Supporting Donovan McNabb's Claim With Quantifiable Proof
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by I am a cpcp
I'm sure by now most of you have heard/read Donovan McNabb's comment on there being more pressure on black quarterbacks than white quarterbacks. While many claim otherwise, McNabb is more right that he - and we - know. While I was on vacation, I read the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. Blink is about the amazing power and speed of the human mind's subconscious.
One section of the book talked about race and how Americans like to think they see other races and how they actually see other races. Some smart people at Harvard have actually developed a test to measure your personal preference of one race vs. another (or different sexualities, religions, etc.) They're called Implicit Association Tests.
The African American - European American IAT flashes pictures of white and black people and you sort them into the side with the proper heading. You then get words like joy, happiness, hurt, and pain and sort those into categories of good or bad. Then you mix the two and sort good words and white people into one category and bad words and black people into the other. Then it switches to good/black, bad/white. Your speed in sorting opens a window into your subconscious.
Look at the results to the right. Over half of the people taking this test have a moderate or strong preference of European Americans over African Americans. And it's not only white people taking the test. Gladwell, who is half Jamaican and half European-American, said he scored moderate preference to whites.
If you'd like to take the test, go to here and follow the directions. Some of the results can be rather eye-opening. You never know what may be going on in your mind. (Blink is a fascinating book, by the way. I highly recommend it.) If you're feeling brave, you can even post your results in the comments and we can get a feel for the AGM community.
In case you're wondering, I registered in the slight preference for white people. Which isn't too surprising. Even though I work with a lot of black people and have black friends now, I grew up in a town that didn't have a black family until I was in high school.
Anyway, McNabb -- whether he knew it or not -- was not just blowing hot air. We might not want to admit it, we might not even know about it, but there's still a negative association with black people in this country. It may be sad, but it is true.
Let's not forget that McNabb leans to the whiny, crybaby side when it comes to criticism.
I like what Jut said before because it's true - this isn't a story in Philly like it is in the rest of the country. When he's wearing the Green helmet he's GOING to get scrutinized like an emepher no matter what color he is in that town.
The tough thing for the black athlete is that if they play the role, do their job, don't complain and aren't scrutinized, then they are ostracized as being an Uncle Tom.
Also, this is an "American" thing more than anything else. People are just people in most of the world. We Americans still have our heads up our historical asses when it comes to race. Boxing great/black man (and original Pimp Daddy) Jack Johnson left America over 100 years ago because he wanted "to be treated like a human, not treated like a damned Negro". Sad thing, he'd still be right today.