http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/04/the-twisted-logic-of-diversity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FmmMP+%28CARPE+DIEM%29

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Carpe Diem

The twisted ‘logic’ of diversity

Mark J. Perry | April 7, 2013, 3:48 pm
The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida puts out a series of annual racial and gender “report cards” on professional sports including basketball, baseball, football and soccer (see a list here) and they’ve recently added a new “report card” on sports writers. I’ve reported on their questionable reports before, see this CD post from last summer. Here are results from two recent “report cards,” one on the NBA and one on Associated Press Sports Editors (ASPE) member newspapers:

1. The 2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: National Basketball Association

NBA Players For the 2011-2012 season, 82 percent of the NBA’s players were people of color, decreasing by one percentage point from last season. The percentage of African-American players in the league remained constant from the 2010-2011 season at 78 percent.

Latino players comprised three percent of all NBA players, dropping one percentage point from last season. Both Asian players and players categorized as other races decreased to less than one percent of all players. The percentage of white NBA players increased to 18 percent for the 2011-2012 season. This is a one percentage point increase from the 2010-2011 NBA season, in which the lowest percentage of white NBA players was recorded since the Racial and Gender Report Card began reporting the composition of the NBA teams. International players comprised 17 percent of the NBA’s players during the 2011-2012 season, remaining constant from last season. This remains the lowest percentage of international players since the 2003-2004 season.

NBA Grade for Players: Race: A+

2. Total staffs of all Associated Press Sports Editors (ASPE) member newspapers

The percentage of total staffs comprised of women and people of color increased for the APSE member newspapers in 2012. In 2012, 86 percent of APSE newspaper total staffs were white men and women which was a 1.4 percentage point decrease from 2010 (87.4 percent).

African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and “others” held 7.6 percent, 3.7 percent, 2.5 percent, and 0.3 percent, respectively, in 2012. In 2012, women made up 14.6 percent of total staffs of APSE member newspapers. This was a 3.2 percentage point increase from 2010, when women held 11.4 percent of total staffs of APSE member newspapers.
In 2010, white men and women comprised 87.4 percent of the total staffs of all APSE member newspapers, while African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians were measured at 6.9 percent, 3.3 percent, and 1.9 percent, respectively. In 2008, white men and women comprised 88.3 percent of the total staffs, while African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians were recorded at 6.2 percent, three percent, and 1.7 percent, respectively. In 2006, white men and women comprised 88.6 percent of the total staffs, while African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians, were determined to be 6.1 percent, 3.5 percent, and 1.3 percent, respectively. The percentage of total staff comprised of “other” people of color in every APSE Study has been recorded at less than one percent each time.

The percentage of total staffs comprised of women has remained similar in each of the previous APSE Studies at approximately 11 percent each year before jumping to 14.6 percent in 2012.

Grades for APSE Total staffs: Race: C+/B- and Gender: F

MP: So there seems to be some rather inconsistent and twisted “logic” here. The NBA gets a letter grade of A+ for the racial composition of its players, even though blacks (at 78% of NFL players) are far over-represented relative to their share of the overall population (13.1%), and all three of the other racial categories are grossly under-represented in the NBA relative to their share of the population: whites (18% of NBA players vs. 63.4% of the population, Latinos (3% vs. 16.7%), and Asians (1% vs. 5%). By any realistic metric of racial diversity based on racial representations in the general population, it would sure seem like the NBA deserves a letter grade of F. Apparently the only minority group that matters are blacks, since the NBA gets an A+ even with the significant under-representation of Latinos and Asians.

And that metric seems to be the one applied to sports writers that results in that group getting a letter grade of C+/B- for race and a grade of F for gender. That is, white sports writers and staffers, and especially white male staffers, are over-represented at ASPE newspapers relative to their shares of the total population. Therefore, because women are unrepresented relative to men, the ASPE papers get a letter grade of F, and because black, Hispanic and Asian staffers of both genders are under-represented relative to whites, the ASPE papers get a letter grade of C+/B-.

Bottom Line: I guess the twisted “logic” of diversity can be stated as follows: Whenever women or racial groups are under-represented relative to their share of the general population for employment, college admissions, STEM careers, political office, positions of leadership, head coaching positions, boards of directors, etc. there’s an obvious lack of diversity caused by unaddressed, unconscious, or intentional gender or racial discrimination, and that under-representation must be addressed until proportional representation is achieved. However, whenever women or minority groups are over-represented in any outcome or group (e.g. veterinarians or NBA players) relative to their share of the population, that lack of diversity and over-representation is completely acceptable and need not be addressed. Did I get that right?