At the height of the chase for college football’s national championship last week, USA Today included an unfortunate editorial that lambasted the fact there are too few black guys who are head coaches of our country’s college teams.

That editorial left too much out, such as the fact our nation also does not have one black senator in Washington unless they soon seat what is now being called “The Illinois Buy-In.” The truth is, Einstein, this isn’t just a “sports” thing. You see, I don’t worry nearly as much about the fact we have too few African-American football coaches as I do about what it is going to take to fix the bigger problem.

USA Today is the newspaper that wonderfully chronicled earlier this fall how some college football players, especially blacks, were being exploited by our universities. You hardly have to be a rocket scientist to connect the dots.
Look at our Fortune 500 companies. Look at the parts managers in a car dealership. Look at the faces in an emergency room. When it comes to leadership – and making a profit – you’ll find a heart-wrenching lack of black faces. My simple theory is that it is best explained because of a lesser education.

Let me be real specific here. The two high schools in Chattanooga that have the largest percentage of blacks are Howard and Brainerd. Would you like to know how many kids – good kids who deserve much better – from those two schools have just gone to college in the last five years?

Why don’t you call a guy named “Jim” at our County School headquarters and ask him? While you’re at it, ask him about the graduation rates at both places, but, first, go to the Tennessee Department of Education website and see what it says first.

This isn’t to say ole Jim would tell a tall tale or skew the statistics, but about this time last year the superintendent got up and told us how well we were doing when one in every four kids systemwide doesn’t make it. If you think that’s bad, check the black schools individually, but get a box of Kleenex before you do.

I know, you’re going to chide me for calling African-Americans “blacks” because it is improper, but my point is that if we had half of those who insist on changing the name of the race every 10 years instead getting “our kids” to school we’d be ahead of the curve. Further, I could care less what you call any person, regardless or color or national origin, until you label them “a success” of some form or another.

Am I a racist? Not at all, especially compared to the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons who have made millions in donations from black people for consistently leaping to a most-particular side in every issue. What heroes those two reverends would become if they exhibited the same Christ-like love for the rest of us, the whites, the Hispanics, or the tired and poor multi-cultured who desperate need such champions.

Trust me, that’s what Dr. Martin Luther King did while he was on this earth. You don’t believe that? Read his sermons and you will weep because his voice and his ideals were for all of us. What I would give if I could take Dr. King on a walk through our local high schools and let him talk to those children. What would it be worth to hear him speak on why Howard High opens two hours later each day so the same children can sleep?

Don’t you see, the problem isn’t on the Senate floor, on the football field, but in every living room in America. I scoff at reports our black kids are being discriminated against unless you tell me a big reason is that our society coddles them too much because of our somewhat sickening past mistakes.

If I was King, the first thing I would do is bulldoze Howard High. I base my belief on the countless and endless tales I have been told by coaches and teachers and others who genuinely love the kids who go there - perhaps more than some of their own parents do. If that sounds harsh, please check with any of the judges in our courts building. Call me a liar, but first talk to the police who patrol those areas before you sling mud my way.

What we’ve got to do, not as a school system and Lord knows not as a school board, is figure out a way to take a tiny black child and equip that worthy and wonderful kid with what it takes to get to the Senate, to become a head coach. We don’t owe anybody anything, but we need to invest in these kids because the rewards are far too great to ignore.

I think a “quick fix” for some of the older ones – if we can somehow get a diploma in their hands – is the Marine Corps or the Army or somewhere a drill sergeant can instill the self-discipline, the pride in themselves, and the “want to” they may not have gotten as “latch-key” kids. Don’t talk to me about Iraq; this is way bigger than that. This is about kids just like yours and mine who, through no fault of their own when they were just five and six, were unable to be treated like ours were for whatever reason. The Marines will at least give ‘em a better chance than a book of food stamps will.

Trust me, these are great human beings! You think they want to play basketball underneath a rainy outside hoop at 9:30 on a cold school night? Do you seriously believe that a teenagers’ skin color ought to be a “signal” to an employer? Yes, that is illegal, but, yes, it happens every day. We’ve got to stop it, not with a federal marshal but because that boy or girl has the education and skills to make each of them a diamond an employer can’t afford to turn down.

You see, when these young people get out in this big world, things change. Companies that hire are not as interested about social reform as they are about profits and liabilities. An employee is either profitable or … well, replaceable. Are you with me here? What happens, then, when our young guy is doing the best he can and along comes somebody who is … er, “better qualified” and who knows you gotta’ get up way before dawn to find the worm?

Read some books by Johns-Hopkins’ Ben Carson, the most beloved neurosurgeon in the United States. The only way you’ll know he’s black is to see a picture. Read about how his mom used to make him and his brother write a book report every week from the age of 10. And how it wasn’t until 17 that he found out his mom couldn’t read. Lord knows we have far too few Mrs. Carsons.

Listen to T.D. Jakes, easily one of America’s favorite pastors, or study Tony Dungy, the Indianapolis Colts’ coach who both – in my heart of hearts – have some of the greatest views on life itself I’ve ever read or heard. Dungy just retired yesterday
but let me make you an an obvious promise about him – the best is yet to
come.

Trust me, there is so much room at the top for African-Americans it is unbelievable. I hold Barack Obama up as the best example ever, but let’s not be so naive, so “uneducated,” that we overlook the fact he headed the Law Review when he was at Harvard. That’s because, despite a somewhat tumultuous upbringing, he had the tools to get the job done, to get there.

Now, instead of whiny editorials and pointing fingers, what must we do – each of us - to save others just like Barack so that one day, who knows, several may become head football coaches?

royexum@aol.com