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The Daily Tar Heel

Letter: ​What if sports had affirmative action?

TO THE EDITOR:

Why doesn’t the NFL have to comply with affirmative action? If the NBA were IBM, they would have been sued into the Dark Ages for discriminatory hiring practices. Any organization that has a payroll exceeding $100,000,000 should be required to let all segments of the population share in their good fortune regardless of ability.

If curriculum, faculty and student enrollement reflect population percentages, why don’t football and basketball teams reflect similar percentages? Apparently, the president and chancellor at the University of Missouri are responsible for offending a group of students, among them the Missouri football team. If the Missouri football team were 7 percent black, 10 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Chinese, 1 percent Semitic and 82 percent white, wouldn’t the voice of the offended be more diverse?

Celebrating the role the athletic field has played in the civil rights movement is over. Ending the disparity in team composition will not only provide a level playing field for the offended but also allocate scholarships in a politically correct and unsustainable manner.

Make sense?

Joe Exum

Snow Hill

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