anyone wanna talk about iowa wrestling's issues with race?

[HoundedHawk]

Here is the NCAA Inclusion Statement:

"As a core value, the NCAA believes in and is committed to diversity, inclusion and gender equity among its student-athletes, coaches and administrators. We seek to establish and maintain an inclusive culture that fosters equitable participation for student-athletes and career opportunities for coaches and administrators from diverse backgrounds. Diversity and inclusion improve the learning environment for all student-athletes and enhance excellence within the Association."

The number one indicator of success in the University of Iowa Athletic Diversity and Inclusion plan is:

"Achieve a student-athlete ethnic diversity rate of 25% within 5 years"

Does the Iowa coaching staff and fan base think having only 3 black athletes competing in 14 years is doing a good job of meeting these inclusion statements? Iowa wrestling has had a diversity rate of around 4% since Brands has been head coach. Is the answer that it does not matter as long as the program keeps winning? I doubt the NCAA would agree with that answer. The staff is most likely having these conversations and recruiting is trending in the right direction, but yes, I think it could be better.

Race quotas, etc., are racist. Recruit the best wrestlers without nary a thought about whatever ethnicity they are. Diversity and inclusion do improve a learning environment. Therefore, let's hope enough wrestlers from diversity are good enough and desire enough to be a part of the Iowa program.

 

[Is_there_vodka_in_heaven]

Race quotas, etc., are racist. Recruit the best wrestlers without nary a thought about whatever ethnicity they are. Diversity and inclusion do improve a learning environment. Therefore, let's hope enough wrestlers from diversity are good enough and desire enough to be a part of the Iowa program.

Agree 100%. I'm all for equal rights, fighting racism, etc, but it isn't done with quotas. Policies like that perpetuate racism.

 

[HawkFan1986]

Agree 100%. I'm all for equal rights, fighting racism, etc, but it isn't done with quotas. Policies like that perpetuate racism.

This is spot on. Equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. This is sports we’re discussing here and at some point talent wins out, regardless of race. They should recruit all top level athletes they feel are a fit to their program. To my eyes they’ve done that. This conversation is silly!!

 

[WDMHawk72]

Yes, it’s plainly obvious a program that just signed two Latinos, just graduated a 2 time AA Latino and signed him to the HWC, and just signed an African American ex-student athlete to the HWC is racist.

GTFO with your BS.

Spooner. We agreed on something. Things are changing finally. He'll yea

 

[WDMHawk72]

Will do, have some work to finish up going into the week but will revisit later this evening!

Gee great. Go home and come up with ur little snippets of bs and get back to us later? Don't bother

 

[WDMHawk72]

Also need to consider the ratios as it relates to minorities who participate in the sport whether it be college or high school. Its prolly 80% plus white. Maybe more.

 

[armbartilt]

What cities have been burned down? What neighborhoods have been burned down? What city block has been burned down? Careful about using exaggeration.

 

[IAChief32]

Race quotas, etc., are racist. Recruit the best wrestlers without nary a thought about whatever ethnicity they are. Diversity and inclusion do improve a learning environment. Therefore, let's hope enough wrestlers from diversity are good enough and desire enough to be a part of the Iowa program.

This. 75% of the NBA is black. 68% of the NFL is black. 57% of College Football is black. How many people are arguing for more white, asian and Latino players? TBH, sports is one of the last meritocracies in the U.S...wrestling even more so. If people want to have a conversation about more outreach to different populations, that's fine. However, so many factors go into recruiting in our sport.

 

[Herkuleez5]

I think the OP got exactly what he wanted out of this thread.

 

[TS568]

JS8793,
I don’t know the exact percentage, but there is NO question the media is predominantly left wing. Conservatives have talk radio, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and National Review (we even have appeared to lose Drudge Report), the liberals have pretty much every other media outlet, including all the major TV networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), cable tv (CNN, MSNBC), print media (New York times, Washington Post and most other major newspapers), Hollywood, and all the major Internet powers (google, twitter, Facebook, etc).

Throw in K-12 public schools and nearly every college/university in America. It is a juggernaut of woke compliance.Poor Drew Brees and his wife are on their fourth apology for saying he likes to stand for the anthem out of respect for his vet grandfathers and they're still kicking his ass all over ESPN, lol!

 

[herkyhawk00]

... and their inability to reach black athletes?

Yeah, elite black wrestlers are a dime a dozen. The state of Iowa maybe has a couple black State Champions on any given year. This isn’t basketball or football. Why is this even an issue?

