But he and other white executives are quick to point out the enormous challenges.

If white executives "just want to put in a black face, without giving that person any role, that would mean nothing," he said.

This was Zulu class for the nervous white executive.

There is only one type of juror to avoid in this case: the white male corporate executive.

If those jobs in the league office were being done by white executives, Cox would have a much better case.

Both black and white executives said they had no doubt that the situation had improved, though, and the records bear them out.

"It wouldn't matter," said Scott Robertson, 47 years old, a white executive for an engineering and construction firm.

Bird, a white executive, fires Thomas, a black coach.

The people who call the shots are white executives who obsess about ratings and box office, not civil rights.

Now conscience-stricken white executives have joined his cause.