As you probably know, Blacks dominate the sport of professional basketball. At the same time, have you also noticed that most of the referees in the National Basketball Association (NBA) are White? Does this racial disparity between the players and the referees constitute a potential for bias? As reported by the New York Times, the answer seems to be yes, as a new study concludes that White referees are more likely to call fouls on Black players than White players:

[The study’s authors] found a corresponding bias in which black officials called fouls more frequently against white players, though that tendency was not as strong. They went on to claim that the different rates at which fouls are called “is large enough that the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew assigned to the game.”

N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern said in a telephone interview that the league saw a draft copy of the paper last year, and was moved to do its own study this March using its own database of foul calls, which specifies which official called which foul. “We think our cut at the data is more powerful, more robust, and demonstrates that there is no bias,” Mr. Stern said.

Three independent experts asked by The Times to examine the Wolfers-Price paper and materials released by the N.B.A. said they considered the Wolfers-Price argument far more sound. . . . Both [authors] cautioned that the racial discrimination they claim to have found should be interpreted in the context of bias found in other parts of American society. “There’s bias on the basketball court,” Mr. Wolfers said, “but less than when you’re trying to hail a cab at midnight.”

As the study’s authors note, this situation appears to be another example of art (or more specifically in this case, sports) imitating life -- racial biases and discrimination still exist against people of color, particularly Blacks, in many aspects of American society. Need more proof of that? How about the recent news that Senator and Democratic Presidential hopeful Barak Obama will now receive Secret Service protection -- the first Presidential candidate to do so -- out of fear of a racially-motivated attack against him.

Therefore, in this context, it’s not entirely shocking to hear that it apparently also exists in the sport of professional basketball, even despite the fact that the sport is dominated by popular, celebrity Black athletes who make millions of dollars a year.