By Martin Green
In an article in the News & Citizen, 12/4/25, Lauren Young, executive director of activities at the Vermont Principals Association (VPA), recently commented on the shortage of referees for high school athletics in Vermont:
“As the VPA ramps up their recruitment efforts, Young wants to see a more accurate representation of Vermont’s student body with whistles — particularly through more women and people of color becoming certified to officiate.
‘We have diverse schools, and I think there’s power in seeing people in a position of authority in the game that are reflective of what they look like to try to dispel some of the older white male dominance over the officiating world,’ she said.”
At the risk of being grossly misunderstood and even wrongly labeled as a racist, I am responding to this article because some of Young’s suppositions seem to be flawed on several levels and ought not go unchallenged.
Frankly, who cares what the age, sex, or color of a referee’s skin is, and why in the world would it even matter?
Do athletes really derive their power by having referees who are “reflective of what they look like?”
Shouldn’t the qualifications for a referee be based on merit and his or her ability to do the job with skill, excellence, and integrity, instead of an artificially imposed quota of arbitrary external characteristics?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said that we ought to be judged not on the basis of the color of our skin—some arbitrary external characteristic which ostensibly defines us—but on the content of our character.
By prejudicially using the phrase, “older white male dominance,” Young has, with broad brush, condemned males, older males, and white males.
Why is Young using the word “dominance” as if to imply some sort of oppressor/oppressed scenario? Does she honestly believe that older white male referees have intentionally tried to exert dominance over athletes? Do not these kind of phrases foment racist tropes where none exist?
I’m not apologizing for being older, white, or male. I have zero choice about any of these characteristics. And where there is neither a choice nor an issue, why invent one out of some imposed and artificial sense of guilt?
Especially in this season as we reflect upon and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, why continue to promote false narratives which demean and divide? Instead, let’s remember the incomparably beautiful love story of the Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to heal and redeem our brokenness and restore us to the God in whose image we are all created.
The author is a Morrisville resident.