I've noticed that many predict Luke Kuechly as Defensive ROY. He played up my way at BC and was a pleasure to follow.
It got me thinking, however, more generally about elite white athlete standouts like Luke and how they always tend to have the aura of an aberration about them (I am throwing this out to the forum because I am not certain that what seems to be the case is actually the case).
It seems to me (perhaps not true) that elite professional white athletes playing in sports and in positions typically black dominated (Steve Nash, Urlacher, Welker, etc) are disproportionately overrepresented in the elite at those positions versus the general percentage of whites in the league at those same positions. Has anyone done statistical research on these numbers? There would have to be some criteria setting in terms of what is "elite" but....I apologize in advance if this phenomena is already well covered elsewhere in the forum.
In any case, if this is true, that elite white athletes appear in a greater number disproportionate to their general representation, than the presence of "Caste System", as it is described here, would have to be an unavoidable conclusion.
To make a comparison, in Charles Murray's Human Achievement, 97% of the great achievers described therein are European by descent, with only a tiny remainder comprised of Asians. Accepting Murray's assessment, one can conclude reasonably that the achievers arise nearly exclusively from European stock. Therefore functioning first world civilizations that are also genuinely innovative (which frankly tends to exclude Asia) are also comprised of whites at least in the overwhelming vast majority. Whereas if Charles Murray found that 30% of Great Human Achievement were African in origin than perhaps we would expect to find the best civilizations 30% African (this is not taking into consideration, of course, the fractious nature of multicultural civilizations) or rather African civilizations 30% as productive/innovative as white nations (absurd!), in the way that we would expect to find a position in a sport 40% white at the professional elite level, also 40% white at the professional journeymen level. You get my drift?
Of course this all depends on what those percentages are. Elite vs. Journeymen/average player. Anyone know?
One article, back when there was a brief "European Movement" in the NBA, also got me thinking along these lines. This particular article discussed how some American athletes (read African American) worried about being replaced. While they were unconcerned about the stars like Dirk Nowitskis (who are after all irrepressible), they were concerned that Europeans were going to start taking over spots at the journeymen level.
Yet in this situation, where a white athlete is good enough to play in the league but not a star, it is easy to imagine that if all things are more or less equal between two competing athletes, one black, one white, a coach will select the black to avoid having made the "mistake" of selecting the white and thereby avoid facing the consequences should the season turn against his team and he made answerable to media and fans who "know better". It is his livelihood after all. In the case of a Steve Nash, however, who is clearly more skilled than competitors, the coach feels safe going with the white. This phenomena would naturally ensure a discrepancy between white percentages at the elite and journeymen levels. And of course it would also account for the deselecting of some whites who very well could have developed into stars making the white elite and journeymen percentages closer to one another.
