New Books In African American Studies

Each year, following the end of the NFL season, there is a blizzard of activity as teams with disappointing records fire their head coaches and look for the new leader who will turn things around. This year, seven teams fired their coaches and spent the next weeks searching for a replacement among the pool of qualified candidates. The league office imposes one rule on these searches: teams must interview at least one minority candidate for the head coaching position. Established in 2003 by owners of NFL teams, the Rooney Rule was intended to give African American coaches a shot at top coaching positions, at a time when a majority of the league’s players were black but only two of the 32 teams had a black coach. More than a decade later, the effectiveness of the rule is still subject of debate. Yes, two of seven teams hired new black coaches this year. But the total number of black coaches in the league is only four, down from a high of seven in 2011. And a look at fan sites shows that prejudice still rears it