"Study of N.B.A. Sees Racial Bias in Calling Fouls"

In my opinion their analysis is flawed. They looked at black referees calling fouls on white players and viceversa.

To prove that a bias exists, they should look at who had the ball and who was guarding him. If a black player has the ball and a black player commits a foul and it is a white referee, how can there be prejudice? If the white official is prejudiced, then why would he want to benefit one black player over another?

The comparison is only valid if players of different races are guarding each other and the referee has a bias in favor of the player of his own race.

 

All it is, is affirmative action in basketball. The general assumption by the public, is that white people are at a disadvantage in a black person's game. So, the white players are thrown a bone.

Seriously, what spurred such a study? Is anyone crying foul about unfairness?

 

Good point. Let 'em dig a little further, they'll find something to squawk about.

 

that's a good point, but the very fact that a white official calls blacks for more fouls implies that the bias happens in inter-racial match-ups.

But there's all sorts of things that could be going on here. It might be more cultureal then based on race. That the way whites perceive the game is different from blacks, and therefore the bias.

Also, you're talking a 2-4% difference in foul calls - one additional foul called over the course of like 5 games. That's not much. Also, it may not be a bias held by ALL white officials but just 20% - enough to move the needle overall 2-4%.

It's an interesting study because no one even has brought it up. But here it is....


I think it says more about humanity then basketball though....

 

My thoughts:

1. Yao loses either way.
2. Nowitzki should benefit most with a female ref.

 

wow, the Times article is pretty good. Very interesting.

 

and that's why Utah gets away with all those flops! they draft dadgum white people!

 

Unlike most articles which attempt to explain statistics, this one actually points out the extensive amount of effort needed to control various potential biases. It sounds like a well-conceived paper, and I'd love to read it.

 

Bingo. Then again, it's more convenient to call someone a racist than to do actual research that takes these types of factors into account.

 

so what about the black players who act white?

 

Thats why we need VSpan on the floor instead of JL3 or Head, he gives us a chance with the Dick Bavettas of the world.

 

Yeah, Yao loses either way. Then again, you never know this might create an sudden influx of Asian people joining the NBA's refree camp

BTW, what is the point of this article? Breaking news: racial bias exists!!! Welcome to America.

 

Like Karl Malone?

Sincerely,
Derrick Coleman

 

They're no doubt counting Anglo European players as "white" -- and we know how many of THOSE guys made the all-defense team. The majority of them run from contact.

 

read the article.

 

interesting point lunaticrocket.
i suppose then, its not necessarily a unconscious prejudice "black vs white" and referee chooses white. but instead an unconscious prejudice that since he is black he must have fouled, i.e. unconscious prejudice that black people are more likely to break rules.

seems an important point that these unconscious prejudices exist.

important detail is that no one is accusing the refs of outright conscious prejudice. seems more that the study is trying to show unconscious prejudice is there; people who are outrightly prejudice are generally easy to spot; its the subtle tendencies in decent folk that is particularly distubing imo.

im curious if the results of this study could be equally used to show that black referees are more permissive with black players. b/c there is no real objective point for if it was a foul or not. maybe black referees have a tendency to miss calls when calling for players of their same ethnicity? i'm not saying this is the case, but just curious if the data could as easily be spun that way.

did anyone see the end of the GSW Dallas game 5? wow, really seemed the refs called it full on for Dallas at the end of it. seemed the color of the jersey meant more than the color of the skin imo. also size of the market in the respective city always seems to be a big factor somehow. not to mention home vs away, to keep home fans happy. superstars to keep fans interested get the calls so they can see their fav player do well - lotsa easy biases to point out. i do think the bias in the article is very interesting and that there is probably something to it.

 

Its all because of the Jazz. All their white players don't get called for jack.

So do they consider Deron Williams, Battier, Bibby, and Kidd black or white. Enquiring minds want to know.

 

Now we all know why Yao got screwed night in and night out.

 

One of the authors of the study sheds some light on its purpose here (excerpts from the research paper's abstract):
http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/jwolfers/Papers/NBARaceSummary.pdf

veddy veddy intehressting.

the entire paper is here, though i sure as hell didn't read it, way too long. after all it is a research paper:
http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/jwolfers/research.shtml#NBARace

 

Interesting read, interesting conclusions. Taking this quote, Mr. Berri added: “It’s not about basketball — it’s about what happens in the world. This is just the nature of decision-making, and when you have an evaluation team that’s so different from those being evaluated. Given that your league is mostly African-American, maybe you should have more African-American referees — for the same reason that you don’t want mostly white police forces in primarily black neighborhoods.”

It appears to me that there is an additional problem faced by Yao and Shaq, primarily - they are somehow deemed to be difficult to ref due to their size. Perhaps the NBA needs to recruit and develope some large, tall people to ref the middle.