More African-Americans, Please, Bruce...

Then your kids are racist, and you need to correct that behavior.

How would you feel if a bunch of white kids rooted for Germany against us because of Pope, Gooch, Beasley, Johnson, etc.? Those kids, too, would be stone racists.

And for the love of God...the US is approx. 12% black. So a representative Nats team would be 1 black, 1 Hispanic, Mark Chung or Ching, and 8 "pure" whites. WTF do your kids want? Jesus, it drives me nuts when people call for more blacks on the Nats, when they're ALREADY WAAAAY OVERREPRESENTED (going by the numbers.)

The first responsibility of a youth coach isn't to teach the game of soccer, it's to teach the game of life. You're a complete failure. You should quit.

 

No, you can't get out of it that easily. The thread title says "Bruce." He ain't in charge of marketing, and it's MLS, not the Fed, that markets players anyway. Your abject ignorance and sickening racism were exposed, so now you're moving the goalposts. Won't work.

 

That'd be an insult to women. If you're really hip, you'll know what I'm referring to.

If you wonder why I'm going off on this racist so hard, it's because I'm over on the Katrina threads at politics trying to get the white racists there, the ones who are so quick to blame the poor blacks of NO, to confront their racism, and then over here we have a perfect justification for that crypto-racist canard: "They're always crying about racism."

It's people like you, Master, who let the racist clowns off the hook.

 

Being a huge fan doesn't make you a good player, and neither does playing make you a huge fan. I have friends who play at fairly high levels and could care less really about what teams around the world are doing, and on the other hand I know people who cant play to save their lives who are fanatical. This whole racial issue is a load of crap, who really cares where someone is from or what they look like? If they can play then they can play.

 

stupid and racist thread...

 

And whats wrong with that. Why would you care what the team looks like if it wins? The entire attitude behind this question is just wrong to me.

 

GREAT POST!

The Black Yank says "ditto".

The only things that I would like to add are that I would like you to encourage the kids that you are so kind enough to coach and take an interest in to appreciate the diversity in the sport and use it to help expand their cultural boudaries (to learn geography, some basic things about the cultures of others, using the sport as a vehicle--that is how I personally was able to learn about places like Mexico, Turkey, Peru, Romania, etc).

The African-American player pool is better then it ever has been My Brutha. With the efforts of people like you and I, people who "look like the kids that we would like to see develop a love of the sport and with people who look completely different (the White family who moved next door from Massachusettes introduced me to the sport at the age of 8 and one of the son's served as my first youth coach and to this day when I see them every so many years--almost 30 years later, I thank them for it)--we can expose the kids the sport that we enjoy that and at the same time teach them life lessons like DGNB so articulately detailed. Teach them that some of them may be the next EJ or DMB if they work hard enough...

We've come a long way since guys from my hometown, (Columbia, MD) Darryl Gee and Desmond Armstrong were pretty much the only Black guys on the US National team.

 

What's "unique" about Zidane, in comparison to, say, Platini? Or do French of Italian descent count?

 

Everywhere in the world, the best players tend to be those kids who grow up playing & watching soccer, living in communities where soccer is the undisputed #1 sport. The largest community like that in the U.S. would be the Mexican-American neighborhoods.

 

Gotta agree with superdave here. TMACK continues to say that we are all missing his point(s), but the fact of the matter is that his points are rooted in racism (and I tend to think that term is used too flippantly all too often, but this one is dead on). Take many of TMACK's comments, adjust them so that they are coming from a caucasian as opposed to an african american, and suddenly we have a racist, folks. It's the kind of racism that comes from ignorance, not ignorance as in being a 'dumb ignorant / imbecile', but ignorant as in not making the connection from a blatant concept to a quieter, less obvious form.

To reiterate this point ala superdave's post:
How would you feel if a bunch of white kids rooted for Germany against us because of Pope, Gooch, Beasley, Johnson, etc.? Those kids, too, would be stone racists.

TMACK...seriously...flip all your blacks to whites in your statements and re-read them.

 

Do you guys remember the recent Eddie Johnson article in Sports Illustrated? There was a qoute by Arena saying that for the first time in US soccer history he could start an all-African American lineup. This wasn't just a novelty. They showed the line-up and I think it would do pretty well.

Bruce needs to pick the best players available regardless of race. It just so happends that our best team is a mixture of races. Hmmm, just like America itself.

 

DO NOT QUIT! Ignore that. You are not "a complete failure". It's just that we had to challenge you to try to view things from a different perspective.

DO NOT QUIT!. Ignore that...I'm not gonna give up on you Brutha. No reason too. I don't know anyone who doesn't need to be challenged from time to time. That comes from the human condition. If I had a dime for everytime that I have benefited from someone challenging me (even if I didn't abandon my original position), I'd be rich. That is how critically thinking people exist and evolve...

PLEASE, PLEASE KEEP COACHING AND THINK ABOUT SOME OF THE THOUGHTS THAT WE HAVE SHARED (the positive ones)...

