In the thin, angry haze that divides one person’s compliment and another person’s stereotype lies the sports world’s color line.
As Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry apologized Wednesday for saying he needed more black recruits to boost team speed, two fan camps sneered at far different, larger enemies.
Some, such as former Air Force cadet Bob Fretzs, complained that hypersensitivity is choking American speech while a biased media creates a warped reality: “It’s a politically correct world today. … Anyone who makes this into a derogatory slur is totally out of it.”
But others, such as former University of Colorado team psychologist Will Miles, said DeBerry’s remarks revived old stereotypes and opened old wounds: “Many people of color are very offended by this kind of comment, that no matter your level of education, this is still how we’re viewed – whether we can run fast or not.”
Once again, sports provides the landscape for a racial divide.
From Howard Cosell describing a black receiver as a “little monkey” to the late Green Bay Packers star Reggie White commenting that white people “know how to tap into money,” America’s happy pastimes have long been the places where harsh issues of color bubble up.
This week, while assessing his team’s 48-10 loss to TCU, DeBerry said: “It was very obvious to me the other day that the other team had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did. It just seems to me to be that way. Afro-American kids can run very well.”
A color barrier quickly formed around that quote.
Many fans like Fretzs listen to DeBerry’s words and say they don’t hear an ounce of racism. He chalks it up to a tabloid-news concoction.
“It was actually a compliment toward the (TCU) team,” said Fretzs, a spokesman for the Air Force quarterback club. “I took a guest to the game Saturday and he made the same comment. … It was a statement of fact.”
And inside those facts, where team rosters meet demographics, the truth can be found, adds longtime Denver sports radio host Thierry Smith.
“How many cornerbacks in the National Football League are white? How many wide receivers? How many tailbacks? We could go on and on,” said Smith, who is black. “When you’re talking speed, you’re talking about the black athlete. … Fisher is getting a bad rap.”
Many e-mails to The Denver Post on Wednesday supported DeBerry and questioned the controversy. Reader Ron Latrielle said it’s time to “get real and loosen up a little.”
In an interview, Latrielle compared the accompanying frenzy to McCarthyism of the 1950s.
“There’s a segment of leadership within certain communities that are extremely vocal and they get the ear of the press and they get the ear of business leaders and they’re influencing society with a certain level of intimidation,” said Latrielle, who described himself as a Denver professional. “We’ve got this kind of stuff going on right now, and the subject today is not communism, it’s the race issue.”
It is a race issue, contends Denver psychologist Miles, who said it falls into the age-old practice of lauding the physical talents of black people while minimizing or discounting their intellect and character. That’s why DeBerry’s words hit a nerve.
“We’re very leery of that as African-Americans,” Miles said. “That’s part of the danger of citing these traits of superiority based on biology. It moves close to that kind of camp.”
“This is just really a continuing dehumanization of black people, and it hurts because it’s not true,” added Lawrence Borom, a member of the Black Education Advisory Council for Denver Public Schools.
Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-820-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com.
