“I don’t understand that”. Other athletes have joined the protest. That’s the only way they move, man: “is when you shock them”, Carlos told Reuters in an interview Monday at his son’s home in Gilroy, California.
Advertisement
“You guys have been around me and seen me evolve as a man, husband, player father, you know I”m not just speaking out of the side of my neck just because I have forum,” Jones said. In baseball, they don’t need us. Baseball, Jones said, is not the black-dominated world of football or basketball, saying that the game lacks the untouchable wealth of black superstar power, and even a reputable volume of rank and file for it to support a similar form of protest. Essentially being a double minority. “This is about making our country what we all want it to be”.
Part of what makes baseball so unique is its unwillingness to stray from tradition, sometimes to a fault, while still maintaining its historical feel.
Jones is playing the victim.
“Baseball is a white man’s sport”. African-Americans comprise 68 percent of National Football League rosters and 74 percent of NBA rosters. “Remembering all those who lost their lives 15 years ago on 9/11”. Only 8 percent of the league classifies as African-American, according to the newspaper, with a total of just 69 black players being on the Opening Day rosters of the league’s 30 teams.
“So let’s just not say that in America, only one person can say something”. The United States was not just made up of one race.
So the apprehension we see from MLB players, specifically Black MLB players is because they’re looking around at a league full of players and owners who probably won’t have their back and who have been fostered in a culture where respect for America has been compulsory not optional. “Do it because you understand the meaning behind it and the sacrifice behind it”. Insert Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Kris Bryant and maybe Clayton Kershaw.
The demonstration, which Carlos said was about bringing together people of color in solidarity, became one of the most iconic images of protest in sport.
If he could or felt that he could then he would have already.
It’s a pretty dumb thing for Jones to say. “But that’s the key word here: Yet”. Jones said the lack of protest doesn’t mean a lack of support.
Add to this a picture of Cartman on South Park’s Twitter account showing him wearing a “Token’s Life Matters” T-shirt (Token is the name of the school’s only black character) and you’ll get an idea of the theme of the first episode of season 20.
Advertisement
Marcus Lamar is a Washington D.C. -based sports journalist. The question now is what is he going to do to change the narrative? You can check out his podcast “Marc My Words” on Soundcloud, YouTube and coming to iTunes soon.
