[Marxism] Racism in Sports - Addressing a Problem No Longer Discussed

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

By _WILLIAM C. RHODEN_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/columns/williamcrhoden/?inline=nyt-per)
 
Published: May 25, 2008
 
Last week, a Chicago-based caller to a popular _N.B.A._ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_basketball_association
/index.html?inline=nyt-org)  program on Sirius Satellite Radio made the point 
 that his _Chicago Bulls_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/chicagobulls/index.html?inline=nyt-org)
  
would keep a few white players on the  roster in deference to a predominantly 
white ticket-buying fan base.
The radio hosts found it unfathomable â one of them called it 
âridiculousâ â
  that a general manager might feel he had to keep white players and avoid 
having  an all-black team.  
The caller was apparently old enough to remember when racial quotas were a  
way of life in professional and college sports. Quotas were entrenched:  
management was pandering to what it thought its fans wanted.  
Had the hosts understood the history of the quota system, they might have  
understood what the caller was talking about and might have at least 
entertained 
 the idea that the system could re-emerge in another form. Reverse quotas, in 
 search of a more diverse N.B.A., are not far-fetched: Itâs called 
globalization,  a code word for more white players on rosters. 
After a back and forth, one of the hosts politely, but firmly, said, âI donâ
t  want to sit here on this topic because I disagree with you.â His point was 
that  fans are largely colorblind. They want to see winning basketball. This 
is  typical of recent conversations about the impact of racism on professional  
sports. The attitude is that racism is something for the archives, especially 
in  professional sports, in which so many black and brown athletes are richly 
 compensated.  
In fact, racism is a constant irritating hum in contemporary life â too  
distracting, too draining, too time-consuming to deal with constantly. Ignore  
the 
hum and pick your spots. Sometimes the spots pick you. 
Last week, _Willie  Randolph_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/willie_randolph/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
 , the embattled 
manager of the _Mets_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkmets/index.html?inline=nyt-org)
 ,  ignited a controversy when he 
discussed racism, double standards and perception.  The constant 
second-guessing, the daily paper-cuts from critics â even when the  Mets were 
winning â had 
apparently pushed Randolph to the brink.  
âThey donât like me?â Randolph told The Record of Hackensack, N.J. â 
âWe  
donât like Willie.â Wait a minute, why donât you like me? I donât get 
it. Did 
I  do anything to you? If you look at what Iâve done for your club, you 
should like  me a little bit.â 
Randolph is not a shoot-from-the-hip-type personality. He had apparently been 
 thinking about this for some time, holding it in â ignoring the hum â and  
concentrating on being the manager of the Mets.  
Randolph said what many of us routinely discuss around the dinner table:  
double standards, the pressure of having to be twice as good, hearing negative  
feedback more than positive.  
In the post-Jeremiah Wright environment of racial etiquette, those who seek  
mainstream support, including managers and coaches, are loath to discuss  
hard-core racial realities and are encouraged to distance themselves from 
anyone  
who does.  
Accordingly, Randolph apologized. He apologized to Mets ownership, to the  
teamâs television network, SportsNet New York, and to the team.  
âI shouldnât have said what I said; it was a mistake,â Randolph said. â
Simple  as that, it was a mistake. Thereâs no excuses for that. No excuses 
for it.â
 
This was no mistake. 
Randolph offered a personal view of racism from a unique perspective: a  
player for 18 seasons, a longtime _Yankees_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkyankees/index.html?inline=nyt-org)
   coach, 
now manager of the Mets. Randolph said what he felt needed to be said.  More 
than that, he said what an overwhelmingly white sports news media needed to  
hear. He perceptively laid out how the news media can shape, define and project 
 
images without saying a word.  
Why, Randolph wondered in his initial interview, didnât SNY cameras focus on  
him when âIâm ready to go down the dugout clapping my hands and patting 
guys 
on  the butt, schooling them during the game?â 
He added: âWhy donât you show that side of me so people can say, Wow, jeez, 
 
Willieâs fiery?â and âYou watch any manager in baseball, you see him look 
like a  bump on the log sitting there. They donât move, they donât talk. 
Iâm as 
animated  and as demonstrative and as involved and as intense as any manager 
in  baseball.â 
âIs it racial?â Randolph said. âHuh? It smells a little bit.â 
Weâre beginning to hear the terms âderacializedâ and âlooking beyond 
raceâ  
quite a bit these days. This means not making uncomfortable observations 
about  racism in exchange for mainstream support. 
Mets General Manager _Omar  Minaya_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/omar_minaya/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
  was criticized 
for initially bringing in an unusually large number of  Latin players. When the 
Mets were winning, that was tolerated. If the Mets  continue to slump, look 
for Minaya to be the next bullâs-eye. (The Mets ended a  five-game losing 
streak 
Saturday, defeating the _Rockies_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/coloradorockies/index.html?inline=nyt-org)
 ,  9-2, in 
Denver.) 
Rather than dismissing Randolphâs comments, we should consider them in the  
larger context of a presidential primary race in which one candidate endorses  
terms like âhard-working, whiteâ voters and a highly respected politician 
says  that a Democratic presidential candidate is where he is only because he 
is  
African-American. 
We like to talk about how much progress weâve made. Letâs not fool  
ourselves. 
 
E-mail: wcr@xxxxxxxxxxx

_http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/sports/baseball/25rhoden.html?ref=sports_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/sports/baseball/25rhoden.html?ref=sports) 






All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it  is 
violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Arthur  
Schopenhauer (1788-1860)



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