Obama should talk basketball today...

   First, I am a solid John Edwards supporter. Obama has remained a distant second on my list while Hillary Clinton has been an even more distant third.
   Today, Obama will address topics that include his minister and his race. While browsing the newspapers online as I normally do every morning, I came across this article,  Dreaming about Hoops, not Education by Derrick Jackson from the Boston Globe.
   Join me below for just a few thoughts on the article and how Obama can use it.

   Listed below are the current graduation rates for black basketball players at a few of the Top 10 programs in the NCAA March Madness Tournament that starts tonight.
     
    North Carolina- 75%
    Memphis-        33%
    UCLA-           30%
    Kansas-         33%
    Tennessee-      25%
    Texas-          22%
    Wisconsin-      40%

The current rates are based on scholarship athletes who entered school from the fall of 1997 through the fall of 2000 and graduated within six years.

   The data is somewhat dated, I'll give you but when you extend the time to 6 years it will be older automatically. So here it is, in shall we say "black and white". Black athletes are recruited and dined before they enroll. Coached and pampered after they are in the program. Academic advisers are paid huge $$'s to monitor their class attendance, gather their work assignments for them when they are on road-trips, and establish possible study halls for them when they are not on the road or practicing.

   Since Texas Western shocked the nation in 1966 with a national championship over Kentucky with its all-white team, colleges have recognized the talent pool in this nation and have exploited it. Some may say, it is not exploiting. For some colleges, I would agree. These athletes are given many great opportunities. In 1966, Texas Western had none of the starting five that graduated on time.

   The church in African-American history is different. The Republicans will connect Obama's church to the same tone of hate speech and intolerance as the country at large has done for a minority of the Muslim churches. I can see it coming. Side-by-side black and white grainy video of church services of Wright and some service at a mosque in Pakistan.

   In thirty seconds there will be no time for subtlety. It will be in your face hate talk. Obama will address this issue today as I understand. It can be done but he can not dance around the issue. Our nation has a racial history that is intolerable. Here we are in 2008 and our nation's finest colleges treat their athletes in this way.

   The ministers of traditionally black churches throughout this country have served a unique role. They have help shape some of the disparity in income, social advancement, housing, education, and general opportunity for upward movement by preaching the message in way that outlines the problems but also encourages a path for advancement that has avoided riots and revolts.

   In 59 years, I have moved from a conservative middle class white kid growing up in the rural South where I never attended an integrated school until my senior year. I saw bathrooms that were separate. Water fountains separate. My parents ran a small grill that had a small window on the side to serve African-Americans until I was in high school.

  I have changed. Our nation has changed. The question is have we changed enough. Writers like Kristol look at Obama and are fearful. It is like a school yard fight on the playground when you were little. Once you had a guy on the ground and he was faltering, you were almost afraid to let him up. What would he do when he was up. Kristol and many conservative Republicans don't know what Obama would do when he is up as President. They are scared.

   Obama needs to attack this fear straight on. Deliver the facts. Our nation should not be any longer a racially divided nation. We should not seek to divide the world with war on Muslims. We should not seek to dominate the world with our military power. We should not allow corporations to control the world through the World Bank or the IMF.
Now is the time to make the break and attack this culture directly. If he doesn't, we all lose.

   There are so many examples like the article today that I referenced where the facts are clear. Our nation has huge issues to solve financially without having to worry about torture, habeas corpus, corruption, or wiretapping. There are bigger issues on the table.

  Obama's speech today has to extol us to action. That is what he does best. I pray that he can meet the challenge and move into the Presidency.

•  Just a few thoughts on Obama's speech..

    I hope he hits a three point shot that wins. Nothing but net, Obama!

  by NC Dem on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 05:48:41 AM PDT

  •  Tricky issue:

    Here we are in 2008 and our nation's finest colleges treat their athletes in this way.

    I worked as a TA at UConn in their heyday, and the athletes received astounding educational support, including a professor who worked with the team full time, whose salary was paid by the Athletics Department.  And yet they still struggled to graduate, for many reasons, not the least of which was the lure of the NBA.

    The NCAA is to blame, IMO.  Everyone gets rich off these athletes except the athletes.  Big-time college sports should go semi-pro, with school affiliation in name only.  That's basically what it is now, except the athletes don't get paid for their hard work.

    by benthos on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:02:51 AM PDT

    •  I assume you had seen this.

      Near-perennial New England tournament representative Connecticut is among the worst of all, with a black player graduation rate of only 13 percent.

      by NC Dem on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:22:14 AM PDT

      •  Actually no...

        doesn't surprise me though.

        by benthos on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 08:24:13 AM PDT

  •  Are you forgetting something?

    Senator Obama went to Harvard, which hasn't made the NCAA tournament since the late 1940s!  Although it could be worse; he could have gone to Northwestern (my alma mater), the only school in the six power confrences never to have appeared in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournment (although it hosted the first one, back in 1939).

    Of course, had Obama been a Northwestern grad instead of a Harvard alum, he wouldn't be where he is today, ready to win the Democratic Presidential nomination and God willing, the Presidency this November.  Six times in the past, a Northwestern graduate has been the Democratic nominee, and each time that candidate (Byran in 1896, 1900 and 1908; Stevenson in 1952 and 1956; McGovern in 1972) saw his candidacy crash and burn.  It's a record of futility no other college can match... or quite frankly would want to!

    by Randall Sherman on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 07:09:59 AM PDT

•  I love a good sports analogy.

  n/t

  by Annie Maim on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:00:08 AM PDT

•  Well, I want to send a shout-out to...

  North Carolina for its 75% grad. rate. That's outstanding.

  by va dare on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:06:49 AM PDT

  •  I'll have to admit...

       that as a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, this does lift my spirits although I wish it could be higher.

    by NC Dem on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:14:07 AM PDT

•  I am pretty sure they count NBA early entrees

  against the schools graduation rate, which is a joke.  Sure the kid didn't graduate, but instead he became rich (and can always go back to school if he needs a degree).

  by SilverOz on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:16:24 AM PDT

  •  No they don't unless there is a problen already.

    This is made more embarrassing by the fact that the NCAA no longer penalizes schools in what they call the Graduation Success Rate for star players who leave early, as long they left in good standing.

    They changed this a few years ago and they also extended the time frame to 6 years just to help the percentages look better. It hasn't helped.

    by NC Dem on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:25:26 AM PDT

    •  If that's the case then, my bad

      but I know they used to count early exits against the universities.

      by SilverOz on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:51:29 AM PDT

  •  They do...

    ...and this is truly distortionary in some cases (such as the above-mention UConn) where the schools get a disproportionate number of NBA-level talents.

    But also, let's not kid ourselves.  There are less than 60 NBA draft picks per year, about a fifth of whom are international players and another fifth of whom never play in an NBA game.  There is not nearly as many athletes getting "rich" off basketball as people tend to think.

    by Jay Elias on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:30:59 AM PDT

•  Anyone remember

  how the MSM ostricized Vince Carter for arriving late to a professional game because he attended his college graduation? Black athletes are held to a different standard...

  http://espn.go.com/...

  by TexasTD on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:33:38 AM PDT

  •  Another shining example....

      of the Carolina Blue spirit. He left Chapel Hill in the draft of 1998 and he finished the needed courses in 3 years while playing pro ball. Not bad.
    I appreciate the link.

    by NC Dem on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:48:38 AM PDT