The Dominion - Dave Zirin

“This is Beyond Sports”

Moira Peters — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:16:00 +0000

Chuck D on the fight in Arizona

Chuck D. The Hard Rhymer. The man on the mic for the most politically explosive hip-hop group in history, Public Enemy. With albums like It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Fear of a Black Planet, and anthems like “Fight the Power” and “Bring the Noise” along with the breathtaking production of the Bomb Squad, PE created a standard of politics and art. Perhaps their most controversial track was “By the Time I Get to Arizona” (1991), about seeking revenge against Arizona political officials for refusing to recognize Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. (Lyrics include "'Cause my money's spent on/The goddamn rent/Neither party is mine not the/Jackass or the elephant.") Today, in the wake of Arizona’s draconian anti-immigration Senate Bill 1070, “By the Time I Get to Arizona” has been remixed and revived by DJ Spooky. Chuck D also recorded his own track several months before the bill was passed called “Tear Down That Wall.” I spoke to Chuck about the music and the nexus between immigration politics and sports.

Dave Zirin: Why did you choose to record “Tear Down That Wall?”

Chuck D: I had done "Tear Down That Wall" four or five months ago because I heard a professor who works with my wife here on the West Coast speak in a speech about the multi-billion dollar dividing wall between the US and Mexico, so, therefore, I based "Tear Down That Wall" on the policy of the United States border patrol in the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. I just wanted to put a twist of irony on it saying if Ronald Reagan back in 1988 had told Mr. Gorbachev to tear down that wall separating the world from countries of capitalism and communism, we have a billion dollar wall right here in our hemisphere that exists that needs to have a bunch of questions raised. Questions like: “What the hell?” I wrote the song about five months ago and I did it coincidentally, with all that’s brewing in the state of Arizona. Immigration laws and racial profiling is happening right here and I think the border situation, not only with the US and Mexico but the US and Canada, on both sides is just out of control. It's crazy.

You did "Tear Down That Wall," we have the DJ Spooky remix of "By the Time I Get to Arizona," and with your wife, Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson, you wrote a syndicated column on SB 1070. What’s the response been to you being so out front on this issue?

Well the response is the usual, but I make it a habit not to look at any blogs, because I think the font of a computer gives as much credence to ignorance as it does to somebody who makes sense. So I try not to read those responses, because anybody can respond quickly. Back when people had to write letters it took an effort, especially if someone didn't have decent penmanship and handwriting. I try not to look at the responses. I try to do the right thing. I tell you this much, there is a rap contingent, a hip-hop contingent from Phoenix, who did a remake of "By the Time I Get to Arizona." I think that needs to be recognized because these are young people. The song is about eight minutes long. There's about 12 MCs on it, and they are putting it down. They are talking about how ridiculous this law is. They are speaking out against it and they are putting all the facts on the table, and they need to be acknowledged and highlighted. There is a stereotype about young people and young MCs [being apolitical]. They break it.

It’s remarkable how the original “By the Time I Get to Arizona” has been resurrected from the early 90s now that the struggle has picked up. Did you hear former NBA player Chris Webber before the Suns/Spurs game say, "Its like PE said, ‘By the Time I Get to Arizona.’”?

[laughs] My Dad told me about that. You know Chris Webber is the man. I wasn't tuned into TNT at that particular time.

He said more than that. He said, “Public Enemy said it a long time ago. ‘By the Time I Get to Arizona.’ I’m not surprised. They didn’t even want there to be a Martin Luther King Day when John McCain was in [office]. So if you follow history you know that this is part of Arizona politics.’” So he brought it all together with Public Enemy at the center of it.

Unfortunately when it comes to culture, the speed of technology and news today makes things out of sight, out of mind. While these situations [the MLK fight and the immigration fights] are different, the politics of both things stay around like a stain.... Once again Arizona has put themselves into this mix. I don't know what the hell was on Governor Jan Brewer’s mind or what contingent is behind her, but, you know, to make a decision like this and to be told to ignore the people who have been in this area on this earth the longest period of time. It just kind of resonates with me as being crazy.

Do you support an athletic or artistic boycott of Arizona until this gets settled?

