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Joe Gibbs, NFL Hall of
Fame and three-time Super Bowl winning coach, has teamed up with
another Hall of Fame great; Reggie White for what is without a doubt
a noble purpose.
Together, the two former NFL greats hope to open the doors to the
world of NASCAR to young black males, or minorities are Gibbs was
apt to say.
No one is against opening the doors to any minority group; NASCAR
has worked diligently over the last decade to expand outside of its
traditionally white market. However, it seems rather sad that both
Gibbs and White would stop at young black males.
“My hope for this partnership is to possibly find a Tiger Woods for
racing,” said White during the press conference announcing his joint
effort with Gibbs. This partnership with Joe and everyone at Joe
Gibbs racing will hopefully enable us to help find a talent out
there who is a minority and just needs a break.”
What a shame White and Gibbs don’t consider females a minority in
racing. There just happens to be a very talented young woman sitting
on the sidelines because she lacks the backing to climb behind a
wheel. Her name is Deborah Renshaw. Until now, her only drawback was
her sex. Gibbs and White have just added another; Renshaw is white.
To be fair there are any number of definitions for the word
minority. Brett Bodine is a financial minority in the Winston Cup
garage. Carlos Contreras, of Mexican heritage constituted a Latin
American minority on the Craftsman Truck Series, a series that also
boast the only African-American driver in the upper echelons of
NASCAR racing.
NASCAR, like the melting pot America is, is a sea of minorities. Are
blacks under-represented making them the majority minority? Yes,
they are. But, no more so than females, at least among the driver
ranks.
The saving grace of the Gibbs and White partnership is the approach.
Together the two NFL greats are hunting for a driver interesting in
starting at the bottom – NASCAR’s Late Model division – where the
opportunity for failure is a definite minority; which would truly be
a first amongst the many diversity efforts that have failed over the
past decade.
The author can be contacted
stanc@autoracing1.com
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