Affirmative action in sports

I like Kevin Blackistone, the ESPN talking head/AOL sports writer. He’s typically one of the calmer voices on the abomination that is Around the Horn and he usually has something interesting to say. Today, however, is not one of those days. Writes Blackistone on how to fix the “problem” of under-representation of African-Americans on the PGA Tour:

What pro golf can do specifically to diversify its ranks is what it does at almost every tournament. It can get its tournament sponsors to offer exemptions to qualified black golfers just like it does to other golfers for whatever reasons. That was how Michelle Wie so often played the LPGA until recently. That was how Annika Sorenstam played with men at the Colonial a few years ago.

There’s so much to unpack in that graf, I’m not sure where to begin. Let’s start with the basic idea that sports –specifically, the playing field — is one of the few places where the world really is equal. You win, you lose, you tie, and you struggle on the basis of your own skill, your own merit: it’s truly a level playing field. If there’s one place that affirmative action isn’t necessary, it’s on the field of play.

Secondly, let’s look at the specific examples he cites: Michelle Wie’s sponsor exemptions are seen as one of the key reasons she didn’t progress at all as a golfer. She went from teen phenom to bust because she was so busy trying to skip Q-school (the minor leagues of golf) and hit the LPGA tour directly. Now that she’s actually passed Q-school she can actually spend some time fine tuning her game on the tour instead of pushing things and failing week after week. And let’s not even get started on Sorenstam’s disastrous foray into men’s golf, in which she — the best female player in the history of the game — played on a hand-picked course best-suited for her skill set and still failed to make the cut, finishing 96th.

The reason I put scare quotes around problem in that first graf is because racial underrepresentation in sports isn’t a problem at all. Kevin Blackistone’s lament is like white people complaining about their underrepresentation at wide receiver or power forward or center field: silly.