Dave, you know I do. Artists and musicians can say we’re going to play Texas, El Paso, New Mexico, Albuquerque, and we gotta play LA. But we’ll skip Phoenix, Flagstaff, Tucson and the like. But you know what this is really a challenge for: that’s Major League Baseball. You’ve got nearly a third of the players who are Latino. If they don’t stand up to this bill, they will actually be validating the divide amongst Latinos [between documented and undocumented immigrants]. At the same time they’ll also be lining themselves right into the stereotype of what an athlete is if they don’t speak out: a high priced slave that doesn’t say anything. And to me it’s beyond just boycotting the All-Star game. What are those Latino players on the Diamondbacks going to do? What are the players going to say who go into Arizona to play against the Diamondbacks? What are they going to say and what are they going to do? Major League Baseball has to step up. The NBA has very few players of Latino descent and [the Suns] are saying something. But Major League Baseball, if they don’t say anything, it’s crazy. The owners, the team, the league, and especially the players, whether they come from the Dominican Republic, whether they come from Venezuela, whether they come from Puerto Rico, they better step up. If they don’t step up, the music industry, at least from my area, we’re going to clown them. For us to speak out against this law, and basketball stepping up, and Major League Baseball not stepping up at all?! Come on now, give me a break. And I know a lot of the cats they live in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico or whatever, there’s like a trillion years difference between them and their high salaries and the average people living in the streets. They might build themselves a castle with a militia to protect them, but this is the time to unite yourself with the people and at least live in the legacy that [Major League Hall of Famer] Roberto Clemente said of uniting people just to protect against the nonsense that the other side can come up with. They need to know that it’s going to spread if they don’t come up and say something about it.

Any final thoughts? Perhaps about Major League Baseball pulling the All-Star Game out of Phoenix?

At the end of the day man, sports is really not that important compared to people living their everyday lives. Say you have a Major League player, and he happens to play for another team, or he happens to play for the Diamondbacks and he gets pulled over because people think he’s an illegal immigrant. Then all of a sudden that’s when the “ish” finally hits the fan? Come on. This is beyond sports. We want athletes to speak up because they have advantages. They have everyday coverage. They’re covered by a person that has a mic and a camera in their face, and this is the time to step up. Major League Baseball pulling the All-Star Game out of Arizona should be the least of it.

Originally published by Edge of Sports. Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love (Scribner). Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Chuck D

Chicago Thwarts the Bid

dawn — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:06:05 +0000

How one American city dodged the Olympic bullet

WASHINGTON, DC—"This is a devastating blow for the people of Chicago." So said ESPN's Chicago-born Michael Wilbon.

But the decision to send the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio was in fact a victory for the people of Chicago. Pushing back against immense pressure from Mayor Daley's political machine, organizations like No Games Chicago went grassroots, corner to corner, and spoke out against the Olympic storm of gentrification, tax hikes, and police misconduct. They are a model of resistance in the Obama era. Certainly one reason the United States got the high hat was the lingering bad taste of George W. Bush. The global community, after eight years of sneering contempt from Washington, DC, isn't ready to rinse with the Obama mouthwash.

But it's the community activists of Chicago who should feel tremendously gratified. In the Windy City, the hastily formed group No Games Chicago took to the streets, shadowing Olympic organizers at every stop. They turned almost every public relations gambit into challenged, contested, space. They—along with the millions of Chicagoans who expressed their trepidation in polls—saved their city. They have every right to say with pride, "That's the Chicago way!"

As for Barack Obama, he may not be feeling it, but he is the luckiest man alive. Yes, he traveled all the way to Copenhagen and didn't even get a lousy t-shirt, but he is very fortunate his bid went down like it did.

Obama is the first US president to ever appear before the International Olympic Committee and plead for the Games. The Games coming to the Windy City would have been an eight-year distraction and political gold for his opponents. Every time an Olympic project came in late and over budget, every time a scandal hit the tabloids, every time a crime was captured on a cell phone camera it would have been "Obama's Olympic Folly."

