Pennant Race(-ism).
Recent events have left me somewhat confused and in a difficult position. As a Dodgers fan, I find myself in the odd situation of feeling a need to defend the Dodgers' hated rivals, the San Francisco Giants.
Allow me to explain. The Giants haven't been doing that well lately (neither have the Dodgers, but that's another entry.)
Last week, Larry Krueger, a San Francisco talk radio personality from KNBR, the Giants' flagship station, made some comments that are inexcusable no matter what your opinion of the team. Krueger referred to members of the Giants as "brain-dead Caribbean hitters" and said that manager Felipe Alou, who is from the Dominican Republic and a baseball legend in his own right, had Cream of Wheat for brains.
After a brief suspension that was no more than a slap on the wrist, KNBR has finally done the right thing and fired Krueger. However, they only did so after station personnel compounded things further on August 9th by openly mocking Alou's heartfelt commentary on the incident from ESPN's Outside the Lines television program during KNBR's morning show.
I watched that program, and I was undeniably moved, as a sports fan and as a Latina, by the quiet anger and dignity Alou communicated in his heavily-accented but excellent English as he mourned the fact that he was still facing the same ugly racism in his seventies that he had upon his entry to major league baseball in his twenties.
Americans don't seem to want to admit that racism pervades every aspect of our society, including professional sports. For some unknown reason, baseball in particular seems to suffer from this problem. Racism in baseball is like the elephant in the room that nobody will acknowledge and nobody will do anything about. Jackie Robinson is always pointed to as the proof that baseball has overcome its inherent racism, but the racism he faced in his lifetime affected his health and shortened his life. Worse still, his sacrifice seems to have been in vain, as evidenced by baseball's apparent lack of interest in cultivating new African-American talent.
A lot of fans seem uncomfortable with the growing number of Latinos in baseball, particularly those of Caribbean descent (compounded by the clearly African heritage of some of the Caribbean players.) One need only attend a game in person or listen to fans--and even the subtler sports media--to hear the differences in language often used to describe players of different heritages. White players are generally described as "intelligent," "leaders," and "hardworking," while players of color may be described as "natural athletes" or with animal terms like "rabbit" (for a fast runner or base stealer) or "horse" (short for "workhorse," denoting a physically strong player). As much as I love baseball, it sometimes makes me sick to notice these differences.
And don't even get me started on how the overwhelming majority of the major and minor league players so far caught testing positive for steroids are Latinos, leading to rampant speculation that Latin players are responsible for the influx of steroids (including the alleged "Typhoid Mary" of steroids, Jose Canseco.) Such sly remarks from fans and media personalities as "you don't walk off the islands" refer to the popular belief that Latin players, and particularly those from the Caribbean islands, are shooting up steroids like mad in order to get bigger and hit more home runs (as opposed to "walking") and thus to gain passage to the major leagues.
I recently read Canseco's Juiced, and I have to admit that I agreed with a lot of what he said about the open racism in baseball. (I don't agree with some other things he said, such as his notion that steroids are the wave of the future and advisable to help one customize one's body for the sport of one's choice, but that's something else entirely.) I can't help wondering, too, if Canseco has a point about Major League Baseball colluding with the players' union to make examples of players of color (like, say, Canseco himself and Rafael Palmeiro) while white steroid users are coddled and protected (like, say, Mark McGwire.)
I realize that these remarks may upset my reader base. However, y'all need to understand that I grew up in a very racist place, and I have endured quite a bit of racism myself over the years, so these things resonate with me. I've worked hard all my life just to try to prove that I deserve to be treated equally with my white classmates and co-workers, and it's a struggle that has no happy ending. It just gets one very, very tired and very, very cynical and kills a little of one's soul each day. Things like this don't help, and only serve to remind us all how far America still has to go until it's the truly colorblind country it pretends to be.
Allow me to explain. The Giants haven't been doing that well lately (neither have the Dodgers, but that's another entry.)
Last week, Larry Krueger, a San Francisco talk radio personality from KNBR, the Giants' flagship station, made some comments that are inexcusable no matter what your opinion of the team. Krueger referred to members of the Giants as "brain-dead Caribbean hitters" and said that manager Felipe Alou, who is from the Dominican Republic and a baseball legend in his own right, had Cream of Wheat for brains.
After a brief suspension that was no more than a slap on the wrist, KNBR has finally done the right thing and fired Krueger. However, they only did so after station personnel compounded things further on August 9th by openly mocking Alou's heartfelt commentary on the incident from ESPN's Outside the Lines television program during KNBR's morning show.
I watched that program, and I was undeniably moved, as a sports fan and as a Latina, by the quiet anger and dignity Alou communicated in his heavily-accented but excellent English as he mourned the fact that he was still facing the same ugly racism in his seventies that he had upon his entry to major league baseball in his twenties.
Americans don't seem to want to admit that racism pervades every aspect of our society, including professional sports. For some unknown reason, baseball in particular seems to suffer from this problem. Racism in baseball is like the elephant in the room that nobody will acknowledge and nobody will do anything about. Jackie Robinson is always pointed to as the proof that baseball has overcome its inherent racism, but the racism he faced in his lifetime affected his health and shortened his life. Worse still, his sacrifice seems to have been in vain, as evidenced by baseball's apparent lack of interest in cultivating new African-American talent.
A lot of fans seem uncomfortable with the growing number of Latinos in baseball, particularly those of Caribbean descent (compounded by the clearly African heritage of some of the Caribbean players.) One need only attend a game in person or listen to fans--and even the subtler sports media--to hear the differences in language often used to describe players of different heritages. White players are generally described as "intelligent," "leaders," and "hardworking," while players of color may be described as "natural athletes" or with animal terms like "rabbit" (for a fast runner or base stealer) or "horse" (short for "workhorse," denoting a physically strong player). As much as I love baseball, it sometimes makes me sick to notice these differences.
And don't even get me started on how the overwhelming majority of the major and minor league players so far caught testing positive for steroids are Latinos, leading to rampant speculation that Latin players are responsible for the influx of steroids (including the alleged "Typhoid Mary" of steroids, Jose Canseco.) Such sly remarks from fans and media personalities as "you don't walk off the islands" refer to the popular belief that Latin players, and particularly those from the Caribbean islands, are shooting up steroids like mad in order to get bigger and hit more home runs (as opposed to "walking") and thus to gain passage to the major leagues.
I recently read Canseco's Juiced, and I have to admit that I agreed with a lot of what he said about the open racism in baseball. (I don't agree with some other things he said, such as his notion that steroids are the wave of the future and advisable to help one customize one's body for the sport of one's choice, but that's something else entirely.) I can't help wondering, too, if Canseco has a point about Major League Baseball colluding with the players' union to make examples of players of color (like, say, Canseco himself and Rafael Palmeiro) while white steroid users are coddled and protected (like, say, Mark McGwire.)
I realize that these remarks may upset my reader base. However, y'all need to understand that I grew up in a very racist place, and I have endured quite a bit of racism myself over the years, so these things resonate with me. I've worked hard all my life just to try to prove that I deserve to be treated equally with my white classmates and co-workers, and it's a struggle that has no happy ending. It just gets one very, very tired and very, very cynical and kills a little of one's soul each day. Things like this don't help, and only serve to remind us all how far America still has to go until it's the truly colorblind country it pretends to be.