imaginable. You have to be insane to believe that it can be done. Track is my life, here’re some facts: African Americans dominate Sprints; Africans (Ethiopians and Kenyans, and North Africans) dominate Long Distances. Whites have records in mid distances. What I am absolutely NOT saying is that “white man can’t run”, what I am saying, however, is that Black man can run better (in some distances). “Better” as in a combination of speed and strategy (i.e., physical and mental). My teenage sons can tell you 4x800 splits for 80 Moscow and 84 LA, even though they were not born until a decade after that. We get chills watching the re-runs of the races that were run over 30 years ago. That’s how deep we are in track. This article, sorry to say, is about a different kind of race.

Herrnstein and Murray dropped a bombshell (the Bell Curve) in 1994; it became an instant bestseller. I bought my hardcover the day after a review was written up in the New York Times. I tried my best to read it with an open mind. At times, I felt like throwing it in the garbage pail or in the fireplace that I do not have. Race has always intrigued me. Race matters to me as much as it matters to those who live in multiracial societies. Race on the track intrigues me even more.

Basically, the Bell Curve argued that Intelligence is a better predictor of many factors, including: job performance, income, crime, teenage pregnancy, education level, and ones’ parent’s socioeconomic level. What a load of crock! One a less insulting end, the book suggested that the “intelligent elite” (a reference to white professional middle income classes) is becoming increasingly separated from the “lower” classes, and that this was a dangerous trend. While I found some validity in the “trend” part, but the connotation of Class association with Race to me was totally absurd (even while the data suggested it). As an analyst, data speaks louder to me than words. Any graduate student in social sciences can see that the methodology that Herrnstein and Murray used, and the datasets they analyzed were scientifically sound, in fact the book was reviewed by the Sociology Departments all over the world, and those who criticized the findings still agreed with the methodology and how the conclusions were drawn. Professor Herrnstein is dead now, and it appears that his Bell Curve is buried deeper in the ground than his body (or in his body). Who flipped the curve, or more appropriately who let the dog out?

Only two years after the book came out, a young graduate student re-analyzes the datasets that Herrnstein and Murray used, but this time running tests by adding an additional variable (the datasets remained identical, but the methodology changed somewhat). That young man’s name is Dolton Conley.

Conley’s graduate thesis analyzed the gapping differences between races (mainly Black and White) and concluded that the differences were a result of “accumulated family wealth”, a variable that Herrnstein and Murray overlooked. Conley’s thesis at Yale won as the Best thesis by the American Sociological Association. Out of these theses, Conley has written several books. Not only did he flatten the Bell Curve, but he actually put a downward bump in it. He concluded that if everything remains constant, minorities perform not only comparable to majority, but may actually perform better. The story of thrashing continues. The year is 1996; Yale and NYU are fighting over Conley, a 20-something bright kid. NYU wins. Today, Conley is a University Professor (the highest rank in academia) and Chairs the Sociology Department at NYU. He is in not even 40 yet.

The discussion on race begins with Slavery and continues with the Americana; experiences such as Jazz, Sports, Politics, 20th century American corporate culture, arts and entertainment. Blacks have proven time and again that given the opportunity, they can perform at least as good as Whites, if not better. There’s not enough space to list the legendary Black musicians or Black athletes for that matter (let’s just out of respect mention only a few: John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Edwin Moses, Jackie Robinson, Mohammad Ali, Karim Abdul Jabbar; Bill Clinton); then we have Justice Thomas on one extreme and Obama on the other. Well, Obama is only partly Black, so that only accounts for half. I can’t wait for the US Senate to become Fully White in a few month (if Obama becomes the President, do you realize that the US senate will be 100% white?). So, Blacks are over-represented in Sports, Entertainment, but are under-represented in Political arena. “Racialists” (a term used rather loosely – implying that those who consider “Race” as a contributing factor, and not necessarily those who think Blacks are inferior) will argue that because Politics require leadership qualities that Blacks lack (for historical reasons and not because of genetics), and Blacks and Jews will argue that that is not true (Racialists argued the same point about athletics and entertainment too and were proven wrong over and over again). The US Army was the first public institution that opened doors to Blacks, and now Blacks are not only over-represented, but have risen to the highest levels where they were “allowed” to – yes the ceiling existed, but it was shattered after the Vietnam War with very aggressive desegregation efforts that took place in the US Army. Today, US Military is perhaps the only institution where Blacks routinely boss around Whites. Other institutions are slowly following the lead. EEO laws, as a result of increased discrimination lawsuits (just as the Thomas Hill case brought discussion of Sexual Harassment at workplace into living rooms all across the nation) that not only brought some corporations to their’ knees, but they were required to institute stricter anti-discrimination laws, or get out of the USA and do their business elsewhere. The nation, with all its problems and challenges has still maintained a somewhat level playing field for all its citizens, at least in the public sphere. A lot remains to be done.

So how does a slave owning society strives to become a classless society in a span of less than 200 years? It is because those who were oppressed found their voice through Music, through Athletics, through Entertainment. Revolutions do not take place only in Tiananmen Square, or on Brandenburg Gate, they also take place as much on the high school track and field events, and at the recording studios in Detroit, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles. There is something for everyone in this country, and those who only zoom into the racist disposition of this country forget its ugly history. No doubt that a lot remains to be done, but the US as a country, has done more to make its racial minorities become part of it than any other country. It truly is a country of immigrants. It is reflected in its arts, in its schools, in its society in general.

Two weeks ago, April 15th, was the anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut in the Major League Baseball. The first Black man ever to swing a bat in the majors. When he walked onto the Ebbetts field in Brooklyn, he was taunted, ridiculed, booed, but despite all the adversity, he delivered. He could easily have walked out of the field, but he chose not to. Robinson in a way did as much for Blacks in America as Dr. King or the other leaders of the civil rights movement.

In 1997, his number 42 was retired (meaning that no other player in Baseball will ever wear that number again). But on April 15 every year you will see little kids and old people alike wearing #42. And that my friends, is a biggest honor for any race. This is how freedom is won, and not by trying to put out a stupid meaningless made in China Olympic torch.