The person who really has egg on his face is Mayor Richard Daley. He wanted to show everyone he was a bigger man—and mayor—than his Daddy, with an Olympic-sized stadia to boot. Now expect all the Daley arm-twisting and all the dirty skullduggery in the lead up to both come to light and come home to roost. Mayor Daley, rocking a 35 per cent approval rating, said that the Games would be "a huge boost to our economy, raising it to a new level. The Games will help us recover sooner from the recession that still grips our nation and enable us to better compete in the global economy."

There was only one problem with this argument: the history of the Olympic Games almost without exception brands it as a lie. As Sports Illustrated's Michael Fish—an Olympic supporter—has written, "You stage a two-week athletic carnival and, if things go well, pray the local municipality isn't sent into financial ruin."

In fact, the very idea that Chicago could have been an appropriate setting for the Olympics might have been hatched by Jon Stewart for a four-year supply of comedic fodder. To greater or lesser degrees, the Olympics bring gentrification, graft and police violence wherever they nest. Even without the Olympic Games, Chicago has been ground zero in the past decade for the destruction of public housing, political corruption raised to an art form, and police violence.

It was also difficult for Chicago residents to see how this would help their pocketbooks, given that Daley pledged to the International Olympic Committee that any cost overruns would be covered by taxpayers.

This is why a staggering 84 per cent of the city opposed bringing the Games to Chicago if it cost residents a solitary dime. Even if the Games were to go off without a hitch—which would happen only if the setting was lovely Shangri-La—not even half the residents would support hosting the Games.

The Obamas, former Chicago residents, should have stood with their city. Instead, we had the sight of Barack, Michelle, and Oprah trying to out-muscle Pele and Brazil for a place at the Olympic trough.

Michelle Obama said in her speech to the IOC, "My father was disabled, and I think what it would have meant for him to see someone in his shoes compete. Kids need to see that and that needs to be celebrated just as much, if not more."

This seems more like an argument to support the Paralympics (a tremendous event) but that's beside the point. Michelle Obama should have realized that if the Olympics had come to Chicago when she was a young girl on Chicago's working class southside, her home may have been torn down to make way for an Olympic facility. No word on how being out of house and home would have helped her disabled father.

The question is, why did Obama risk this humiliation?

Maybe Obama wants the Olympic fairy dust enjoyed by Ronald Reagan at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles or Bill Clinton at the 1996 games in Atlanta. Or perhaps he is returning favor to the developers and other sundry connected people in the Windy City who will make out like bandits once the smoke has cleared. But his intentions are clear: he wants the glitz, glamour, and prestige of the Games and he wants it for the Daley machine. What the people of Chicago want doesn't seem to compute.

But we shouldn't be surprised at this point that Obama is tin-eared to the concerns of Chicago residents. As Paul Krugman wrote September 20 on the banker bonuses, "The administration has suffered more than it seems to realize from the perception that it's giving taxpayers' hard-earned money away to Wall Street." Shoveling taxpayers' money into the Olympic maw is no better, especially in these tough times.

No Games Chicago organizer Alison McKenna said to me, "I oppose the Olympics coming to Chicago because instead of putting money toward what people really need, money will be funneled to real estate developers who will be tearing down Washington Park and other important community resources. I oppose the Olympics coming to Chicago because the nonprofit child-welfare agency that I work for had to sustain budget cuts and layoffs, while Chicago has spent $48.2 million on the 2016 Olympic bid, as of July 2009."

There is an urgency to building resistance to these kinds of priorities. Right now, the right wing is shamelessly adopting populist rhetoric and the power of protest to sell an agenda of racism and fear wrapped in taxpayer protection. The big public voice against Obama's trip to Copenhagen was the repellent Republican National Committee chief Michael Steele who believes, and this is hilarious, that "at a time of war and recession" Obama needs to stay home. It shouldn't be a scoundrel like Steele who represents a party of privatization and occupation who delivers that message.

Now is the time to build a pole of attraction on the left for people furious at corporate greed amidst a recession. This needs to happen, and not just for the Windy City. In Vancouver, the struggle is now defensive in nature as our anti-Olympic heroes strive to find a way to sand off the worst edges of the Olympic scythe, cutting through one of the world's most beautiful cities. It's about building a vibrant protest movement that believes in social justice not the rank divisiveness of the right. Obama likes to say that change comes from "outside Washington." It's time to take him at his word.

