We should all learn from this controversy

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 27, 2005 | by DAVID RAMSEY Gazette Sports columnist

Fisher DeBerry, in his own silly way, did us a favor.

He showed us how easy it is to slip into stupidity when talking about race.

He showed us how even an honorable man can fall on his face and play the fool when he tries to simplify the complicated realm of ethnicity.

He pushed us to this obvious conclusion: We -- black, white, Asian, Jew, Arab, Latino or anything else -- are amazingly similar.

We must focus on what unites us -- on our precious, common bonds - - instead of wasting time with the stereotypes and wild generalizations that divide us.

DeBerry has wasted plenty of time this week with just such junk.

On Monday, he sought to explain his football team's legion of troubles by saying he needed to recruit more minorities.

On Tuesday, he dug himself deeper into the pit by saying "Afro- American kids can run very, very well" and implying his team lost Saturday because Texas Christian had more "Afro-American" players than his Falcons.

On Wednesday, with faltering voice and eyes shiny with tears, DeBerry said he was sorry.

"I want everyone to understand that I never intended to offend anyone," DeBerry said.

Please, don't elevate DeBerry to victim. He's not. He humiliated himself, his football team and, in his words, "my Air Force Academy."

He deserved the reprimands he received from athletic director Hans Mueh and superintendent Lt. Gen. John Regni.

But he does not deserve a suspension. Fire him? Come on.

DeBerry delivered an insulting series of statements and now endures a needed slap.

But, remember, he's not accused of mistreating black players. There's a difference, a big one, between inconsiderate words and cruel behavior.

"This is a great man, a great American," Mueh said, getting a bit too free with his praise.

I'm not going as far as Mueh, but DeBerry is a decent man. I'm confident he will learn, and grow, from this debacle.

He can start by declining to make lame excuses for his staff's current ineptitude. He must return to the intelligent, diligent approach that not so long ago made him one of the country's best football coaches.

Ernie Jennings, who is black and one of the greatest players in Air Force football history, offered a measured form of forgiveness.

Jennings was named first team Allcan in 1970 after he caught 70 passes for 1,298 yards and 17 touchdowns.

"I hope Fisher isn't coming under any fire," Jennings said Wednesday from his NASA office in California.

He also hopes DeBerry will move to another subject. Once you start talking in racial generalities, Jennings said, it's hard to stop. We all know the long, ugly list of stereotypes that has drained our country.

"With any kind of racial categorization, you have to be careful because it opens the door to so many negative connotations," Jennings said.

"We're working so hard as a society to establish the fact we are all one, we are all from the same creator and endowed with the same capabilities for excelling equally."

The same capabilities?

Two snapshots from the Athens Olympics confirm his view.

On a hot August night, a group of hustling Argentine men throttled the U.S. basketball team. I don't recall ever hearing anyone talk about the innate superiority of Latin American basketball players.

Earlier, Belarussian Yuliya Nesterenko bolted to victory in the women's 100-meter sprint. Nesterenko is as pale as a snowy day in January, but that didn't stop her from seizing gold.

I watched both victories from a few dozen feet away.

Both jolted my shallow views. Both forced me to see color is not - - never has been, never will be -- the deciding factor in sport.

We rob everyone -- regardless of race -- when we attribute speed or strength or brains to the tint of skin.

DeBerry's words rank as a form of this robbery, and they diminished a good man.

But his words leave us with this gift. We can learn, every last one of us, from his mistake.

Columnist David Ramsey can be reached at 476-4895 or dramsey@gazette.com