Going Hog Wild Over Richardson

In response to J.A. Adande’s column about Nolan Richardson [March 5]: One of the strongest aspects of this country, this society, is its diversity. Conversely, one of its weak points is the lack of tolerance.

As a remedy to this lack of tolerance, people feel that there must be “sameness” in the solution to any problem. If a person has a problem, then only a person of the same ethnicity can possibly understand the situation. Doesn’t that imply that anyone other is a racist or a bigot and therefore couldn’t possibly understand the problem?

The difficulty that I have with the column is how Adande stated his opinion. Yes, he is entitled to his opinion and it is a necessary one in order to have a dialogue, but why does it have to be an African-American opinion? Does that make it more credible?

He is an African American so he cannot, under his pretext, give anything but an African American’s opinion and that, in my view, is not true. What’s wrong with having the opinion of J.A. Adande?

Robert W. Talarowski

Mission Viejo

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It is interesting that while J.A. Adande and recently departed Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson lament the lack of diversity in the media, they also fail to acknowledge the lack of diversity on the basketball court. The discrepancy that exists between the faces of the participants on the court and that of the faces of the students in the stands demonstrates that perhaps merit still rules in the classroom as well as on the basketball court.

Naturally, it helps to have a degree in journalism if one wishes to become a journalist. This would be quite difficult to accomplish given the 0% graduation rate of Richardson’s African-American players at Arkansas. This is abominable considering that all of these players supposedly received scholarships for the purpose of obtaining an education. Of course, Richardson was not unlike many of today’s college coaches, who are only interested in exploiting the athletic ability of their players for the self-expedient reasons of building a winning record and making more money.

One of the great things about our democratic society is that life consists of choices. Nothing prevented Adande from becoming a journalist. And perhaps, he will find more diversity in America’s newsrooms when he recognizes that academic success is enhanced more by picking up a book instead of a basketball.

Jim Redhead

San Diego