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| 5/25 |
| 2003/10/3 [Politics/Domestic, Politics] UID:10436 Activity:nil |
10/2 Why does Rush lose his job while Dusty Baker gets to keep his
after saying:
"Personally, I like to play in the heat. It's easier for most Latin
guys and most minority people because most of us come from the heat.
You don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan, right? I mean we were brought over for
the heat, right? I mean, ain't that history? Weren't we brought over
here because we could take the heat?"
http://www.illinoisleader.com/columnists/columnistsview.asp?c=6946
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0703/page071503.asp
\_ If you thought about this you'd figure it out. Well, maybe you
wouldn't, since you're pretty committed to your premise.
\_ Why bother posting? Ooooh, you're so mysterious and all knowing
and wise! You have Greater Wisdom you can't reveal to us
peasants! The truth is there's a double standard. That's the
answer to the OP's question.
\_ umm... Dusty is black. Rush is white?
\_ So it's ok for a non-white to be racist and say racist things? |
| 5/25 |
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| www.illinoisleader.com/columnists/columnistsview.asp?c=6946 You dont find too many brothers from New Hampshire or Maine, right? We were brought over here because we could work in the heat-isnt that history? Baker made his comments even more incendiary when he went on to say, Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. Im not seeing some brothers walking around with some white stuff on their ears and noses. It doesnt take a linguistic scholar to figure out what Baker is saying here. The Cubs manager is implying whites are racially inferior to blacks and Latinos when it comes to performing in hot and humid conditions. Baker also went on, in an attempt to rationalize his comments by claiming his words were based on historical fact. Scientific studies have shown Bakers assertions are not based in fact. Indeed, the physical performances of blacks, Latinos and Caucasians do not differ due to climactic variables, according to research data on the subject. The Chicago press was slow to grasp the magnitude of Bakers inferences. Shortly after his infamous quotes, many in the Chicago press dismissed his words. Bakers comments received substantial coverage on ESPN and national talk radio. The question is: Why is the Chicago press so slow to criticize Baker and where is the outrage which accompanied similar comments made by other sports figures in the past. During the last 20 years, the reactions to such comments were met with calls for firings and resignations. In 1987, Al Campanis , the then vice-president of the Los Angeles Dodgers, during an interview on Ted Koppels Nightline , said blacks lacked the necessities to hold positions of management in major league baseball. The Dodgers terminated Campanis, who is now deceased, even though he was widely considered one of the greatest minds in baseball and had a history of supporting the integration of what was once an all-white game. In fact, Campanis interview on Nightline was in commemoration of the groundbreaking career of Jackie Robinson who broke the baseball color line in 1947. In 1988, popular CBS football analyst Jimmy the Greek Snyder , in essence, said because of the rigors of slavery, blacks were bred to be physically superior to whites and thats why so many African-Americans excel in athletics. Snyder was fired from CBS and, for the rest of his career, the words hung around his neck like a millstone. More recently, golfer Fuzzy Zoeller was joking with golfing phenomenon Tiger Woods . Zoeller, who is and was noted for his wit, suggested the after-tournament banquet should offer fried chicken and barbecue to make Woods feel more at home. Needless to say, Zoeller lost nearly every endorsement he had and his success on the links has never been the same, since his momentary lapse in politically correct sensitivity. At the time, Woods played down Zoellers musings, but the national press had a field day and the rest, as they say, is history. The piece suggested Baker was permitted his faux pas because he was talking about his own race, but the facts do not bear out this assertion. The truth of the matter is, Baker was saying Caucasians were physically inferior to blacks and Latinos in certain weather. If not for his color, Baker would be the former manager of the Chicago Cubs. This, my friends, is a ridiculous excuse that should be given little credence. Journalists who would call for Bakers immediate dismissal may run the risk of being labeled racists themselves. However, liberals created the politically correct saturated environment we now live in. What was good for Campanis, Snyder and Zoeller, should be good for the Cubs manager, if we truly desire to live in a colorblind society. |
| www.jewishworldreview.com/0703/page071503.asp You dont see some brothers walking around with white stuff sun block on their ears and noses. My complexion is similar to Bakers, but Ive been putting sun block on ever since a 1982 vacation at the Martinique Club Med that I shall say no more about. And if black folks couldnt tolerate cold weather, you never would have had the Chicago blues or Detroit soul, among numerous other contributions that cold-weather black folks have made to modern life. Then I visited Fairbanks, Alaska, to speak at the university there. I was surprised by the moose, the dog sleds and the spectacular views. I was surprised by the parking meters that had electric cables to help prevent vehicle engines from freezing overnight. Out of 82,000 people in Fairbanks, about 7 percent were black, according to the 2000 census. I thought black folks didnt like cold weather, I joked with my mixed-race audience. Most of Fairbanks black community came there because of the military and stayed because they liked it, several told me. But then, three days after his earlier remarks, from which he refused to back away, Baker brought up Mom. My mother was a black American history teacher in Sacramento, he said. A lot of people dont know history, thats what it sounds like to me. Bakers remarks turned legions of sports reporters into anthropological researchers, which probably didnt do them any harm. Contrary to commonly held suppositions, the preponderance of research shows no major correlation between complexion and heat tolerance. Dark skin apparently does have lower skin cancer rates, but some studies show blacks actually have lower heat tolerance than whites. Most important, theres no scientific reason to discriminate between the races one way or another based on weather conditions. Nothing much happened to Baker after his remarks, except for a lot of angry commentaries. If Cubs managers have learned to put up with anything over the years, it is angry commentary. A white manager probably would not have gotten away with his remarks. But as a black manager, I can say things about blacks that a white manager cant say, he said, and whites can say things about whites that blacks cant say. Although Dusty wasnt talking just about black folks, it is hard to imagine who might have been genuinely offended by his remarks. Lets just hope that he sticks to his players stats, not their skin complexions, in making his personnel decisions on the field. But I dont think Baker should be punished, any more than I thought CBS sports personality Jimmy the Greek Snyder or Dodgers general manager Al Campanis should have been punished for their own similarly controversial remarks about race and the abilities of minorities. In 1987, Campanis said blacks lacked the necessities to be baseball managers or general managers. The next year, Snyder said blacks were better athletes than whites because they were bred that way during slavery. Like Baker, they were wrong, but their gaffes and subsequent uproar revealed something important about how little the races still know about each other. Thats not easy for us to have as long as people are worried about being penalized for raising the wrong questions. As with other matters of race relations, we need to be less punitive and more informative. Besides, it is hard to imagine an appropriate punishment for Baker, although wintertime community service in the Upper Peninsula sounds about right. |