The Center for the Study of Sport in Society issues the grades in relation to overall patterns in society. Federal affirmative action policies state that the workplace should reflect the percentage of the people in the racial group of the population. Thus, with approximately 12 percent of the population being Black, if 12 percent of the positions were held by Blacks the sport received a "B." It got a "C" if it had only nine percent and an "A" if it doubled it to 24 percent.