This Sounds More Like an Example of Racial Progress than an Example of Racism
In the Yahoo article Has baseball lost the meaning of Jackie Robinson Day? (4/13/08), Los Angeles Angels outfielder Torii Hunter (pictured) is quoted as criticizing Major League Baseball for losing the meaning of its annual Jackie Robinson Day. According to the article:
“Hunter [says] ‘This is supposed to be an honor, and just a handful of guys wearing the number. Now you’ve got entire teams doing it. I think we’re killing the meaning. It should be special wearing Jackie’s number, not just because it looks cool.’
“What upset Hunter, he says now, was this: the Houston Astros had no black players on their team last April, and yet the entire team wore No. 42. Said Hunter:
“‘That got it away from, ‘OK, we don’t have any blacks,’ he said. To Hunter, a roster with no black players did not represent the progress for which Robinson stood, and baseball celebrated according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.”
Baseball certainly has an appalling past when it comes to it treatment of blacks, but I can’t agree with Hunter’s statement here. In fact, it seems that what he cites as a problem is more an indication of racial progress than racism.
Hunter is upset that the Houston Astros last year didn’t have any black players, at least in April. Yet today blacks comprise only about 8% of the players in Major League Baseball. With one out of every 12 players being black, it wouldn’t be particularly unusual for a team of 25 to not have a black player. (The domination of baseball by black players peaked in the 1970s and has waned ever since, not in favor or whites but in favor of Latinos, who are increasingly dominating baseball).
I suppose one could argue that blacks being 12% of the US population and only 8% of baseball is racism, but that doesn’t seem likely to me. Baseball draws players from a huge number of countries, mostly in Latin America but also including Asia. For blacks to comprise 8% of the players seems reasonable enough.
But what Hunter misses is this–the Houston Astros, a team in the South with no black players, all decided to wear Jackie Robinson’s no. 42, to honor Robinson. Doesn’t that seem like progress?
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April 16th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
So what is the percentage of black players in the NBA? Definately a lot higher than in the population at large! Where’s the protests? Professional sports are one of only a few areas in the US where the membership is based on skill and interest, rather than PC ideology.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
true. affirmative action is supposed to make an employee environment mirror the society at large. so look at the NBA or NFL and tell me they mirror the demographics of society at large.
They don’t.