Generally speaking, in this country it is not identifying the problems we face that separates us as a country. We're pretty good at that part. It is in finding the solutions where we begin to diverge.
Nothing illustrates this point more clearly to me than two recent stories from ESPN about the great success of the Jackie Robinson West Little League team and the related issue of the decades long decline of African-Americans playing baseball.
Nobody would disagree that when the numbers go from 27% to 19% to less than 8% in four decades that there is a current problem at play. Nobody would argue with the identification of that as a problem.
from ESPN:
"It's concerning," McClendon said. "Not just from a managerial standpoint but from a player standpoint, in what's happening with baseball in the inner cities. I think from all the conversations I've had, I know Major League Baseball is committed to bringing [it] back to the inner cities. I think from a philosophical standpoint we're missing some ideas that need to be in there."
The number of African-American players in the game is down to 7.8 percent. In 1995, African-Americans comprised of 19 percent of the big league rosters and in 1975 it was its highest at 27 percent.
The number of African-American players in the game is down to 7.8 percent. In 1995, African-Americans comprised of 19 percent of the big league rosters and in 1975 it was its highest at 27 percent.
'via Blog this'
After reading McClendon's comments as well as the following article about the Jackie Robinson Little League team my fear is that we will somehow once again run headlong into the morass of the soft bigotry of low expectations. When the facts on the ground seem to be telling such a different narrative. The facts are kind of funny like that. They tend to tell the truth. Others twist the facts to their liking, to suit an agenda or to fit with a narrative they've been clinging to. Follow the facts, the facts are your friends.
from ESPN:
http://espn.go.com/chicago/story/_/id/11418568/chicago-little-league-champs-return-heroes
While the words "South Side" are often shorthand beyond Chicago for gangs, shootings and poverty, the people who live here see a more nuanced picture.
"These are middle-class families," said Jamieson Clay, a relative of Joshua Houston, the pitching and hitting hero of the U.S. championship game. "Ninety percent of the boys have both a mother and a father at home with them and the fathers are playing a pretty active role in their sons' lives."
The team is built around a core of longtime baseball families, Clay said. Joshua Houston has older brothers who play high school and college baseball. His father is the team's pitching coach.
Of the Jackie Robinson West players who attend Chicago public schools, most attend magnet and charter schools, which indicates their parents made the effort to enroll them in special programs. One boy has two parents who are both Chicago police sergeants, while a second boy has a dad who is a Chicago police officer. Coach Darold Butler is a Union Pacific railroad engineer.
"The values of dignity, winning with grace, losing with grace, we can't take credit for that," Butler said. "Those come from their parents."
- 90% of the boys have an intact family environment
- Most attend magnet and charter schools
Heaven forbid? Don't these kids and their families know that these are rather conservative, traditional values that the modern day narrative implies that African-Americans should only embrace with the understanding that they will be referred to as an Uncle Tom / sell-out / or traitor to their race?
(or worse)
http://news.yahoo.com/high-school-girl-taunted-beaten-bus-stop-acting-035032786.html
After reading that article, if I didn't know any better. I would have thought these kids and their families fell right out of the The Cosby Show or Michael J. Fox's conservative Republican caricature Alex Keaton in Family Ties. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
And if you are not quite sure what the phrase the soft bigotry of low expectations means, The Cosby Show provided the perfect illustration IMO. CLASSIC!!!
from mentalfloss.com:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/56559/20-things-you-might-not-know-about-cosby-show
Perhaps the so-called Reverend Jesse Jackson will withhold his offer of a trip to Disney World and instead side-track the families to extensive re-programming and re-education. They obviously have not been understanding or embracing the indoctrination training that has been directed their way over the past few decades.4. COSBY WORRIED ABOUT THE STUDIO AUDIENCE'S REACTION TO THE PILOT
The Cosby Show's pilot was filmed in front of a live audience, and even though there were plenty of laughs where expected, Cosby was worried that the audience wasn’t embracing his overall vision of the series. In the scene where Theo is defending the “D” on his report card, he earnestly tells his dad, “If you weren't a doctor, I wouldn't love you less, because you're my dad. So rather than feeling disappointed because I'm not like you, maybe you should accept who I am and love me anyway, because I'm your son.”What concerned Cosby about this scene was the spontaneous applause from the audience after Theo’s speech. Luckily the audience reacted even more enthusiastically when he replied with complete conviction, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life!”
Perhaps there is a correlation between this and the decline in not only the numbers of baseball players from the African-American community, but in many more important socio-economic measures.
Back to the first article. Sorry Lloyd, as much as I love baseball, the community has some more important issues to address before they worry too much about the number of kids playing baseball. That pendulum will swing back a lot easier than some of the other more intractable societal problems that need to be addressed.
So whenever you get done sweating the details of declining numbers of A.A's in baseball, roll up your sleeves and help out with the other issues.
Just please, please, please don't forget to look at the facts. Just look at them. And understand the message they are sending. And don't fold, spindle and mutilate them. Otherwise, we miss a valuable opportunity to advance the ball down field and move forward. Instead of continuing to move backward. Unless the status quo and / or moving backwards is the goal. Then let's simply continue with the insanity of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Another opportunity, let's see if we squander it.
Here are some of the more important socio-economic issues I was referring to earlier. Again, I think if you take care of these issues, the issue of the number of African-Americans playing baseball will melt away by itself, or at the very least, it simply doesn't matter nearly as much in the grand scheme of things.
Perspective people, perspective.
The Slav's Baseball Blog - BASEBALL 24-7-365
The Slav's Blog about anything relating to the great game of baseball - and other less important issues from outside the diamond.
#7 In the United States today, 12 percent of white children live in areas of concentrated poverty, but Charts: The economic gap between blacks and whites hasn't budged for 50 years of African-American children do.#8 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 19.9 percent of white children live in single parent homes. But for black children, the number is an astounding 52.1 percent.#9 Since 1960, the percentage of white American adults that are married has declined from 74 percent to 55 percent. But for African-Americans the decline has been even more dramatic. Since 1960, the percentage of black American adults that are married has declined from 61 percent to 31 percent.
#10 In the United States, the incarceration rate for black men is more than six times higher than it is for white men.
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#1 For decades, the unemployment rate for black Americans has consistently been more than twice as high as the unemployment rate for white Americans. In July 2014, the official unemployment rate for white Americans was 5.3 percent. Meanwhile, the official unemployment rate for black Americans was 11.4 percent.#2 A report released earlier this year discovered that the "underemployment rate" for African-American workers was 20.5 percent. But for white Americans it was only 11.8 percent.
#3 A study released back in 2012 found that the average white household has 22 times as much wealth as the average black household.
#4 African-American households make up only about 13 percent of the population, but they receive more than 26 percent of the food stamp benefits.
#5 One study discovered that 82 percent of white students graduate from high school but only 63.5 percent of black students do.
#6 Pew Research found that the income gap between white Americans and black Americans has continued to grow ever since the late 1960s...