 

[JohnBasedow]

Poor Drew Brees and his wife are on their fourth apology for saying he likes to stand for the anthem out of respect for his vet grandfathers and they're still kicking his ass all over ESPN, lol!

That’s not what Brees apologized for but hey, why let facts get in the way of a good rant. This thread is a dumpster fire at this point anyways so carry on.

 

[burk11]

BLM https://images.app.goo.gl/scfXSkmW1mz8Eq63A

 

[grapplefann]

JS8793,
I don’t know the exact percentage, but there is NO question the media is predominantly left wing. Conservatives have talk radio, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and National Review (we even have appeared to lose Drudge Report), the liberals have pretty much every other media outlet, including all the major TV networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), cable tv (CNN, MSNBC), print media (New York times, Washington Post and most other major newspapers), Hollywood, and all the major Internet powers (google, twitter, Facebook, etc).

As I see it, the mainstream media is decidedly corporate center-left, because that's where international business money is. Same for Tech. The far-left fringe (anarchist, antipha, revolutionary socialist) is relatively very small, and has been so for some time, because they're bad for business. This current protest wave is a phenomenon about race, but doesn't represent a real shift quite yet.

It's true that things are polarizing. Much of the Right has gone much further right over the last decade, and the extreme far right media (alt-right, fascist, white nationalist, etc.) has grown some on the web. The current Center-Right (like the Never-Trumpers, American Spectator) has shrunk since 2016. Both the Left and Right fringe are tolerated until they threaten property, endanger someone, or get in the way of making money.

Social media reflects the people who get on it, for better or for worse. Mostly, those tech companies (Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc) have taken a hands-off approach until recently, and then acted very reluctantly against people who threaten violence, again because they're bad for business.

When you look at the Pacific Ocean from Japan, it all looks East, but from Los Angeles, it all looks West. Matter of perspective.

 

[CurtisLoew40]

I'm definitely not saying there is an issue with iowa wrestling. They're one of a few teams they get the very best handful of kids in the country and if they happen to be white so be it.

As an outsiders view Iowa is stereotypically seen as corn fed white boys. Even in the big 2 sports iowa seems to always have a lot more white kids than most schools. Just the way it is. I just thought it was from the areas that they had to recruit from. So not even talking about wrestling at all but a lot of people think of Iowa as whiteboyU jokingly of course.

 

[WDMHawk72]

I'm definitely not saying there is an issue with iowa wrestling. They're one of a few teams they get the very best handful of kids in the country and if they happen to be white so be it.

As an outsiders view Iowa is stereotypically seen as corn fed white boys. Even in the big 2 sports iowa seems to always have a lot more white kids than most schools. Just the way it is. I just thought it was from the areas that they had to recruit from. So not even talking about wrestling at all but a lot of people think of Iowa as whiteboyU jokingly of course.

Corn fed white boys. Guess ur a racist too. See how easy that was? That's the problem with these threads. I KNOW u weren't being racist but enter the liberal spin zone and there you go.

 

[grapplefann]

Corn fed white boys. Guess ur a racist too. See how easy that was? That's the problem with these threads. I KNOW u weren't being racist but enter the liberal spin zone and there you go.

There's a lot of spin on all sides. Despite demographics, the state of Iowa has a decent record on civil rights with some exceptions, and better record than Missouri, Minnesota, or Nebraska. Before Reagan, the GOP actually promoted civil rights. Iowa is still one of the few swing states, mostly controlled by moderate conservatives until this last presidential election. Now even in Iowa, things are getting more polarized, which doesn't help anyone.

 

[Johnbrooks]

My Dad and I were discussing this today. He's old school but we were talking about the transition one has to make re: the military but I think it applies to a program. One may have been around black people their whole life and now they are in Iowa City away from what they grew up in. Even if nobody is paying attention to what they say or do, sometimes it may feel like it (Spotlight Effect). My Dad was like "Hell...there is hardly any black women around or places to hang out in Ames or Iowa City." I know Iowa City prides themselves on being "diverse" but it really isn't compared to places that we recruit from. It's why its hard to get players to commit to coming to Iowa. By the time they leave, most of them (black or white) love it and their experience here. But it would be a tough experience being young, black and under a microscope because you are on the most beloved team in the state.

As for wrestling, it comes down to who is interested in the Iowa philosophy plus trying to win recruiting battles between the big schools. We tried for GSteve, really wanted RBY...we were just late to the party on that one because we thought we had our guys in Gavin, Renteria etc. Wrestling is much harder to recruit because of the lack of $$. You really have to make sure one is all in and even then we have missed on quite a few.

