CHICAGO — I appreciated that the Tribune decided to publish an article on Indiana basketball coach Mike Davis (“Mike Davis Tries to Shake Bobby Knight,” March 14).
Generally, I found the article to be balanced and well written. I can understand your reporter, Julia Keller, using as a focus of the article a comparison of Mike Davis and Bob Knight but the decision to also focus on race is perplexing.
As a native of Indiana, I must take exception to the implication in your article that the State of Indiana was or is any more racist than Illinois or any other state in the Midwest. Your reporter went so far as to catalog the various black head coaches of major sports team in Indiana. I’m not sure what the purpose of this was.
Why didn’t the reporter review how many teams in Illinois have black or white head coaches? Why not comment on the fact that the University of Illinois has never had an African-American head basketball coach?
Indiana has a dark past concerning the treatment of African-Americans but the same can be said for nearly every state in the union, except for maybe Alaska and Hawaii.
With the racial incidents I witness and read about everyday in the Chicago area, I’m amazed a Tribune reporter would have the gall to imply that Indiana was and perhaps still is racist and Chicago is not and never has been.
Next time, I suggest you leave race out of it and focus on what truly matters: basketball.
— Steven A. Wade
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