 

Greece just won the Euros. Name their blacks. SoKo made the semis of the World Cup. Name their blacks. Italy's not too bad. Name their blacks. Mexico's ranked #5. Names their blacks. The Czech Republic is a power. Name their blacks.

Dude, if you were white, you'd have different sets of white hoods and sheets, appropriate for various occasions.

 

If he didn't correct his kids' racism, yes, he's a failure, and yes, he should quite.

Jesus, again, think of a coach of an all-white team coming on here and saying his kids were rooting for Germany, because of the overrepresentation of blacks on the USNT. Would you excuse that so quickly? Would you want that guy coaching children? I wouldn't.

 

I want all the white folks and the black folks here to take a step back and recognize that we need some Indians on the national team. And i dont mean native Americans *yeah, they've been WRONGED, but i can't fight for everyone*.

We need Indian-Americans on the team so my kids will have someone to look up to. So far, i have been raised on Apu from the Simpsons and Kumar from the Wes Anderson flicks (like Bottle Rocket). Essentially, we been hoodwinked.

Do you know how disappointing it is to know that the only Indians to ever grace the light of ESPN are 11 year old geeks in Spelling Bees?? *which we dominate, but you can't really brag about that anywhere but at a science fair*

So before anyone goes any further, let's realize that there's more to this race issue than HAVES and HAVE NOTS.

There's also the AINT GOT SHI#s, too.

That is all for now. Continue as you were.

 

White guilt and black entitlement/inferiority complex issues working at their absolute most classic here.

Sad.

 

The only thing more absurd than this topic is the fact that it has gotten 135 responses and the mods haven't shut it down!! How long would it have taken if someone were to ask for more "white" players???

I was in Columbus and I can guarantee you that when Ralston and Beasley scored nobody was saying "yeah! the white guy scored..." or "yeah, the black guy scored..."

Why is everyone keeping this thread alive....and yes, I know I'm keeping it alive by posting this but please...can we be done with this???

 

He is NOT a "complete failure".

As far as your question goes, you obviously haven't read to many of my posts so I will actually answer what could otherwise be taken as an attack or the suggestion that I might have some sort of double standard (which I always strive to avoid):

Superdave, my Friend, I would say the same exact thing to White or Latino (Non White/Black) or Indian or Bosnian or whatever coach who had the same situation. I try not write off people so easily.

If someone has a love for kids then I want them to coach. The only way that I wouldn't want them to coach is if they continually demonstrated negative behaviour. If it is a pattern, then there is a serious leadership issue. But if the issue can be addressed, then there is no reason for the person to quit. We have challenged him. Let's give things a chance to see what happens...

I'm hoping that he will get some of what we are trying to share with him.

 

Seems to me like Bruce doesn't favor anybody other than UVA grads. Here is a list of Black players with caps on the National team under Bruce Arena off the top of my head:

Eddie Johnson
Corey Gibbs
Jeff Cunningham
Eddie Pope
Oguchi Onweyu
Brian West
Clyde Simms
DaMarcus Beasley
CJ Brown
Zach Thornton
Tony Sanneh
Earnie Stewart
Cobi Jones
Roy Lassiter?
Robin Fraser
Tim Howard
Edson Buddle
David Regis

 

I think the NBA should do more to include recruiting and playing of white players. Seems like evey NBA roster is made up of inner city AA youths.



Arena plays the best that he has. Try getting a clue instead of playing the race card every chance you get.

 

No one's sticking up for midgets. Typical.

 

Its a shame that the first post was lacking in complete information, second it is more of a shame that we still have people in this country that look at the color margin to decide if they like the team or not. Last I checked it was the US National Team not the US all white team, or US all black team. Frankly I don't care what color the player is, I want to see the best players play.

That these kids would root for a pre-domiantely black country against the US for the sole reason that they are a black team does not say much for those kids and they way they are raised or look at America.

 

Good grief this was a stupid post.

USMNT is pretty diverse and has a good amount of black Americans on the team. They are great players and I support every one of them just as much as any white player.

I think the vast majority of white people in this country are very race-sensitive because they have to be. Go to just about any other country and you'll know exactly what I mean.

Black America needs to understand that to end racism they need to stop helping to perpetuate the feeling of isolation. It's a cyclical relationship and half of the issue lays in your hands. Move on man, move on.

 

I have that issue and I thought it was well written. The team should consist of the best players, not a politically correct team.

 

interesting to see the american perspective on this. In France there are articles to the opposite, wondering why there aren't more white players on the National squad. It's because, at the moment, France has many good black players. It is not a racial thing. It is because of the athleticism of the players at the coach's disposal, who at the moment, happen to be majority black.

And as a side note, the term African-American is funny to us Europeans. Imagine the clunkiness involved in calling blacks here, African-French, African-Dutch, African-Italian. You get the idea.

To sum up, though. As the sport grows it will attract more athletes, in turn, more black players. Just give it time. It will get to the inner city, if it hasn't started to already.