Tolerating Nepotism

Thanksgiving is upon us and that food, football, and family. During this family-centered holiday, I have that false friend of family and clear enemy of meritocracy on my mind: nepotism.

You would think that in the twenty-first century United States with our fair hiring laws and our HR departments, that nepotism would be squashed. It's not the case. Now having famous relatives can open doors for you (I'm looking at you new TV journalist Chelsea Clinton). Of course, some genuine genetics may be in play here and success can buy access and bring with it knowledge of how to succeed in a field. Those are all good reasons why some families succeed in some fields over generations.  Neither do I have a problem with handing a private business down from father to daughter.  Even so, in certain venues - especially sports, religion, entertainment and politics - the practice thrives. Here is an incomplete list of examples.

Religion:
Rev. Robert Schuller founded the Crystal Cathedral and now his daughter Shelia Schuller Coleman is the head of the congregation. Her brother was ousted from preaching the "Hour of Power" service in 2008. Even in nepotism you can get the hook.

Rev. Billy Graham (93 years old this month) earned world-wide fame over the second half of the twentieth century as an evangelist. His son Franklin took up the reins of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association while his daughter has her own ministry in Raleigh, NC.

Joel Osteen, a mightily successful televangelist based in Houston, TX, took over Lakewood Church when his father John Osteen -Lakewood's founder - died.

Football:
Football is especially a family affair: Ryans, and Harbaughs, and Bowdens, oh my! At least most of those folks found success working for someone other than their fathers. The same has not been the case so far for the following men.

Joe Paterno's son Jay is the quarterbacks coach after seventeen years with the Nittany Lions.
Steve Spurrier is the head coach of the Carolina Gamecocks. His youngest son played wide receiver for him, but his oldest boy, Steve Jr., is his receivers coach.

The there is the family Shanahan. Daddy, Mike, has a Super bowl pedigree and as a result he could hire his son Kyle as offensive coordinator. The rumors out of the Washington Redskins organization is that everything that goes wrong with the offense is someone's fault who isn't named Shanahan.

Politics:
I used to like to joke that J. Strom Thurmond, Jr. was the most qualified lawyer in South Carolina to be named US attorney for the state...who also happened to be named Strom Thurmond. Speaking of families in politics, G. W. Bush appointed him during his first term.

Similarly we had the appointment of Michael Powell by Bill Clinton in the 1990s.  Bush raised this con of Colin Powell to chairman of the FCC before he had turned 40.

No doubt some of these folks are worthy of their positions, but are we to believe that merit alone got them these positions? Were Thurmond and Powell more qualified than all the people in their fields who had twenty years of experience over them? No, of course not, and hardly anyone is pretending that anything but nepotism is at work here.

Those are examples that come to mind, but I am open to hearing from others with more and better cases of ongoing nepotism.