Via the AP:
According to an upcoming paper by a University of Pennsylvania professor and a Cornell graduate student, white referees called fouls against black players at a higher rate than they did against white players.
This is called looking for a problem where there is none. A clear case of race-baiting, if I’ve ever seen one. I have no idea why the authors undertook such a study or what they expected to learn. In the NBA, blacks make up the majority of players – I saw one stat that said 78% – so the fact that they get more fouls seems, well, normal.
What’s good, though, is that the players themselves think the study is bogus:
If referees are whistling Kobe Bryant for more fouls because of the color of his skin, he’s never noticed it. “I think I’ve gotten more techs from black refs than white refs,” the Los Angeles Lakers star jokingly said Wednesday. “That’s reverse racism probably.”
[…]
[LeBron] James put it this way: “It’s stupid.”
Chicago Bulls veteran forward P.J. Brown said: “Somebody’s got too much time on their hands.”
I’m glad to see the responses. Now can they just play ball?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Hmmm, I don’t know that I agree with you.
If the proportion of calls on blacks relative to their numbers is higher (which I presume that the university study has taken into account) than whites relative to their numbers, then the paper is indeed valid.
Same as minorities receive harsher sentences, are stopped more often, have their cars searched more often, and so on, racial bias is VERY REAL.
And how do I know…? Because I’ve visited public places with my son and his friends and notice folks suddenly look for their wallets and purses.
This is not the same as minorities receiving harsher sentences or DWB. In the NBA, blacks are the majority, not the minority. And, take a look at the linked story. The NBA looked at the stats themselves and said it wasn’t so.
But the kicker for me is this: let’s assume that they are right, that somehow, more fouls are called on black players than white players. What effect does that have?
The only effect that such a bogus “study” has is to discredit the very real cases of racial bias that exist, such as profiling and sentencing. It’s a densensitization of the public towards the real issues of racial bias.
Oh, I don’t think it really does that, V. I mean, the reporting on it may have that effect, but the study itself may well be indicative of the pervasive and invasive influence that race has on just about everything.
And given the apparent academic nature of the study, I think we’re pretty safe in assuming that the various statistic elements have been accounted for (e.g., we’re dealing in relative calls per ethnicity, and not absolute numbers, etc.).
(And I wouldn’t really give two thoughts to anything the NBA itself had to say about anything involving the NBA. Give me any question or any situation, and I can give you the answer that the NBA will give – that is, the answer most flattering to the NBA.)
If they were promoting the study as indicative of such, I’d agree with you. But nothing I’ve seen so far has been anything other than what I posted above. To me, it’s a little like the boy who cried wolf.
And no, I don’t put much stock into what the NBA says about itself. I just mentioned it, mainly because it has about the same value as this study does.
Perhaps black players are proportionally called for fouls more frequently than white players.
But that doesn’t mean that the only possible reason for the discrepancy is the color of their skin.
Perhaps the black players who receive proportionally more foul calls are more intense in their game play.
Perhaps these guys were raised to be a stronger type A personality and are willing to risk foul calls.
As the old saying goes, correlation does not equal causality.