old bulldog wrote:In all honesty you can not name one person from the black community that said he or she wanted to get rid of Ron Jon for a black coach. I attended a meeting, that was filmed at the Urban League with 150 people in attendence and no one said that. The Urban League, the NAACP, the Canton Nergo Oldtimes, no black public official, or any black minister every made that comment. Before you manufacture a name, please be advise you better be able to prove it or find yourself in a court room of law. Your attempt to promote racism in this community and divided it along racial lines will not work. The race card maybe a factor at your KKK meeting but it will not work among the people of Canton.
I never heard OJ Simpson admit that he committed murder either. Does that mean he didn't do it? Regardless, I have heard people from the black community say that they wanted to get rid of Johnson for a black coach....I heard it from quite a few people at the Sylvania Southview game last fall. They also talked about who they wanted that black coach to be...with the exception of Mike Doss, every name that I heard is on the applicant list. Do those individuals represent the sentiment of the black community? I have no idea and neither do you.
That said, I suggest you look the word racism up in the dictionary. The black community can want a black coach without racism being a factor. White people can say that the black community wants a black coach without racism being a factor. There is a difference between opposing opinions along racial lines....that clearly exists....and racism.
The BOE and administration had an opportunity to address some of this dissention and they failed to do so. They could have insisted on a blind review (i.e. the names and other personal information of all candidates, and schools they coached at, would have been removed), and asked the committee members to narrow the list of 45 to 10 based solely on the resumes with clearly defined criteria for assessment (experience as a head coach, won loss-record, student academic success, player development, coaching philosophy, community involvement, etc.). Step two could have been for each member to rank the shortened list from most to least qualified. The cumulative result would have been a ranked list of top candidates with minimal bias involved.