Stereotypes indecent

It was the weekend football fans have looked forward to for months. Just as in past years, the 2004 NFL draft held over the weekend had its own memorable moments. But for me, nothing will top what happened in 1998 about halfway through the draft. It was so indecent and disturbing I haven't been able to get it out of mind.\nThat year, the Atlanta Falcons selected a white receiver with blazing speed named Tim Dwight, who also won the 100-meter Big Ten sprint title for the University of Iowa the following year. ESPN showed a clip of Dwight slowing down to catch an under-thrown pass while an analyst remarked that Dwight didn't have great speed, and he likened Dwight's abilities to those of Steve Tasker, a slow white guy. The analyst had all year to evaluate Dwight's strengths and weaknesses, yet he couldn't see past his race.\nIf I were a parent, I wouldn't want my children's young and impressionable minds exposed to such stupidity.\nEvery year at the draft, analysts describe relatively unknown prospects by comparing them to established NFL players. With few exceptions, the comparisons are of players of the same race. "White player X reminds me of white player Y" or "black player W reminds me of black player Z." For a minority, whether it is a black quarterback or a white receiver, this can be detrimental, since they may not remind NFL general managers of any successful established player. This could explain why black quarterbacks struggled for years to break into the league despite tremendous success in college and why there are only five black head coaches in the league today.\nOne can only wonder as to what extent employers outside of sports do the "this-person reminds-me-of" form of talent evaluation and how much that evaluation is influenced by race, gender or some other characteristic irrelevant to the job.\nI suspect it's quite common. I was once on a committee evaluating freshman candidates for a scholarship. Some on the committee compared candidates with former scholarship winners. In all cases, a female candidate was likened to a former female winner or a male candidate was likened to a former male winner.\nMost hiring decisions and the reasons behind them are not made public, but we can gain some insight from sports and perhaps even reality shows, as their decisions are broadcast on national television. In the recent ESPN show "Dream Job," the winner received a job as an anchor on "SportsCenter." One of the contestants, Zach Selwyn, who sparked long curly hair and a beard, was by all accounts the most talented and popular of all the contestants, yet he was voted off in the finals. Tony Kornheiser, one of the judges who voted him off, later admitted to and lamented "typecasting" Selwyn because he didn't look like a "SportsCenter" anchor.\nFortunately for hairy men, they can always shave and get a haircut to look more the part. Changing one's race, gender or height, however, is a bit more problematic.\nWhen friends were watching the final episode of "The Apprentice," in which two final contestants, Bill Rancic, a white man, and Kwame Jackson, a black man, vied for a CEO position, I blurted out: "The white guy's going to win!" Though I never watched more than two consecutive minutes in the series, I turned out to be right. That's not indicative of anything other than perhaps my cynicism. Yet there is still the reality that women and minorities struggle to land top-level positions. That reality I find indecent.