Dave Zirin writes for The Nation magazine, among other publications. His most recent book is A People's History of Sports in the United States.

Chicago.Bid.Protesters

Tiger's Fall from Grace

Moira Peters — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:34:56 +0000

Tiger Woods' self-imposed exile from golf is the most stunning—and stunningly rapid—fall from grace in the history of sports. Not since Shoeless Joe Jackson was banned from baseball after being dubiously blamed for helping throw the 1919 World Series have we seen such a supersonic transition from heroism to heel. And not since Michael Jordan retired from basketball in 1993, following the murder of his father, has a world-class athlete voluntarily taken himself out of his sport in his prime. Woods's exile may last three months or it may last three years. But one thing is certain: unlike the twenty-four-hour wall-to-wall sleaze that's dominated the airwaves since the initial revelations of Woods's infidelity, this is actual news. After 14 years of being protected by the press, the Tiger has become carrion. And now, the greatest golfer in history is walking away.

***

The jury is out on whether Woods’ retreat makes him more sympathetic. But years from now when we look back at this saga, I hope we remember Woods didn't choose to leave golf until his sponsors left him. Woods announced his departure December 11. He hadn't been on a prime time commercial since November 29, three days after the accident, according to the Nielson Company.

The "global consulting company" Accenture dropped Woods from the homepage of its website. AT&T told him not to call. Gillette said that they could find others to shave for the camera. Every part of Tiger Woods Inc. sized up his moment of desperate need and, instead of offering solidarity and support, ran for cover.

Only a couple of companies decided to stand by Woods. "Tiger has been part of Nike for more than a decade," the company said in a statement. "He is the best golfer in the world and one of the greatest athletes of his era. We look forward to his return to golf. He and his family have Nike's full support." This is hardly surprising. Woods has made Nike untold treasure—while resisting pressure to say word one about the abhorrent labor practices that define the company's profit margins.

Mohammad Juma Bu Amin, the chief executive officer of Golf in Dubai said in a direct statement to Woods: "We are with you in this difficult time and respect your request for family privacy. As and when you decide to return to the circuit, you can always count on us.... We will be more than delighted to welcome you to Dubai. Consider Dubai your second home."

So here is Woods in 2010: no tour, a busted marriage, and alone with nothing but his sweatshops to keep him warm.

This is what we call chickens roosting. The least attractive part of Woods's persona—including all recent peccadilloes—is his complete absence of conscience when it comes to peddling his billion-dollar brand. As The Nation has been writing for years, Tiger's partnership with the habitual toxic waste dumpers Chevron and the financial criminals in Dubai deserves far more scrutiny from the sports press than it's received (none).

Then there was the Philippines. As detailed in the documentary The Golf War, the Filipino government in conjunction with the military and developers, attempted in the late 90s to remove thousands of peasants from their land, known as Hacienda Looc, to build a golf course. They resisted and three movement leaders ended up dead. Where was Woods? He was brought in by the government to play in an exhibition match and sell golf (not explicitly the course, wink, wink), all for an undisclosed fee. The government called it "The Day of the Tiger" and followed his—assumedly G-rated—actions for twenty-four hours. The Golf War filmmakers show clips of Woods saying to kids, "I want all of you to learn and grow from this experience. Invariably you're gonna learn life, gonna learn about life because golf is a microcosm of life." Meanwhile the developers of the course were thrilled by the PR boost his appearance gave their project. Macky Maceda, a vice-president for Fil-Estate Land, Incorporated, the golf course developer in Hacienda Looc, commented, "Oh, I think it's going to be a great-picker upper for the entire country in general. Everybody's feeling kind of down with this economic crisis. And Tiger is just, I know it, he's going to give everybody a good feeling."

Romy Capulong, legal counsel for the Hacienda Looc farmers, had a different take: "Tiger Woods should be barred from entering this country, I think. If I can do something about it—I'll certainly do that—to bar him from entering this country and propagating golf."

