CALL BIAS NOT HARD TO BELIEVE.(Sports)

Byline: Brian Ettkin

Your first reaction may be the same as David Stern's: to dismiss the findings. Surely NBA referees call 'em as they see 'em without regard to skin tone. To think otherwise is to dent the belief that sport is a meritocracy in which you're either good enough on a given day, or not, as judged by a colorblind scoreboard.

But a study by a pair of Ivy League academics found that from 1991-2004 white NBA referees called fouls with more frequency against black players than against white players (it also found that black referees called fouls with more frequency against white players, though this tendency was more faint).

The paper by …