www.npr.org Web results The NFL Will Stop Assuming Racial Differences When Assessing Brain Injuries
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Binary race norms make assumptions about cognitive function
The NFL noted that the norms were developed in medicine "to stop bias in testing, not perpetrate it." And both Seeger and the league said the practice was never mandatory, but left to the discretion of doctors taking part in the settlement program.
However, the NFL appealed some claims filed by Black players if their scores were not adjusted for race.
"If it wasn't for the wives, who were infuriated by all the red tape involved, it never would have come to be," Jenkins said of the attention being paid to the issue, three years after lawyers for former Pittsburgh Steelers Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport say they first raised it.
The binary race norms, when they are used in the testing, assume that Black patients start with worse cognitive function than whites and other non-Blacks. That makes it harder for them to show a deficit and qualify for an award. Henry and Davenport, for instance, were denied awards but would have qualified had they been white, according to their lawsuit, which Brody dismissed in March, calling it an improper "collateral attack" on the settlement. They have appealed the ruling."
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Looks like a well-intentioned theory either had unintended consequences in a post-career assessment, or used maliciously by the NFL to avoid financial compensation to black players.