I teach my kids that they can do anything if they put their minds to it and do the work. I also teach them that life isn’t always fair, but you can’t let that deter you. I think we all try to teach our kids the value of grit and hard work. For most people, success is about perseverance and overcoming obstacles.
However, that does not mean we should accept the status quo, and not try to improve the uneven playing field that makes it harder for some people to succeed. The idea of hard work and trying to make the environment better for everyone are not mutually exclusive. You can do both. We can teach our kids to be undeterred by obstacles, while simultaneously working to make the game fairer for everyone. It’s called forming a more perfect union, which is exactly what the founders of our country encouraged us to do.
I bring this up because last week I posted a message on Facebook that said “We get more Latino players in the NBA by getting more Latino coaches in the NBA. We get more coaches by getting more Latinos in front office positions”. Most of the comments were supportive, but I also got a few comments from some misguided people including a few Latinos who challenged my statement saying things like “If they were good enough, they would be in the league”, and “Ethnicity has nothing to do with it. The NBA is all about the money, and they put the best players on the court, period”. I know where these people are coming from. Like my kids, they were taught that life isn’t always fair, but if you work hard and do not allow yourself to be deterred by obstacles, you will succeed. There is nothing wrong with this kind of thinking, but it is also naïve and a bit selfish. Advocacy isn’t about making things better for yourself, it’s about making things better for others. It’s thinking in terms of the macro versus only the micro.
