{"id":9142,"date":"2022-02-13T09:13:10","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T09:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status"},"modified":"2022-02-13T09:55:43","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T09:55:43","slug":"the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status","title":{"rendered":"The tricky question of Mike McDaniel’s minority hire status"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>I get the responses to the Miami Dolphins hiring Mike McDaniel as new head coach.
\nWith the NFL’s hiring record once again under scrutiny, the biggest issue for some is fusing the reality that McDaniel is biracial with his appearance.
\nIs he really Black enough to be considered a minority hire?
\nLet\u2019s get this out of the way before going any further: I am both biracial and lighter-skinned.
\nMy father is Italian and white. My mother was born in Kingston, Jamaica and has darker skin.
\nMy family\u2019s oral history about my maternal grandfather, one of my heroes, isn\u2019t clear. What tends to be most repeated is that he’s the direct descendant of slaves who possibly came from what is now Liberia.
\nBefore my parents were married, my dad’s aunt objected. Her racist views prompted her concern over them bringing a \u201czebra child\u201d into the world.
\nMore hiring coverage:Joe Schad: Dolphins banking Mike McDaniel’s brilliant football mind will save Tua, franchise
\nMore Dolphins:Hal Habib: Time, not hype will reveal if Mike McDaniel is the answer for the Miami Dolphins
\nAnother opinion:Mike Freeman: New Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel doesn’t owe anyone an explanation about his Blackness
\nI didn\u2019t think about race too much growing up in the north other than a few dramatic moments. I do remember visiting my grandfather in Atlanta when I was a young child in the early 1980s and looking out the window at night to see if the KKK was outside with torches because my parents had a mixed marriage. There was no one out there, but I’d heard stories and assumed the worst.
\nWhat I know is that I cherish the fact that I\u2019m biracial. I value that from birth I was immersed into two very different cultures. It wasn\u2019t white or Black or even Italian or Jamaican, it was simply dad and mom and their families.
\nFirst off: Let’s not say Mike McDaniel ‘identifies’ as biracial. He is biracial.
\nOkay, so that\u2019s me. But my background certainly helps frame my views on McDaniel and the response to him.
\nSo here we go.
\nFirst off, let\u2019s stop saying that McDaniel \u201cidentifies\u201d as biracial. He is biracial.
\nIt\u2019s a concrete reality \u2013 one in which he was given no input and still cannot control any more than I can. And the idea he\u2019s somehow using it to further his career is unfair.
\nPlay it out the other way. What if McDaniel was a man who had a Black father and a white mother but declined to be known as biracial? Regardless of his appearance if it was discovered that his father was Black, many would be outraged. Is he ashamed to have a Black father? Is he a racist? How dare he not be proud of his Black heritage!
\nI\u2019m an idealist, so I am going to say something not everyone will understand or agree with: You can\u2019t have it both ways.
\nNow, for the trickier part: Should McDaniel be considered a minority hire? I\u2019m not so sure, but to say no gets us into very murky territory.
\nI am biracial, but that doesn\u2019t mean that I can completely identify with the Black experience in America. I\u2019ve been with Black friends whose very skin color makes people nervous. My skin isn\u2019t dark enough to prompt those same responses.
\nI\u2019ve heard stupid things, called racist terms from both white and Black and been accused of being racist by both white and Black \u2013 once on the same day. But in my personal experience, I\u2019ve found some people are more comfortable throwing out harsh accusations rather than even acknowledging another\u2019s experience or point of view.
\nMcDaniel\u2019s skin doesn\u2019t make racist people nervous. At least it didn\u2019t until Sunday when the sports world found out he was biracial. Funny how after getting hired he became not white enough and not Black enough at the same time.
\nBut that doesn\u2019t change the shade of his skin. He doesn\u2019t look like Mike Tomlin or Lovie Smith. And the NFL does have an embarrassingly awful track record of hiring Black coaches.
\nDoes Mike McDaniel’s hiring address Rooney Rule issues? No.
\nHow is it possible that Eric Bieniemy has never been an NFL head coach despite an elite resume? It doesn\u2019t make sense that highly respected coaches and men like Leslie Frazier, Jim Caldwell, Todd Bowles and Raheem Morris haven\u2019t gotten another chance despite the 22 combined openings the past three years.
\nDoes McDaniel\u2019s hiring \u2013 or even his interview \u2013 really address the issues that the Rooney Rule was created to correct? No.
\nBut who should legislate that? Who decides how dark someone\u2019s skin has to be before they qualify?
\nNone of that is a McDaniel problem, though. And he hasn\u2019t done anything wrong.
\nUnfortunately, we still haven\u2019t reached that place that Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of where his children would be judged on the content of their character rather the color of this skin.
\nThat\u2019s why instead of talking about McDaniel\u2019s pros and cons, we\u2019re talking about what he looks like.
\nBy all accounts, McDaniel is incredibly smart, personable, creative and an excellent communicator. His coaching pedigree is impressive. He also is completely unproven as a head coach and is another former offensive coordinator who didn\u2019t call plays (ala Joe Philbin).
\nThose things matter more than the color of his skin.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. I get the responses to the Miami Dolphins hiring Mike McDaniel as new head coach. With the NFL’s hiring record once again under scrutiny, the biggest issue for some is fusing the reality that McDaniel is biracial with his appearance. Is he really Black enough to be considered a minority hire? Let\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-9142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nThe tricky question of Mike McDaniel's minority hire status - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I get the responses to the Miami Dolphins hiring Mike McDaniel as new head coach.With the NFL's hiring record once agai ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The tricky question of Mike McDaniel's minority hire status\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I get the responses to the Miami Dolphins hiring Mike McDaniel as new head coach.With the NFL's hiring record once agai ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-13T09:13:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-13T09:55:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/img-6208d58405e95.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"The tricky question of Mike McDaniel’s minority hire status\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-13T09:13:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-13T09:55:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status\"},\"wordCount\":952,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/02\/img-6208d58405e95.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/the-tricky-question-of-mike-mcdaniels-minority-hire-status\",\"name\":\"The tricky question of Mike McDaniel's minority hire status - 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