Woods, with his global ethnic appeal, has been the sport's willing avatar, traveling the global South seeking new acres to conquer. The sports media has for years closed ranks around Woods, defending his right "to not be political."

But he has been political. It's the politics of using golf as a weapon to reap untold riches and all the other attendant privileges of fame. It's the politics of selling yourself as a trailblazing icon, while rolling your eyes at the struggles that made your ascendance possible. It's the politics of placing your brand above any and all other concerns. It's the politics of turning a blind eye to your corporate partners' malfeasance, when there is a buck to be made. This is the real teachable moment of this whole circus: if you front for the worst of the worst, don't expect anyone to have your back.

A version of this article was originally published by The Nation.

Tiger's Fall

Latter Day Protest

dru — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:00:01 +0000

The Mormon Church, anti-gay legislation, and challenges of the past

TACOMA PARK, MARYLAND–As supporters of gay marriage have discovered, it's never easy to be on the Mormon Church's enemies list. The Church of Latter Day Saints backed the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in California with out-of-state funds, and gave the right a heartbreaking victory this past election cycle. But the Mormon Church has been challenged in the past. Just ask Bob Beamon.

If you know Beamon's name it's almost certainly because he won the long jump gold medal in legendary fashion at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Beamon leapt 29 feet, 2.5 inches, a record that held for 23 years. Great Britain's Lynn Davies told Beamon afterwards, "You have destroyed this event." This is because Beamon was not only the first long jumper to break 29 feet, he was the first to break 28.

But you may not know that Beamon almost never made it to Mexico City. Along with eight other teammates, Beamon had his track and field scholarship revoked from the University of Texas at El Paso, the previous year. They had refused to compete against Brigham Young University. Beamon and his teammates were protesting the racist practices of the Mormon Church, and their coach at UTEP, Wayne Vanderburge, made them pay the ultimate price.

They weren't alone. As tennis great Arthur Ashe wrote in his book, Hard Road to Glory, "In October 1969, fourteen black [football] players at the University of Wyoming publicly criticized the Mormon Church and appealed to their coach, Lloyd Eaton, to support their right not to play against Brigham Young University....The Mormon religion at the time taught that blacks could not attain to the priesthood, and that they were tainted by the curse of Ham, a biblical figure. Eaton, however, summarily dropped all fourteen players from the squad."

The players, though, didn't take their expulsion lying down. They called themselves the Black 14 and sued for damages with the support of the NAACP. In an October 25 game against San Jose State, the entire San Jose team wore black armbands to support the 14.

One aftershock of this episode was in November, 1969, when Stanford University President Kenneth Pitzer suspended athletic relations with BYU, announcing that Stanford would honor what he called an athlete's "Right of Conscience." The "Right of Conscience" allowed athletes to boycott an event which he or she deemed "personally repugnant." As the Associated Press wrote, "Waves of black protest roll toward BYU, assaulting Mormon belief and leaving BYU officials and students, perplexed, hurt, and maybe a little angry."

On June 6, 1978, as teams were refusing road trips to Utah with greater frequency, and the IRS started to make noises about revoking the church's holy tax-free status, a new revelation came to the Book of Mormon.

Whether a cynical ploy to avoid the taxman or a coincidence touched by God, the results were the same: Black people were now human in the eyes of the Church. African Americans were no longer, as Brigham Young himself once put it, "uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable, and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind." The IRS was assuaged, the athletic contests continued, and the church entered a period of remarkable growth.

Similar pressure must be brought to bear on the Mormon Church today for its financing of Proposition 8 in California. One nonprofit crunched the numbers and found that $17.67 million of the $22 million used to pass the anti-gay marriage legislation was funneled through 59,000 Mormon families since August. It was done with the institutional backing of the church, though many pro-gay Mormons have spoken out defiantly against the church's political intervention.

The question now is whether this latest tale of social conflict and the Church of Latter Day Saints will also spill onto the athletic field. Men's athletics have been one of the last proud hamlets of homophobia in our society (although the attitude of male athletes is more progressive than you might think). But women's sports have been historically more open around issues of sexuality.

