A.) Its doing nothing to address the actual problem.
B.) No decision should be based on the colour of someone's skin. Rightly or wrongly this only fuels racism.
C.) Where do you stop? Why not have a requirement to interview: white, black, Asian, women, the disabled, over 50s, under 50s, ex cons.
A. Yes, fair enough I can see where you're coming from. As I mentioned before the Rooney Rule isn't perfect by any means. The number of minority coaches has fallen back after a spurt during the initial years. But is there any other solution to bring coaches of said race to a higher level ? If there is, then I'm all ears. We could say that more ex-black players should gets their badges, enter lower league managerial jobs but the latter issue still remains unsolved.
A lot of the times, coaching vacancies are being filled not by merit (I'd have no problem if they were) but by being pals with people in the know, or being someone's son/ brother etc. So meritocracy has already been chucked out of the window in favor of association practices in a pseudo-feudal established order.
Whichever way one looks at it - fact of the matter is that there is a major discrepancy in the current structure. A version of the Rooney Rule may not directly solve the issue and may seem a bit partisan to some - but it does shake up the current system a bit. It's a gradual process and will take decades before the system's homogeneous.
B. In an ideal utopia I'd agree with you. But in reality what you're saying is totally is discord with human history no ? Prior to the mid 1900s the exact motto was : Every major decision should be based on the color of someone's skin. Because of that adage and centuries of prejudice and racial/ cultural bias a great imbalance has been created in our society. It will require drastic measures to correct the said imbalance even if it goes against the grain of what our parents preached to us of what is being taught to kids these days. It's not an idealist's view but something that should be done to correct what's been wronged through the ages.
C. Agree with you on this. I have no vested interest in this issue but let's atleast start from somewhere before extending the umbrella. Perhaps they're referring to black coaches because traditionally, most coaches are ex-players. And about 30 % players in the English leagues are black. And a lot of ex and current English internationals are black. Maybe that's the bone of contention I dunno to be honest.
EDIT :
The way people have been speaking about such a rule being implemented in England, they seem to have been implying it was all about the promotion of Black coaches. If you read the link below - literally is all about African American's but anyway seeing as it seeks to promote all ethnic minorities - I have no particular issues with such a rule.. there are plenty of clueless managers out there that have got roles purely down to their playing career, if this rule means ex players of an ethnic minority have to get interviewed and have a chance of nailing a job - might not be such a bad idea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooney_Rule
Mate the C. above addresses your contention a bit. And to the point of black coaches being the major beneficiaries of the Rooney Rule, maybe it has something to do with 65% of the NFL players being African Americans (dunno the exact figure right now, was about that the last time I checked). And 99 % of NFL coaches are ex-players either on the collegiate or pro level. So in terms of proportion and numbers, it does make sense.