There are many benefits to living in a nation that is affectionately labelled a "First World" country. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of this is not having to worry about mindless, everyday, plebeian problems like attaining clean water, having access to basic elementary education, or being able to govern ourselves because of the sacrifices of those who came before us. Instead, we get to tackle the bigger, more important issues like why I can't close my Safari app on my iPhone 6+ and have my YouTube song still play, or why my dorm's Wi-Fi is incredibly suspect, and thus my illegal stream of the Mayweather -Pacquiao fight is taking LIKE FOREVER to buffer. Perhaps one of the greatest issues we get to tackle as the christened "First World" citizens of the world is that of diversity.
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Diversity is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization". You see we, as the enlightened, progressive, beacon of hope for the world are tasked with ensuring that all of our groups and organizations meet the highest standards of racial and cultural mixed-ness. This pursuit is commonly referred to politically as Affirmative Action, which in its nearly 50 year history has been wildly, and unquestionably successful (seriously, don't question it). Some right-wing radicals claim that this practice takes the focus away from a person's ability and qualifications for an admission to college or a job opportunity and instead places that focus on external factors such as race and ethnicity. They claim what began as a good intention has been manipulated and now goes too far. I, however feel differently and don't think it goes far enough. The challenge comes in not settling for just "okay" but encouraging ourselves and others to continue, and push on for "great". You see, while we were all focusing on college admissions, and federal government contracts we let the stuff of true importance, the area of our lives that holds the only real meaningful consequence, slip through the cracks. What is this area you may ask? Well it is none other than our very own National Basketball Association.
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Some of you may find yourselves wondering "why the NBA?" The reason is simple. The NBA is a little too uniform in its "complexion", if you will. So, to combat this we need to take an honest, objective look at what's really important to us. Is it just talent and ability or is there some higher good we can seek like racial equality? Why stop a system that is seemingly functioning fine when we can fix it even more by throwing race in the mix? Let's all take a second and reflect on how much more exciting the NBA would be if each racial group was represented fairly. The American Civil Rights Institute states that we can only achieve a true, genuine and indiscriminate hiring practice if the demographics of the applicant pool are reflected in the pool of hired employees (despite any disparities in qualifications and ability to do the job). This reflection is to hold true for age, race, religion, as well as other statistics and frankly, they could not be more right. Those in America labeled the "majority" make up just over 60% of the population. With an NBA populace of at least 60% "majority" players to match the United States nationwide racial demographics we could finally put this era of American history behind us and move forward to a country free of these frankly prejudiced institutions and bigoted attitudes. Finally, the NBA may begin to honestly stress the fundamentals. After all, what we all want to see are far less off-balance, acrobatic, gravity-defying finger rolls and more wide-open elbow jumpers off the glass. We need less ankle-breaking crossovers and more textbook hesitation dribble drive-and-kicks for the corner 3. Let's face it, deep down all we truly want is less high-flying tomahawk dunks and more sound, finesse lay-ups. At the end of the day we all know fair is fair. No human is born with the idea that "majority" players are somehow inherently less-athletic, this idea is taught and forced upon them by political extremists and radicals every day. It may be a tough pill to swallow but the United States can and will never be a truly objective, free, and equal nation until we make race and other subjective outward appearances a part of every decision we make, including the discriminatory drafting processes of every NBA team starting with the 2016 NBA Draft.