Will any women collegians raise the specter of Proposition 8 if they have to travel to the schools of Utah? Will we see the ghosts of Black 14 emerge from the past? If any athletes choose to act, the ramifications could be "Beamonesque."

Dave Zirin is the author of A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Present Day Bigots

No Justice, No Play?

dawn — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:41:54 +0000

Gaza anger overwhelms hoops contest

TACOMA PARK, MARYLAND–We have officially entered uncharted waters. Never before in my years of reporting has a sports team been forced to abandon the field of play due to political protest from fans. Never before have fans become the central actors in turning a sporting event into a political melee.

But on January 5 in Ankara, Turkey, the Israeli basketball team, Bnei Hasharon, had to flee the wrath of what the Associated Press described as "hundreds of fist-pumping, chanting Turkish fans." What exploded was yet another protest against Israel's bombardment of Gaza. The shock here is the setting, a sports arena, and the target, a basketball team.

It may be surprising that this came to pass in supposedly apolitical environs – a Eurocup game against a team called Turk Telekom – but local officials knew this could happen and took every precaution. Thousands of police officers surrounded the court, and street demonstrations of 4,000 were already taking place outside the arena. Protesters shouted, "Israeli murderers, get out of Palestine!" and "Allah-u Akhbar!" as the Hasharon team bus entered the arena.

Only 500 fans were even let into the arena and were also subject to intense searches, but it wasn't enough. Police made the mistake of not confiscating the shoes.

Before the game could begin, angry chants of "Israeli killers!" came down from the crowd as smuggled Palestinian flags were unfurled. Then, in a scene that would look familiar to a certain sitting president, off came the shoes as footwear rained down from the stands (the shoes didn't hit any players).

As both teams looked at the crowd, frozen in place, battles began between police officers and Turkish fans, as the fans surged forward to take the court. Both Hasharon and Turk Telecom were rushed off and spent two hours in the locker rooms while the battle for control of the arena raged on.

Hashoran captain Meir Tapiro spoke about the fear and chaos he felt around him to the Jerusalem Post. "The fans raced on to the court and ran towards us like madmen, but the police stopped them. It was really scary."

After ninety minutes all the fans were expelled, arrested or dragged from the arena. The referees attempted to get the teams back onto the court to play before an empty arena, but Bnei Hasharon, after two hours of being prisoners in their locker room, had no desire to play. Referees called it a forfeit, and the Turks were declared winners of the game by the official forfeit score of 20-0.

Hasharon team chairman Eldad Akunis was understandably incensed. "After such a trying ordeal, there was simply no point in playing. The players were just concerned for their safety. We were also given instructions by the Israeli embassy staff, who were monitoring the situation, not to play," said Akunis.

There is no doubt that it was "a trying ordeal," a frightening experience that not even Red Sox fans would wish on the Yankees. But to put it mildly, it pales in comparison to the situation in Gaza itself. With more than 500 deaths, 3,000 injuries and 100 tons of bombs dropped on one of the most impoverished regions of the world, the trials of a basketball team seem trivial.

It is certainly true that none of the players – two of whom are African, five of whom are American-born – bear a hint of responsibility for any of this carnage. But it is difficult to forget the famous telegram sent by playwright Arthur Miller to President Lyndon Johnson. Miller was invited for a gala of some kind and refused, saying, "When the guns boom, the arts die." Perhaps when the guns boom, sports should die as well.

We may recall January 2008, when soccer star Mohamed Aboutreika lifted his shirt to reveal the slogan "Sympathize with Gaza." He wanted people to stand up and notice that an economic blockade had triggered, for the Palestinians in Gaza, a humanitarian crisis. The new year begins with another instance where the reality of Gaza has unexpectedly interrupted the field of play. Only this time – fitting the new moment – it was altogether more livid, more dangerous and more desperate. No sympathy has meant no peace.

Dave Zirin is the author of A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com, or contact Dave at edgeofsports@gmail.com

Basketball protests

Enduring Dixie

dru — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:16:43 +0000

US college football and black coaches

In 2009 we are faced with a question. What is the easier path for an African-American male: becoming President of the United States or an NCAA Division I football coach? The answer reveals something sordid about college sports, as well as university Presidents and the boosters who back them.