 

[Johnbrooks]

This sounds pretty spot on. One thing to keep in mind. Discussions of topics are not accusations, they are a great way to reflect
And evaluate. Keeping an open mind and learning. Even if there is not a problem. It’s good to step back and make sure we do things correctly. Just my 2 cents. I think Your staff is pretty awesome.

 

[Is_there_vodka_in_heaven]

This sounds pretty spot on. One thing to keep in mind. Discussions of topics are not accusations, they are a great way to reflect
And evaluate. Keeping an open mind and learning. Even if there is not a problem. It’s good to step back and make sure we do things correctly. Just my 2 cents. I think Your staff is pretty awesome.

Agreed except OP directly accused Iowa wrestling of having a race issue despite no evidence to support that claim.

 

[pablow]

For all you quota people -

According to NCAA stats 21% of D I student athletes in all sports combined are black. US population is 14% black.

56% of D I athletes are white. Whites comprise a little over 60% of the US population.
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/ncaa-demographics-database​

 

[Johnbrooks]

Agreed except OP directly accused Iowa wrestling of having a race issue despite no evidence to support that claim.

Shouldn’t accuse, but I really think it’s more location than anything. My oldest attended Iowa Central and he was miserable . Had nothing to do with anything but being bored and out of his element. Stay safe boys!! I hope we can have some epic PSU Iowa duals. My son loved the one this year!

 

[HawkFan1986]

Shouldn’t accuse, but I really think it’s more location than anything. My oldest attended Iowa Central and he was miserable . Had nothing to do with anything but being bored and out of his element. Stay safe boys!! I hope we can have some epic PSU Iowa duals. My son loved the one this year!

I hope he enjoys his next encounter with an Iowa wrestler far less!!! Hahaha.

Best to you and yours Mr. Brooks.

 

[grapplefann]

Shouldn’t accuse, but I really think it’s more location than anything. My oldest attended Iowa Central and he was miserable . Had nothing to do with anything but being bored and out of his element. Stay safe boys!! I hope we can have some epic PSU Iowa duals. My son loved the one this year!

Bored in beautiful Ft. Dodge? How can that be? Say it ain't so!

 

[IAChief32]

Shouldn’t accuse, but I really think it’s more location than anything. My oldest attended Iowa Central and he was miserable . Had nothing to do with anything but being bored and out of his element. Stay safe boys!! I hope we can have some epic PSU Iowa duals. My son loved the one this year!

I think of college towns and they are a lot like military bases...kind of in their own bubble with their own culture. My first duty station was Mt. Home Idaho...a base literally in the middle of no where. 50 miles to Boise. My buddies were from Philly, Chicago, Houston, Bama, Minneapolis, Brooklyn to name a few. All colors, shapes, and sizes. For many of them, this was their first time away from home. The guy from Brooklyn said the furthest he had ever been from his block was Coney Island.

So I think of a guy like Jesse Ybarra. He is from a predominately latino community. Being from there, I know that many from that area face different barriers to success...be it language, fear of the unknown/being away from family etc. I have seen this up close and personal. This will open up a big wide world to Jesse. He will develop the skills in life that will make him portable if a good enough opportunity presents itself. Hats off to his family for supporting him in this endeavor so far away from home.

 

[pumpdog20]

I think of college towns and they are a lot like military bases...kind of in their own bubble with their own culture. My first duty station was Mt. Home Idaho...a base literally in the middle of no where. 50 miles to Boise. My buddies were from Philly, Chicago, Houston, Bama, Minneapolis, Brooklyn to name a few. All colors, shapes, and sizes. For many of them, this was their first time away from home. The guy from Brooklyn said the furthest he had ever been from his block was Coney Island.

So I think of a guy like Jesse Ybarra. He is from a predominately latino community. Being from there, I know that many from that area face different barriers to success...be it language, fear of the unknown/being away from family etc. I have seen this up close and personal. This will open up a big wide world to Jesse. He will develop the skills in life that will make him portable if a good enough opportunity presents itself. Hats off to his family for supporting him in this endeavor so far away from home.

So plenty of strip clubs and pawn shops?

 

[IAChief32]

So plenty of strip clubs and pawn shops?

Unfortunately no on the strip clubs. But they did have the shady landlords and used car lots.

 

[NCHawk5]

I heard from a friend that black wrestlers, regardless of race, are not accepted at U of I. Why do you even respond to this?

 

[lookleft goright]

I heard from a friend that black wrestlers, regardless of race, are not accepted at U of I. Why do you even respond to this?

No you have it all wrong. It is 83% of black wrestlers regardless of race are not accepted at U of I.

