Race and Sport Panel

Guests: William Mitchell, Retired College Football Coach, USAF pilot; Cameron McCoy, PhD, Assistant Professor, History, Brigham Young University; Mikaela Dufur, Associate Professor, Sociology, Brigham Young University Between the Super Bowl last weekend and the Winter Olympics starting this weekend, it’s a big moment in sports. When we watch elite athletes, I suspect most of us think we’re “color-blind.” We don’t care about the athlete’s skin; we care that they win.  But how do you explain the fact that 70 percent of NFL players are black, but quarterbacks, coaches and owners in the league are overwhelmingly white? And why is it that of the 242 members of Team USA in Pyeongchang, South Korea, only ten are black and 11 Asian American? That, by the way, is a record level of the diversity for Americans at the Winter Olympics.