Washington, D.C. -- Bill Clinton has decided to join his national dialogue on race by participating in a town hall
meeting on race and sports. The President had an open lane for a slam dunk but instead heaved an airball.

Mr. Clinton urged Americans to see sports as an example of racial harmony. “It is important that people see that in athletics in America that the rules are fair, that people get their fair chance,” he said.

This was a promising line of inquiry but the panel got diverted into such issues as the dearth of black coaches
and owners. In line with his “mend it, don’t end it,” plan for affirmative action, the President suggested that
there were problems in recruitment. Meanwhile, the answer to the affirmative-action dilemma was sitting right there beside him.

In the April 14 meeting Mr. Clinton joined NFL great Jim Brown, Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee and others. These people had all succeeded on pure merit, the hard and fast rule of sports.

The Cleveland Browns held no quotas for black running backs. They signed Jim Brown because they perceived that he was the best. The only “goal” the team had for the position was the end zone, which Mr. Brown visited often. The Olympics have no affirmative-action program for black females. Jackie Joyner-Kersee simply ran, jumped and threw better than all the others.

In sports you can’t fake it. No one will start at guard for the Washington Wizards because they are black, white,
or even if their father owns the stadium. Those who play know they deserve to be there and nobody suggests that they got special treatment.

Sports are public and they keep score. An NBA team reserving a starting spot for, say, a Chicano or Asian,
rather than simply the best player available, would risk its chances of winning. The token player would not get
respect from teammates or opponents and the quality of play would be diluted.

The trouble with merit is that it explodes the politically correct doctrine of proportionality, the notion that everything from NFL coaches to brain surgeons must reflect the ethnic proportions of the population.
The NBA is about 80 percent black. Europeans and Canadians dominate the NHL over native-born Americans.
But no one suggests that these groups are “over-represented” because they got their jobs based on
performance, not ethnic quotas.

The rules also remain the same for all, regardless of race. Only the starting score is set at zero-zero. The
outcome depends on the effort, skill and discipline of the players. Meanwhile, the courts continue to run up the
score on the race-quota squads.

The same day as the President’s panel, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
rejected a bid by the Federal Communications Commission to force the Lutheran Church into hiring quotas for its
radio station. Their hiring of Hispanics did not satisfy the NAACP and the case made it clear that the regime of
racial preferences not only trashes individual rights and common citizenship, but also pits minority groups against each other.

It doesn’t happen that way in sports, where merit and ability promote fairness, excellence, and racial harmony.
We won’t get that in other areas of society until we end, not mend, racial preferences.

-- Steven Hayward and K. Lloyd Billingsley