 

[Southermostwrestlingfan]

 

[Southermostwrestlingfan]

We have a great motto down here in the keys
"One Human Family"
https://www.onehumanfamily.info/
Its a pretty simple way to live life.

 

[McCulloughd]

I heard from a friend that black wrestlers, regardless of race, are not accepted at U of I. Why do you even respond to this?

I heard from a friend is the best you can come up with?

 

[NCHawk5]

I heard from a friend is the best you can come up with?

Making fun of OP. I was drinking last night, not sure why regardless is in there.

 

[24Hawkeye7]

If there is anybody who was triggered, it was you. Spooner gave specific examples...you didn't. Then you shut down your own "dialogue." Sounds like you just want folks that agree with you...constructively of course. Plus, you basically called Moody a token instead of a guy that worked hard and made a place here for himself the past 5 years.

sorry, i got pulled out of country for work and just got back home last night.

i wanted to create a space for everyone to take part in a discussion and it worked. a lot of people on here took offense to that and thats fine, but i'm choosing to reply to Chiefs b/c he's generally diplomatic. everyone else can chase me down with torches and guns.

i dont believe the staff is racist but i dont know them personally, here, i'll defer to your personal experience. my thoughts started with this... i know iowa goes after the best wrestlers in the nation, so why are they only getting white wrestlers? and saying "we have a black wrestler who stuck around so there is no issue or room for improvement" is not good enough for me... thats just my opinion.

i'm also not talking about people of color, i'm talking specifically black wrestlers. to me, the lack of black wrestlers through the years at iowa is concering, it signals something going on that is not welcoming to black culture or anything outside of the farmboy culture someone referred to earlier.

look, im simply saying that--and im sure TnT are already on it because they are two very open minded people--they could make some change and a concerted effort to better appeal to black wrestlers. it would only improve the program imo

 

[24Hawkeye7]

I’m assuming he is talking about better doing better with the minority athletes that Iowa went after and weren’t able to land. Who knows if it would have made a difference and I’m not saying the coaches aren’t doing well now but self evaluating is one of the things that Tom and Terry preach so it’s silly to think they aren’t doing that with their program and race.

thanks john, i was out of reach for work but i agree that TnT are probably ahead of the curve and i have faith in them moving forward.

but you're right, i do think that something is missing from the standpoint of iowa's ability to attract black wrestlers.

when corrected for by TnT it will only improve the program!

 

[24Hawkeye7]

This sounds pretty spot on. One thing to keep in mind. Discussions of topics are not accusations, they are a great way to reflect
And evaluate. Keeping an open mind and learning. Even if there is not a problem. It’s good to step back and make sure we do things correctly. Just my 2 cents. I think Your staff is pretty awesome.

thanks john "discussions of topics are not accusations, they are a great way to reflect" is so important to remember and i appreciate your insight!

 

[24Hawkeye7]

Agreed except OP directly accused Iowa wrestling of having a race issue despite no evidence to support that claim.

i didn't accuse, i believe the lack of black wrestlers through the iowa program to be an area of concern (i guess i used issue, my bad)

when TnT address this the program will be better for it!

but i don't think it is an accusation to say that iowa has had a disproportionate amount of white wrestlers compared to black which is something to improve i think its plainly obvious

 

[24Hawkeye7]

Shouldn’t accuse, but I really think it’s more location than anything. My oldest attended Iowa Central and he was miserable . Had nothing to do with anything but being bored and out of his element. Stay safe boys!! I hope we can have some epic PSU Iowa duals. My son loved the one this year!

i would just counter with the fact that other midwest wrestling powerhouses and beyond have little to no problem attracting black wrestlers, i believe it to be an issue unique to iowa and some other programs of course

 

[24Hawkeye7]

I think of college towns and they are a lot like military bases...kind of in their own bubble with their own culture. My first duty station was Mt. Home Idaho...a base literally in the middle of no where. 50 miles to Boise. My buddies were from Philly, Chicago, Houston, Bama, Minneapolis, Brooklyn to name a few. All colors, shapes, and sizes. For many of them, this was their first time away from home. The guy from Brooklyn said the furthest he had ever been from his block was Coney Island.

So I think of a guy like Jesse Ybarra. He is from a predominately latino community. Being from there, I know that many from that area face different barriers to success...be it language, fear of the unknown/being away from family etc. I have seen this up close and personal. This will open up a big wide world to Jesse. He will develop the skills in life that will make him portable if a good enough opportunity presents itself. Hats off to his family for supporting him in this endeavor so far away from home.

thank you for your service Chief, i also served in the Navy: 6 years as a team guy in little creek, what about you?

 

[OpenHawkSurgery]

And he's back...