I have several thoughts in reaction to Hank's comments, but before I get into them let me start with this: I hate that anyone had threatened him while he was chasing 715 home runs. I hate such a momentous occasion was sullied somewhat because some supremacists didn't like Hammerin' Hank because he's black. I hate that some of those same supremacists exist today and still hold grudges over Hank 40 years later. I don't even like using the word "hate" in conversation often, but I think this is one of the few times it truly applies.
No matter what kind of hate-mongering Hank Aaron had faced back in the 70s, nothing will ever take away from a timeless moment like this one:
My thoughts on Hank's comments are more about where racism is today. He said that 40 years ago, racists were easy to spot because they wore white hoods. Now they're in $1000 suits and designer ties. We've made progress, he said, because we have our first-ever black President, now in his second term in office. But there's still work to do in his eyes, for a number of reasons. First, he said Obama has had to deal with racist backlash from Republicans in Congress. In the world of baseball, he also noted how the number of black players had dropped from what it was in 1974 to what it is now.
I agree with some of those comments. Yes, a racist's "look" certainly has changed, and many of them do wear suits now. The number of black players in baseball has diminished in the last 40 years as well. What Aaron had failed to note is baseball has evolved to include players of all kinds of ethnic backgrounds. There is an extremely large number of Latino players in baseball now, as well as a significant number of Asian-born players. Moreover, the number of black athletes in sports like basketball and football has dramatically increased in the last four decades, so it's not like the number of black athletes across the board has dropped (though I do realize the obvious special place Hank Aaron has for baseball in his heart).
There's a much larger issue here though. I strongly disagree with Aaron on ethnic slandering in politics. Republicans don't dislike Obama because he's black; they dislike him because of his political philosophies. Hilary Clinton could be in the White House and Republicans would dislike her for the same philosophical reasons (though in her case, they'd likely be categorized as misogynists). I may be a white, moderate conservative, but I can tell you Obama's ethnicity isn't even something that enters my mind when I think about my opinions of him. It's fairly insulting to presume that any Republican would dislike Obama solely or primarily because he's black.
The irony to Hank's thought that Republicans are hate-mongering supremacists is that no one seems to recall the story of George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama during the 1960s. He was the infamous man behind the effort to keep black students from attending the University of Alabama in September 1963 (you know, the part where Forrest Gump just followed a woman who had dropped her book while entering the school). He fought with every breath to keep segregation in effect, and he was a Democrat. Has everyone forgotten about this piece of history?
My biggest beef with Aaron's comments, as well as anyone with ethnic hate-mongering ideas, is the fundamental flaw with the concept of racism. Maybe it's because I'm a simple-minded moderate conservative, but I can't help but think that people who have darker skin tones than me aren't a different race. A different ethnicity, sure, but not a different race. Whites, blacks, Asians, etc - we're all human beings. A single race. No one ethnicity is superior to any other. It's classic Occam's Razor, and it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. I don't even know how such a simple concept came to be so convoluted and complicated, but it has. If the mass public realized the concept of racism is a paradox, I think the idea of ethnic superiority would become a distant memory.
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