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September 28, 2004
The Pyramid of Excellence
A discourse on race and excellence. Or, why equal opportunity will mean that blacks will not continue to dominate sports.
Every activity with a pyramid of excellence has certain common characteristics:
The flatter the pyramid, the less distance between the top and the bottom, the less difference between pay at the top and pay at the bottom. The higher the pyramid, the greater the gap between rewards at the top and bottom.
For accountants, entry level pay is adequate while top pay is attractive but not huge. For point guards, entry level pay is zero while top pay is stratospheric. A top accountant will be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year while a top point guard will be paid tens of millions a year.
The deeper the pyramid, the higher the level of accomplishment and compensation of those at the top.
Simple observation:
The black sports pyramid of excellence is very deep as this is one of the few avenues currently accepted as viable for substantial success. This means that there is intense competition from elementary school on to gain access to the next level of excellence. The result is that those who reach each level have excelled in a very competitive environment and thus have highly developed skills. The people who succeed in reaching the pinnacle have benefited mightily from all those below them who constantly challenged them to excel.
The reality of this very competitive process is that most of those who do not get to the top will end up at the bottom of some other pyramid. That all the massive investment in time and energy and skill in attempting to achieve the next level will have detracted from gaining competency in other areas.
Explictly, this means that devoting enough time and energy to basketball to have a shot at the next level probably means not devoting enough time and energy to mathematics to have a shot at becoming an accountant or teacher.
If the odds of becoming a successful accountant, teacher, engineer, programmer or account executive are seen as low, then the only available outlet for the drive for competency and excellence will be one of the high pyramid areas, such as professional sports or entertainment.
As opportunities in other areas become more credible and accessible, there will be subtle but significant shift away from high challenge endeavors toward more achievable goals. The goal for someone who focuses on mathematics is an excellent shot at accounting or teaching. A good living, respect for contributing to others and some small shot a high income. Almost no shot at the big bucks.
The big buck arena presents a tough choice. Absolutely big bucks, but also high risk of bitter disappointment through injury or close, but no cigar, performance. A forward who cannot get recognized will end up driving a taxi. However, an accountant who does not make partner will still live well and comfortably.
Thus, as other areas become more accessible, the level of competition in the high challenge sports pyramid of excellence will gradually drop. Not as many young people will focus single-mindedly on becoming a guard, tight end or shortstop. Since the competition on the way up will be somewhat reduced, the level of excellence required to reach the next level will also drop. Those reaching the top and achieving professional level competence will not have traveled as far and faced as ferocious a competitive selection process.
Result, more and more black athletes will come up through a selection process that is similar to that of white athletes. Most young people will have chosen some other path as they will have seen that the probable rewards from that other path are much greater.
If this point of view is valid, then, over the next two decades, the percentage of black athletes at the very top of the game will drop as the selection pyramid becomes similar for all athletes.
One of the ironies of this is that the areas in which blacks most excel are those in which raw talent, ability, discipline and skill count the most and background and race count the least. The one thing that does not exist on the basketball court or football field is affirmative action. Either you can accomplish the job or you are out.
So the area most dominated by black excellence is that in which being black counts the least.
When other areas are also seen as credible expressions of black excellence, then talent and ambition will flow to those also. The inevitable impact of this is to diminish the current extraordinary pyramid of excellence that drives so many talented and ambitious blacks into sports. Result; more black engineers, fewer black linebackers.
Posted by creagb at September 28, 2004 03:37 AM