Divided along racial lines, duh. What have I been saying for years and years. I find it amazing that the poll reports 37% of fans would like to see him pass Aaron's record, that is certainly not the perception you get from the media, a group that is disproportionately white compared to the American population.
Also, interesting is the breakdown by those who feel Bonds is HOF worthy. 85% of blacks compared to 53% whites. In other, words if black America voted, Bonds would receive the necessary 75%, if white America voted he would not. Given that an overwhelming majority of the baseball writers who vote are white, you can see where the numbers will fall using basic mathematical skills (Don't ask Charles Barkley for help).
Clearly, race is a factor in the reporting and the perception of this issue. As the saying goes, White America needs to recognize that "denial is not just a river in Egypt". Just like any other significant life problem, recognition of the problem is ALWAYS the first step in correcting the problem. Anyone that wants to continue to argue against those two basic facts is an utter fool.
These poll figures clearly show that once again here is what the issue of race boils down to in this country today:
CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION-THE PROBLEM OF "TALKING PAST ONE ANOTHER": "Two persons, carrying on a discussion in the same universe of discourse-corresponding to the same historical-social conditions-can and must do so quite differently from two persons identified with different social positions. These two types of discussion, i.e., between socially and intellectually heterogeneous participants, are to be clearly distinguished.
"Ours is a world in which social groupings, which had hitherto lived more or less isolated from one another, each making itself and its own world of thought absolute, are now, in one form or another, merging into one another. Not only Orient and Occident, not only the various nations of the west, but also the various social strata of these nations, which previously had been more or less self-contained, and, finally, the different occupational groups within these strata and the intellectual groups in this most highly differentiated world-all these are now thrown out of the self-sufficient, complacent state of taking themselves for granted, and are forced to maintain themselves and their ideas in the face of the onslaught of these heterogeneous groups.
"How do they carry on this struggle? They usually do so with but few exceptions by 'talking past one another'; i.e., although they are more or less aware that the person with whom they are discussing the matter represents another group, and that it is likely that his/her mental structure as a whole is often quite different when a concrete thing is being discussed, they speak as if their differences were confined to the specific question at issue around which their present disagreement crystallized. They overlook the fact that their antagonist differs from them in his/her whole outlook, and not merely in the opinion about the point under discussion.
"This indicates that there are types of intellectual intercourse between heterogeneous persons. The differences in the total mental structure remain obscurely in the background in so far as the contact between the participants is concerned. Consciousness for both is crystallized about the concrete issue. For each of the participants the 'object' has a more or less different meaning because it grows out of the whole of their perspective frames of reference, as a result of which the meaning of the object in the perspective of the other person remains, at least in part, obscure. Hence 'talking past one another' is an inevitable phenomenon of the 'age of equalization'."
-Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia
Also, please stop with the argument that there is no racism involved because it's a black man eclipsing another black mans record. There was no love for Aaron as he approached Ruth's record.
As the numbers show, Bonds "personality" as a factor in his acceptance vis-a-vis Aaron is is more of an indictment of white America as it again indicates that there is a certain way blacks have to act in order to be "acceptable" to whites.
Ali was not very popular during the time he was dominating the boxing world, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was not popular while he was the most dominant force in the NBA. Both later became more palatable and acceptable, but both competed and endured intense levels of hatred and vitriol.
I would make the argument that Bonds is currently competing and challenging Aaron's record in a climate that is far filled with more hatred and risk then even Hank Aaron may have endured. If it could possibly be measured, I would bet that the risk of a death threat to Bonds being accomplished before he completes his record chase is far greater the level of risk Aaron may have competed under. And as we've seen with the Seles incident, and the various incidents of fan on player/coach violence on major league baseball fields recently, it cannot be denied that there is a heightened level of risk. Combine the climate with alcohol and you have a very volatile and combustible mix indeed.
The racism is more effectively covered up today than it was in the 1970's due to the politically correct environment in which we live in, but it clearly is in fact, still there.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2861930
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