Three Reasons Why Black Coaches are Doomed to Fail – Part Two

Last week we told the story of a radio talk show caller who suggested that a certain black NFL executive is “holding back my race” with his mediocre performance as the team’s general manager (Read about it here).

The comment led the talk show hosts to predict that if Houston Texans General Manager Rick Smith gets fired, the team won’t hire another black g.m.  The hosts also forecast that if the University of Texas cuts the cord on embattled head football coach Charlie Strong, the Longhorns won’t hire another black head coach.

We suggested America may operate on a one-and-done rule and Presumed Incompetence represents one reason.  Today, we explore a related reason for the possible reluctance of professional sports franchises and major college football programs to replace a black with a black − White Entitlement.

Reason No. 2 why Black Coaches are Doomed to Fail?

White Entitlement, which flows from “White Privilege” − the idea that being white in the United States produces engrained advantages many white people don’t recognize they have. White privilege means, for example, race never becomes an issue in encounters between whites and law enforcement, when a white person runs for office, nobody asks what it’ll mean to become the first white person to hold the office, and being white puts individuals on the road to economic and social success with race never being mentioned in connection with that success. 

For years, whites held the jobs Rick Smith and Charlie Strong now have. For much of our lives (all three of us were born before 1952), it was difficult, almost impossible, to imagine those jobs being filled by anyone but a white person. Indeed, on the hot August night in 2014 of Strong’s first game at the helm of the UT football team, one of us wondered what some 1964 Texas fan who had been in a coma for 50 years but awoke in his 40 yard line seat at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium would think upon seeing a black man lead the Longhorns onto the field.  The idea was mindboggling and acknowledged the power of White Entitlement.  After all, the head football coach at the University of Texas is “supposed” to be white.  If the coach at Texas is “supposed” to be white but, for whatever reason, a black person got the job and didn’t do it well, the natural order of things requires returning the position to a white person entitled to it.

We’ve seen the White Entitlement theory up close and personal.  Soon after the appointment of one of as a United States Magistrate (title later changed to Magistrate Judge), a white lawyer acquaintance said on several occasions, “Henry, you got my job.”  In theory at least, federal magistrate positions are promised to no one.  Appointments result from a rigorous review process involving the bar, the public, and the President-nominated, Senate-confirmed federal judges in the district.  Since the lawyer had no personal assurance of getting a magistrate’s position, it’s reasonable to wonder if race underpinned his statement.  The lawyer might not have been personally entitled to the job, but he could have felt racially entitled.

Join us next week for Part Three of Why Black Coaches are Doomed to Fail. Hint - Blacks, women, and other historically disadvantaged groups could be the reason.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.