>>>>Given the evidence that diversity makes an organization better,
>>>
>>>The US Women's gymnastic team that dazzled the world was composed of women under 5' weighing less than 80 pounds.
>>>Are you suggesting that a few NFL linemen would improve that team?
>>
>>No, though that team of women who fit the physical profile for being good at gymnastics was a lot better than it would have been back in the days when black and Latina girls weren't given a chance to compete at that level.
>>
>
>I've been around a while.. and I can't remember an instance since the 1960's when blacks or latinas were not given a chance to compete in any sport- golf excepted.
>Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals in the 1936 olympics
>I saw the first game that Sweetwater Clifton - a former Globetrotter- played as the first black player to suit up for the Knicks.
>Around that time, Buddy Young, as I recall, was the first black player on the NFL Giants.
>That was in the early 1960's I think.
>Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe did it in tennis , another bastion of stuffy white men, during the 1960's.
>Golf was a lot more resistant. Tiger did it for for golf in the late 90's
>
>Once the barriers came down things changed in sports in a hurry.

I agree that in some sports, color has been a non-issue or only a minor issue for a long time.

However, I think if you start digging, you'll find lots of structural barriers for blacks in various sports or in various positions in sports. You and I are both old enough to remember when it was believed that a black man couldn't be an effective quarterback. I seem to recall hearing that kind of stuff when the Eagles got Randall Cunningham, which isn't all that long ago. There's a reason the NFL requires teams to interview at least one person of color for top positions.

And even when people of color are successful, they sometimes get treated differently. Look at the way the people talk about Serena Williams vs. say, Maria Sharapova. Lots of comments about Serena's "muscularity" and lots of racist stuff on social media.

Tamar