Not sure how many of you saw Charles Barkley’s comments on race playing a factor in the hiring of the new football coach at Auburn. The new coach is white and has a losing record (5-19) as the head coach of Iowa State the last 2 season. Turner Gill, the black head coach of the University at Buffalo, was also interviews. His record the past 2 seasons is (13-12). This year his team went to the Mid-American Conference championship.  I agree with Charles on this one. Race played a factor. There is a rumor that it also played a factor 2 years ago when the Dolphins hired Cam Cameron over Mike Tomlin. The rumor is that Mike Tomlin, who is black, was “hip-hop” for the franchise. Again this is just a rumor but if it is true we can say race played a factor.

Now here is where it gets sticky and I have some disagreement with some who says this is racism. In every situation where race plays a factor is it racism?

Here are some of my basic observations and “generalizations”. Most white people tend to have mainly white friends. Most Black people tend to have black friends. The same can be said about other races. If you go to a birthday party and your white friend hardly have any black people at the party is it due to racism.

Here is another situation. You are black.You are watching an Olympic race with 8 men from countries you have never heard of before. This means you have no country alliance. You do not know the background of each runner so there is no “touchy feely” story to sway you to a runner. You do notice that one of the runners are black. Who do you want to win? Chances are if you are black you are cheering for the black running. Is this racism.

I am not an expert in Sociology but I say “NO”. Because we there are differences in race people tend to gravitate to the familiar. It does not mean you hate the other race. It means you may have more in common with your “own”. So race, not racism, can play a factor in how you make a decision that may seem “racist”.