At present, there are 120 Division I-A football programs, and you can count the number of African-American head coaches on one hand...literally. There are four: Turner Gill at Buffalo, Randy Shannon at Miami, Kevin Sumlin at Houston, and Illinois offensive co-ordinator Mike Locksley, recently appointed head coach at New Mexico.

This number had been 50 per cent higher, but then Ty Willingham of Washington and Ron Prince of Kansas State were pushed out the door - leaving just the four, half the number of a decade ago.

That's 3.3 per cent in a sport where 50 pern cent of the players are African-American. It's not as if there are no black assistant coaches, either. African-Americans make up 312 of the 1,018 assistant coaches. Therefore, the message being sent by the NCAA football world truly is as simple as black and white: African-Americans are only good enough to bleed, sweat and get their ACLs torn out. Only then are you qualified to hold a clipboard. But the top job has a "Whites Only" sign on the door.

Charles Barkley called this out when his alma mater, Auburn, hired Iowa State's Gene Chizik for the coaching job instead of Gill, who against all odds has made a winner out of Buffalo. "You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two resumés and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resumé...My biggest problem with the black coaches is they're not getting jobs and they're getting [expletive] jobs when they are hired," said Barkley. "They're not getting good jobs. They're not getting jobs where they can be successful. That's why I wanted Turner to get the Auburn job. He could win consistently at Auburn. You can't win consistently at New Mexico. You can't win consistently at Kansas State. He could have won at Auburn."

This reality is especially stark in the Southeastern Conference. The SEC is the gold standard division in college football. Top teams like Florida, LSU and a resurgent Alabama field the best players and have become pipelines to the pros. It's also the conference that has the schools with a background of the most bitter integration struggles during the civil rights movement -among them, Alabama, Mississippi and Mississippi State. It could be the conference that sets a trend nationally and makes a statement that the whole era of the old South is gone with the wind. But the SEC has had only one African-American head coach in its history - Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State - and he just resigned.

A number of college coaches, off the record, give explanations like the "small-mindedness" of university Presidents, or say that the culture of college administrators is "resistant to change." Johnny Lopes, who coached on the defensive side of the ball at USC from 1979 to 1985 said, "Many white coaches feel that black coaches don't have the intelligence to coach at the college level. The white fans still hold to their prejudiced feelings. College Presidents need to have a good relationship with the fans. It's about money."

But all of this is a kind, roundabout way of saying the word "racism." Qualified candidates are passed over because they have the wrong colour of skin. The sad facts are that 92.5 per cent of university Presidents, 87.5 per cent of athletic directors and 100 per cent of conference commissioners are white.

Even more important, the boosters who pull the strings aren't looking for change. The wealthy funders of pigskin are the ones calling foul on any pretensions of diversity. They are looking for the familiar guy they can have a beer with, the guy they know. It's like Eddie Murphy's famous "White Like Me" SNL sketch come to life. As soon as all the black folks are out of the room, it's a party for everyone in the box, including the new coach. The strength of boosters also makes affirmative action plans like the NFL's somewhat successful " Rooney Rule" less than helpful. The "Rooney Rule" dictates that NFL owners must at least interview a person of colour when a coaching opening arises. This has helped break down some of the walls in the NFL. But in the NCAA, where boosters call the shots, the individual choices of university Presidents have far less sway.

College football, in particular, should be sensitive to these charges. The game has been referred to as a "plantation economy" because the student athletes don't get a dime in a sport that produces billions of dollars in revenue. The solution is going to have to reside in sanctions far stricter than the "Rooney Rule." The qualified assistants are there so conferences should have diversity quotas or be penalized bowl money and scholarships. This is the only strategy that will actually work. It's time for NCAA President Myles Brand to show some real leadership. Or maybe sports fans should begin to switch the channel. Even better, students on these college campuses should take out the clipboards they were using to register people to vote and start registering people in the struggle for a more diverse athletics department. The message is simple: the path to the White House shouldn't be easier than the path to coach football at Oregon State.

Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Bye Bye Ty