Anonymous wrote:I don't think anyone is a troll. It's ignorant and racist to pretend this bias doesn't exist sometimes. I think the refs have jumped in with some thoughtful comments.

What bias? What is pretending?
Cite 1 example of a referee call influenced by bias. Once
You have then someone can refute it or agree with it. Until then
You are just pretending something exists or doesn’t exist.

Perhaps asserting people are ignorant and racist because they don’t agree with something unproven or even demonstrated is a bit of the pot calling a kettle something

So if someone doesn’t believe in Jesus or Santa does that mean they are ignorant and biased??!

I don't think anyone is a troll. It's ignorant and racist to pretend this bias doesn't exist sometimes. I think the refs have jumped in with some thoughtful comments.

The more you feed them, the hungrier they get.

Honestly, I've probably refereed about 150 matches over the past 3 years....I'm not super experienced but I have enough games to make a comment and I must say that I've never even had the thought that one of my fellow referees showed bias due to race. When I'm center, I've never felt like an AR called a unworthy foul with bias and when I'm AR, I never thought a center was biased. At half-time, we usually ask the question to each other...what did we miss? We talk about whether or not more fouls need to be called or less. Never have I felt like more fouls were being called against a certain race. We talk about the most physical physical players and watching them closer....they can be any race. We talk about the biggest kids and talk about being careful not to be biased against the biggest. Maybe I'm blind to it. My son plays on a team with hispanics and whites. No blacks. I do not feel like his teammates get called more than him. I'm sure if I had a black player and watched this kid play every week, I would see something....because you tend to look for it....I think. However, I just don't have the sense that there is an overall problem with referees being racist. With that said, if I ever felt that a center was calling unjust fouls on a kid (regardless of race), I would say something at halftime like...I don't think there was a foul on #10 there and there. I think they are shoulder to shoulder...or something like that and that may lead to a discussion.

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RantingSoccerDad Curious why you respond first to a joke post instead of addressing some of the real questions about bias and racism?

What you're "asking" is more of an accusation (based on nothing, unless you've seen me ref and can cite some examples) than a question, but SoccerRef answered for me, anyway.

I think we as a society need to do a better job of treating people equally. We can certainly bear that in mind when we're reffing.

There are some cultural differences in what people consider "OK" in soccer, but there's a fine line between prejudice and sociology, so I'm just going to keep calling it as I have been -- shoulder-to-shoulder is OK, shielding is OK, pushing (especially from behind) is not. And if I ever see a dive in the age groups I've reffing, I'll probably be too busy laughing to call anything. (But don't test me!)

No one is accusing you personally. People are asking how you deal with this issue and if you have seen it.

This is not exactly a direct answer to the bias question but it raises the issue of how a referee can deal with another referee and frankly we are pretty limited. If I'm the center it's my call and the ARs can only make suggestions and vice versa if I'm the AR. If I notice something as an AR I can try to bring it up in the halftime discussion but most of the referees that have problems are not the kind of people that take suggestions positively. If there is something truly egregious I can report it to the assignor, but even that can only go so far, there are dozens of other assignors. In general we try to support each other and if it's at all possible to help a fellow referee improve in an area they need improvement I would prefer to support them that way. I have once let an assignor know about a problem referee who made some very inappropriate comments to players on a team he didn't like but that is the only time I have ever felt that sure that something needed to be addressed. I have also once been contacted by an assigner asking about another referee I had worked with about whom some concerns had been raised so I do know that assigners do pay attention to that and follow up on potential issues.

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RantingSoccerDad Curious why you respond first to a joke post instead of addressing some of the real questions about bias and racism?

What you're "asking" is more of an accusation (based on nothing, unless you've seen me ref and can cite some examples) than a question, but SoccerRef answered for me, anyway.

I think we as a society need to do a better job of treating people equally. We can certainly bear that in mind when we're reffing.

There are some cultural differences in what people consider "OK" in soccer, but there's a fine line between prejudice and sociology, so I'm just going to keep calling it as I have been -- shoulder-to-shoulder is OK, shielding is OK, pushing (especially from behind) is not. And if I ever see a dive in the age groups I've reffing, I'll probably be too busy laughing to call anything. (But don't test me!)

No one is accusing you personally. People are asking how you deal with this issue and if you have seen it.

Are you asking if refs call out other refs after the game if they feel like they were biased/racist?

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RantingSoccerDad Curious why you respond first to a joke post instead of addressing some of the real questions about bias and racism?

What you're "asking" is more of an accusation (based on nothing, unless you've seen me ref and can cite some examples) than a question, but SoccerRef answered for me, anyway.

I think we as a society need to do a better job of treating people equally. We can certainly bear that in mind when we're reffing.

There are some cultural differences in what people consider "OK" in soccer, but there's a fine line between prejudice and sociology, so I'm just going to keep calling it as I have been -- shoulder-to-shoulder is OK, shielding is OK, pushing (especially from behind) is not. And if I ever see a dive in the age groups I've reffing, I'll probably be too busy laughing to call anything. (But don't test me!)

No one is accusing you personally. People are asking how you deal with this issue and if you have seen it.

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RantingSoccerDad Curious why you respond first to a joke post instead of addressing some of the real questions about bias and racism?

What you're "asking" is more of an accusation (based on nothing, unless you've seen me ref and can cite some examples) than a question, but SoccerRef answered for me, anyway.

I think we as a society need to do a better job of treating people equally. We can certainly bear that in mind when we're reffing.

There are some cultural differences in what people consider "OK" in soccer, but there's a fine line between prejudice and sociology, so I'm just going to keep calling it as I have been -- shoulder-to-shoulder is OK, shielding is OK, pushing (especially from behind) is not. And if I ever see a dive in the age groups I've reffing, I'll probably be too busy laughing to call anything. (But don't test me!)

See that wasn't so hard was it?

Anonymous wrote:RantingSoccerDad Curious why you respond first to a joke post instead of addressing some of the real questions about bias and racism?

I resent you calling my post a joke. Having to take an emergency poop is a real issue.

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you guys do if you have an urgent need to take a dump during the game?

Kegels.

Your answer was much nicer than mine.
I was going to say that it doesn't really matter, because there are already 22 little sh*ts on the field.

Anonymous wrote:RantingSoccerDad Curious why you respond first to a joke post instead of addressing some of the real questions about bias and racism?

Possibly because if people see bias and racism, there's nothing we can say to refute it?
We ref games with people of every age, sex, race and nationality, and do our bests to be objective in every way.
Not quite sure what you want to hear beyond that, and not sure how to address unconscious bias, since it's, well, unconscious.

Anonymous wrote:RantingSoccerDad Curious why you respond first to a joke post instead of addressing some of the real questions about bias and racism?

Do you really think someone has an answer to this? Do you think referees talk about how they are racist or not racist? I don't know why someone I don't know acts they way they do. If you accuse someone of doing this, they would deny it. This isn't a referee problem. This is a people problem. I have no idea who you are but I'm sure you show bias to someone unjustly. Maybe start a new thread and explain why you do.

RantingSoccerDad Curious why you respond first to a joke post instead of addressing some of the real questions about bias and racism?

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you guys do if you have an urgent need to take a dump during the game?

Kegels.

I think your answer should have been "depends".

What do you guys do if you have an urgent need to take a dump during the game?