So You Want to Be a Sportswriter 2007

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

white = hard worker
black/latino = supremely talented

white = father was a dentist
black/latino = youngest of 9 children

white = screwball
black/latino = attitude problem

[Guest Edgy DC]

black = flashy
white = blue-collar type

black = used sports as a way out
white = pulled himself up by his bootstraps

black = garishishly attired
white = gay

[Guest iramets]

black=beige to brown
white=beige to pink

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Yes, but together they learn to read and write.

[G-Fafif]

No. 225!

[MFS62]

] New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com Selig's uncivil wrong Thursday, March 8th, 2007 Major League Baseball dubbed it the Civil Rights Game, a well-intentioned celebration of baseball's harried, minority pioneers. But then somebody invited the Cleveland Indians, and the event has been sabotaged by ignorance and long-practiced indifference. With this inaugural theme exhibition set for March31 in Memphis, officials have created a perfect storm of political incorrectness - a who-what-when-where primer on how to inadvertently stage an ironic insult to a local and large population of Natives. Who: The Cleveland Indians, a team famous for its Chief Wahoo cartoon caps, will face the St.Louis Cardinals. What: The Civil Rights Game, televised by ESPN, the first of its kind. When: A particularly dicey time in Cherokee/African-American relations, as the Cherokees consider appeals from the black community after an unfortunate vote to revoke tribal citizenship from descendants of freed slaves. Where: In Memphis, along the Southern land route of the Trail of Tears, a genocidal, forced march of Cherokees in 1838. The relocation was mandated by President Andrew Jackson, and caused the death of at least 4,000 Indians, many buried in shallow graves. Tens of thousands of Cherokee descendants now live in and around the city. How this happened: Professional baseball apparently wants to pretend that Native Americans are all dead and don't matter, like dinosaurs. "It's disgusting," said Alice Gwin Henry, president of the Faraway Cherokees in Memphis. "It tells you where they're coming from. We try not to be overbearing when it comes to the use of names, but nobody has addressed the Trail of Tears as it's associated with an abuse of civil rights. "My family was on the Trail of Tears. We feel offended that they would bring a team here called the Indians. It's racist. We aren't gone." Henry's group will not stage a protest, because her organization is registered as a non-political association. She said others might, and for good reason. Chief Wahoo has long been given a tacit go-ahead from Bud Selig, the same commissioner who has done so much in recognizing the contributions of African-Americans and in confessing the past exclusionary policies of baseball. Selig has embraced the legacy of Jackie Robinson and other black pioneers. Unlike steroid testing or luxury taxes, Chief Wahoo is a very simple issue. Selig could snap his fingers, compensate the Cleveland franchise for lost licensing dollars, and make the logo go away. The lack of empathy on this issue is truly inexplicable. One race can't commit genocide against another, then turn that race into a mascot. A soccer team in Hamburg would never call itself the Jews and adorn its uniforms with caricatures. It certainly would never hold a celebratory civil rights game along the trail of a World War II death march. "Cartoon character imagery like Cleveland's logo, depicting a wide-smiling Indian, tells other non-Indian people, especially kids, that it's OK to continue this exploitative mockery," said Pat Cummins, vice president of the Alliance for Native American Indian Rights of Tennessee. "Native American people have had enough and demand an end to it." The Cleveland Indians were selected for this game, in part, because of their long history of African-American pioneers, including the first black American Leaguer, Larry Doby, and first black manager, Frank Robinson. A spokesperson at Major League Baseball said that logos will be removed from the Indians and Cardinals uniforms for this one game. This is proof the commissioner's office understands, on some level, that Chief Wahoo is the wrong message. Bob DiBiasio, vice president of public relations for the Cleveland Indians, insists the nickname and logo remain a matter of "individual perception." "When some people look at our logo they see baseball," DiBiasio said. "They see Bob Feller and Omar Vizquel and Larry Doby. The Wall Street Journal did an op-ed piece, and they asked the question, 'If something is not meant to demean, can it be demeaning?'" DiBiasio also cited the history of the nickname, "Indians," which is under some dispute. He said that reporters back in 1914 named the team in honor of a Native American star, Louis Sockalexis, who played in Cleveland from 1897-1899. Other historians contend those newspapermen chose the name less because of Sockalexis and more because the "Miracle Braves" of Boston were very much in fashion. Either way, the Cleveland Indians are coming to Memphis this month, a harsh, unnecessary slap in the face to the Cherokee. The team may be met with protests, but these Indians will be spared a forced march through Arkansas.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

A team called the Indians is not inherently racist. They shouldn't conflate the name and the caricature.

[G-Fafif]

This anonymous quote regarding Steinbrenner daughter Jennifer Swindal from a Jon Heyman story on SI.com dissecting the "Who Takes Over After George?" business caught my eye:

]"She is blond, but she is anything but ditzy.''

I felt compelled to respond to the SI Mailbag. Don't know if they'll pay it any mind, but here it was:

]What kind of quote is this: "She is blond, but she is anything but ditzy"? Nice way to reinforce stereotypes. Would you use that quote if it applied to broad generalizations about other facets of appearance like skin color? Or heritage? This is journalism from another era, and not a good one. Use common sense next time. Just because some anonymous source indulges in dinosaur thinking, you're not obligated to pass it along like it's some kind of insight. (My wife happens to be blond, but she is anything but insensitive enough to communicate in this sad, retrograde manner.)

I don't care if the above comes off as "PC," which I think is one of the dumbest phrases in the history of discourse. I also don't much care about Jennifer Swindal or her divorce or her soon-to-be-ex Yankee owner heir apparent husband. I am saddened that somebody would think he's doing her a favor by complimenting her on being smart DESPITE the impediment of being blond, but I am disgusted that a sportswriter would repeat it and probably think it was a very clever quote.

If the point of the story was "look at the obstacles facing women in sports," OK, I'd see that. But it wasn't. It was a matter-of-fact "inside" look at the potential Yankee hierarchy and Heyman presented the quote in very matter-of-fact fashion, telling sports fans, in essence, there is a segment of the population you generally aren't expected to take seriously.

I'm not a huge fan of similes, but imagine the quote as "she is black, but..." or "he is Jewish, but..." or fill in any blank you like. Just because Marilyn Monroe and Suzanne Somers and Anna Nicole Smith got rich and famous playing the ditzy blond card, it doesn't mean they represent some kind of "typical" blond woman.

I'm sure I noticed this because I do happen to be married to a blond woman who would never be described as ditzy, but I'd like to think my BS detector would have gone off regardless.