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In our rush to rid Ivy League schools of the well-qualified, oppressive, majority students that walked their halls thinking that they had somehow earned their spots based on superior SAT scores, higher class ranks, or wildly successful extra-curricular activities, we missed the major issue or the crux of the problem, if you will. In our search for equality we lost our way. Ladies, and gentlemen, I am here to right this wrong. I am here to set this country on the path to success in true racial justice and equality for all peoples. Somehow this country has made leaps and bounds in reaching this racial equality while still simultaneously turning a blind eye to its professional sports, particularly the National Basketball Association. Somehow, we allowed this group of athletic elite to sit in their ivory tower of athleticism and exempt themselves from true racial equality. We have watched silently as they performed super-human feats of athleticism in the 12th pair of shoes they created for themselves with the help of Phil Knight. Some say it is too late; the NBA is too far gone. Some say that the athletic 1% in this country have too much of a monopoly in the sports world to ever lose their power. These beautiful, blessed few with their superior bone structure and herculean muscle definition can, with the help of exorbitant signing bonuses and advances in genetic engineering, pass-on their athletically superior genes to their own offspring, forever relegating us of the less-gifted bloodlines from ever partaking in their lifestyle. I however, see things differently. I believe in the equality of all peoples, and that no one population group is more equal than the rest. I refuse to submit to the bidding of the 1%! I refuse to continue buying tickets to see the best players play! It's simply unfair. This is 2015 after all; it's time to wake up, you bigots! We need to come to our senses and realize that it shouldn't just be the best players playing, it should be the best, most racially-accurate demographic group of people playing. The United States Supreme Court stated that colleges may "consider race as a defining characteristic in determining talent" rather than strictly basing admission decisions on a person's level of ability. This is key to becoming a truly post-racial society, and thus the time has come to finish what we started and apply this same standard to professional sports. Essentially, we need to stop judging people on the content of their character but rather make those kinds of decisions based on a perplexing and highly cryptic formula that considers mainly the content of their character but also relies heavily on their outward appearance over which they have no control.
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Luckily, the solution is here. This is America right? When we see injustice it is our civic duty to act. We must begin by legislating the sh*t out of the 1%. They have enjoyed their privilege long enough. They didn't earn their natural athletic ability -- somebody gave that to them. How dare they claim that they reached the pinnacles of their sport by "hardwork" and "determination". Is that to mean that their majority counterparts don't work hard? That someone they are just less inclined to apply themselves to reach such success? This racist narrative built to subjugate the majority athletes is sickening.We need to organize marches, come up with witty hashtags that show the world we mean business! Finally, we will push for sweeping reform in this system that unfairly treats the less athletically gifted as being somehow less athletic in such events. We, the less qualified, will insist on favorable curves for our 40-yard dash times, for rounding up a few inches in vertical leap measurements. We will call for 2-inch and 20 pound bonuses to our listed height and weight calculations. We want equality and we want it now. How long must we endure watching the NBA draft and witness the less-talented basketball players get repeatedly passed over by more-talented athletes simply because they fit into a "majority group"? What about diversity? What about fairness? These majority players, many of whom were raised in upper-middle class neighborhoods, never had access to the same talented young athletes with which to compete. How can they be fairly expected to contend with their "minority" counterparts who from the day of their very birth had supreme athletic talent right around the corner? This is minority privilege. This country that claims to want equality and fairness for all peoples is nothing but a sham to divert our attention away from this minority privilege. When will the madness end? Don't get me wrong, this movement has had its trailblazers. I can't possibly thank enough, the Steve Nash's of the world, the Brian Scalabrine's, the JJ Reddick's, the Jimmer Fredette's, and further every Duke team since Coach K took over. But, it's not enough, it can't be enough. We refuse to be patronized by the allowance of just a few of these kinds of players into the upper echelons of their sport just because of the color of the skin. We refuse to be the token diversity player, or the guy with "great hustle", or the "3-point specialist". These are condescending terms created to box these majority athletes in and limit their success. The time has come for real tangible change. Remember how happy we all were when Jeremy Lin was still good? The warm fuzzy feeling we all had in our tummies? We need that again. Who can honestly say they wouldn't like to see a Hasidic Jew hit a step-back over LeBron? I know I would. Frankly if you wouldn't like to see that you are a racist and your opinion is now invalid. This isn't the 1980's anymore. We can give up this archaic notion that somehow making these decisions based solely on ability is acceptable. We need to wake up America and we need to do it now.
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