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> > https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/26/sports/josh-hader-ovation.html > > > > We live in an age of unbridled white id. > > Many days it is anything goes, baby, from the White House to the baseball > stands; objecting often draws a scornful wave of the hand and a lecture on > political correctness. > > The latest eruption comes courtesy of Josh Hader > <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/sports/josh-hader.html>, a > 24-year-old white relief pitcher with a smoking fastball and a Twitter > account filled with hideous thoughts typed when he was 17 and 18. A Hader > sampler: “White Power, lol” (with an emoji of a clenched fist), “KKK,” and > “I hate gay people.” He also used that vilest of words for black people. > > This all came to light as Hader pitched in the All-Star Game last week. > After the game, he mumbled something about being influenced by rap lyrics. > Then he abandoned that tack and began apologizing profusely. “I was 17 > years old, and as a child I was immature,” he said, “and obviously I said > some things that were inexcusable.” > > Point of information: A 17-year-old can drive or serve in the military, > and is a year away from voting. That does not describe a child. I’m not > unforgiving of youthful stupidity, although it would have been swell if > reporters had asked obvious questions: How was it that you attended an > integrated high school in exurban Maryland and yet posted racist and > homophobic comments? From what sewer line did those sentiments bubble up? > > The more breathtaking moment, however, came nights later when Hader walked > to the mound in Milwaukee in his first appearance since the All-Star break. > Thousands of fans, nearly all of them white, rose and gave him a standing > ovation. > > Who knows precisely what was on the mind of each fan who stood? > Intelligence often fails to march in step with fandom. Hometown players — > including Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun > <https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/sports/baseball/braun-comes-clean-but-damage-is-done.html> > — > are applauded after they lie about steroid use and, in Braun’s case, try to > ruin the life of a drug tester. > > This, however, is a white behavioral moment worth exploring, and I type > these words as a lifelong member of that race. > > Let’s pose a counterfactual: Josh Hader is black, and an excavation of his > Twitter account reveals that he called whites “crackers,” wrote of his > hatred for them and endorsed an organization that engaged in genocidal > violence against whites. One of his tweets included a picture of a clenched > black fist. That black pitcher had also expressed hatred for gays and made > graphic, misogynist statements. > > I’m trying to imagine thousands of white fans rising to their feet and > giving him a standing ovation, even after he apologizes and blames youthful > indiscretion. Or, rather, I’m trying and failing. We know what happened > when a few black football players of good character took a knee to protest > police violence against black Americans: They were pilloried by the > president of the United States > <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/us/politics/trump-calls-for-boycott-if-nfl-doesnt-crack-down-on-anthem-protests.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news> > and > received no standing ovations. > > Some are now unemployed. > > Billy Bean, a former player who is gay, is the league’s sensitivity and > diversity firefighter. If a player says something recondite or distasteful, > you can look for him to come walking through the clubhouse door. He talked > to Hader and oozed empathy afterward. “I sympathize for him tremendously,” > Bean said. “I was really proud of him today.” > > Proud? > > The Milwaukee news media did no better. As fans rose to clap, a writer > from the Journal-Sentinel > <https://twitter.com/Haudricourt/status/1020844560082235393> posted on > Twitter: “Josh Hader announced as new Brewers pitcher and gets a nice > ovation.” > > Afterward, reporters gathered around Hader’s locker. > > “Josh, that was an overwhelmingly positive reaction,” one asked. Do you > worry, Hader was asked, that maybe in “other parts of the country that > could get misconstrued a little bit?” > > Ah, those less sympathetic precincts. > > Baseball, once a sport with so many black stars, has fallen into an > uncomfortable racial ditch. It has fewer and fewer black players and its > fan base is the oldest and whitest of the three major American sports. > Nielsen reported in 2013 that baseball television viewers were, on average, > in their mid-50s, and 83 percent of them were white. N.B.A. games, by > contrast, drew an audience that was on average 40 years old, and 45 percent > African-American. > > For far too long, too many baseball controversies have centered around > older, white baseball men complaining about so-called insults to the game. > So Ken Griffey Jr. — a transcendent African-American outfielder and Hall of > Fame member — was criticized for wearing his baseball cap backward in > practice. Jose Bautista, who was born in the Dominican Republic and now > plays for the Mets, was slammed a few years ago for having the audacity to > flip his bat after whacking a game-winning playoff home run for the Toronto > Blue Jays. > > Such controversies almost always revolve around black and Latino players. > As Bautista wrote afterward in The Player’s Tribune > <https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/jose-bautista-bat-flip>: > “Let’s not have these loaded conversations about ‘character’ and the > integrity of the game every time certain players show emotion in a big > moment. That kind of thinking is not just old school. It’s just ignorant.” > > A couple of years ago, I spent a day in the company of Curtis Granderson, > as thoughtful and public-spirited a player as you can find, and a black man > born and raised near Chicago. He spoke of the oddness of playing a sport > that draws so few black fans. > > “We play this game, me and other black players, counting the black people > in the stands who weren’t working at the game,” Granderson said > <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/sports/baseball/most-valuable-person-the-title-belongs-to-curtis-granderson.html>. > “ ‘I see one! No, he’s Latino.’ You’re panning, panning, and sometimes it > would take us seven innings to count 10.” > > I played my version when the Cubs played in the 2016 World Series. Come > the fourth inning, I walked from Wrigley Field’s ancient press box to the > farthest reaches of right field. My goal was to count every black fan I > saw. I found two sitting hard by the right field fence. > > Each year, Richard Lapchick of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in > Sports issues a report on racial hiring in baseball. As recently as 2009, > baseball had 10 black and Latino managers. Now it has four. There is the > tiniest handful of blacks and Latinos > <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/sports/baseball/where-are-all-the-minority-managers.html> > in > baseball front offices. > > Commissioner Rob Manfred loves to talk of pipelines and training > initiatives and so on, but he has had remarkably little success in > persuading teams and owners to hire more blacks and Latinos. > > When I asked Manfred about this, he got snippy. “We’re going to have ebb > and flow,” he said. > > Not much is flowing. I don’t want to pick on Midwestern teams when my own > childhood team, the Mets, is so close at hand and offers such an inviting > target. One member of the Mets’ weird three-headed general manager team is > Latino, but the rest of the organization is lily white. The team has no > black or Latino vice presidents. > > Like Chicago, New York is a majority minority city. Yet you can sit in the > stands at Wrigley or Citi Field some nights and it looks like 1955. In > Milwaukee the other night, it even sounded like 1955. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
