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EDITORIAL AND OPINION/C|aclom $08t
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Cljarlotte ^041
The Voice of the Black Community
1331 Camden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson ceo/publisher
Robert L Johnson co-publisher/general manager
Herbert L White editor in chief
OPINION
Reclaiming
baseball’s
emancipator
Curt Flood led the way for
free agency at personal risk
Growing up in New York in the 1960s meant sports, and sports
in the spring, summer and fall, meant baseball if you had a field
toplayin, orstickballifyoudidnot- There was no other way It
meant baseball cards, and as an Afiican-
American, it meant intense pride in the accom
plishments of Afiican-American baseball play-
As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, and as the
I 1970s turned into the 1980s, not only in New
I York, but around the coimtry, there developed
' something of a disconnect between African-
Americans and baseball. An increasing number
of Afix»-Latino ballplayers came to the U.S.A.,
bringing an enthusiasm and dynamism that
Bill
Fletcher
Flood
BuUying the U.S. news media
strengthened the sport, while at the same time, the Afiican-
American baseball player and fan seemed to be slowly stepping
back into the recesses.
There are many ironies in the evolution of baseball and Black
America. While Jackie Robinson broke the color line in the
Major Leagues in 1947, another Afiican-American, just as great
but not as well i-emembered—Curt Rood—was instrumental in
the transformation of Major League Baseball and
the liberation’of the playare. Before Curt Rood’s
famous challenge in the early 1970s, baseball
players, irrespective of color, were bovmd to their
teams fike indentured servants by something
called the “reserve clause.” Rood, recognizing the
fundamental injiistice of this shackle, took this on
in a lawsuit that came to be known as Rood v
Kuhn. While Curt Rood lost these suits, it ulti
mately set the stage for the elimination of the
reserve clause and tiie advent of “fi^ agency,” the
system that we have come to know.
Despite the righteousness of his cause, and despite his death
in 1997, Curt Rood has never been forgiven by the titans of the
baseball industry His audacity has kept Rood, an outstandir^
ballplayer by everyone’s judgment, out of the Baseball HaU of
Fame. Repeated appeals to the Hall of Fame for Rood’s inclu
sion have gone nowhere and have been treated to both silence
and contempt.
Rood’s challenge to Major League Baseball was both an act of
outstanding com-age as well as a thrust coming fiom black
i^erica’s love affair with the sport of baseball. Baseball had
been an important, if not critical, component of Afiican-
American culture since the beginnings of baseball itself' After
having been excluded fiom what came to be known as Major
League Baseball during the racial cleansing of the sport in the
late 19h century, African-Americans went on to establish the
legendary ‘Negro Leagues,” the producer of seme of the most
dazzling players the sport has ever seen (people such as Josh
Gibson, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell). Black America took
great pride in the Negro Leagues while at the same timp wag
ing a rdentless struggle against the white supranacist restric
tions of Major League Baseball that kept black ballplayers out
side the so-called mainstream.
Black America began to lose its affection for baseball sometime
in the 1970s. There were probably several contributing factors.
As the cities began to witness so-called revitalization, land
became a premium. It does not take much land to have a bas
ketball court, but it does to have a baseball fidd. Thus, the land
was sacrificed in the name of real estate developmmt and it
became more and more difficult to introduce a new generation
to tlie sport since there was nowhere to play Second, as right-
wing tax cuts strangled the public sector, schools had to make
very difficult choices as to what sports, if any to keep. Soon,
baseball was being ehminateS as a precursor to the pliTninatinn
of most sports. Third, the price oftickets to Major League games
skyrocketed. Once upon a time, baseball was a working-class
sport. Over time, the price of tickets rose significantly with the
owners placing more of a priority on skyboxes and new, expen
sive stadiums than on the accessibility ofbaseball to its working-
class constituents.
A final possible factor is pure, gut speculation that I derive
fiom my paraits’ attitude toward the Dodgem. My parents will
never be able to root for the “Los Alleles” Dex^rs, nor will they
ever permit me or my sister (or our children) to, even if we
should move to Cahfomia and live at Normandy and WUshire in
LA. The feelings that many people of my parents’ generation
(particularly fiom New York) hold concerning the betrayal rep
resented by the disgraceful desertion of New York by the for
merly Brooklyn Dodgers probably sowed the seeds of a discon
nect that has never been repaired. The move by the Dodgem and
Giants reminded all fans that the baseball ownem had no loyal
ty to the communities that supported them; only loyalty to the
almighty dollar.
Yet, this is a sport that was more central to black America than
any other, a true team speat with playem like Robinson and
Rood, as well as comtless othem we shall never remember.
Reclaiming baseball is not only about encouraging our chil
dren to play in and follow the sport, but to reclaim the heritage
of the courageous playem fike Curt Rood. Rood put the demand
for dignity andjusti.ee in fiunt of his career, and paid a stiff price.
In reclaiming baseball, and reclaiming figures liko Curt Rood,
we are in essence saying, “...brother, we could not have done it
without you; you were the right pemon at the right moment.. ”
BILL FLETCHER, a labor and international activist and writer, is the
former President ofTransAfrica Forum. He grew up playing stickball. He
can be reached at papaq54@hotmail.com.
When the New York Times
disclosed a secret Bush
administration program that
monitored global money
transfem by a
banking con
sortium in
Brussels,
President
Bush, leading
Republicans
in Congress
George E. and the Right-
CURRY wir^ talk
shows
unleashed a flurry of venom
Bush said: Tf you want to
figure out what the terrorists
are doing, you try to follow
their money And that’s exact
ly what we’re doing. And the
fact that a newspaper dis
closed it makes it harder to
win this war on terror.”
Rep. Peter King (R-NY),
chair of the House Homeland
Seciuity Committee, told
Chris Wallace on Fox net
work news; “... The New York
Times is putting its own arro
gant elitist left wing agenda
before the interests of the
American people, and I’m
calling on the Attorney
General to begin a criminal
investigation and prosecution
of the New York Times - its
reportem, the editom who
worked on this and the pub
lisher. We’re in. a time of war,
Chris, and what they’ve done
has violated the Espionage
Act.”
Conservative talk show
host Melanie Morgan, refer
ring to New York Times exec
utive editor Bill KeU^, said
she ‘Svould have no problem
with him being sent to Ihe
gas chamber.”
There is a major problem
with this professed rage,
indignation and bile directed
at the New York Times — tiie
Bush administration has
repeatedly and publicly
boasted about its efforts to
track the finances of terror
ists. And now it wants to pun
ish the media for printing
infonnation that was already
in the public domain
Media Matters, a watchdog
group that is generally criti
cal of the press in an effort to
make it better, recoimts the
administration’s disclosures
on its site, mediamattos.org:
• In a September 24, 2001,
speech, Bush announced the
establishment of a ‘’foreign
terrorist asset trackir^ cen
ter at the Department of the
Treasxuy to identify and
investigate the financial
nffiastructure of the interna
tional terrorist networks.” He
added, ‘Tt will laing together
represoitatives of the int^li-
gence, law enforcement, and
financial regulatory agencies
to accomplish two goals: to
follow the money as a trail to
the terrorists, to follow their
money so we can find out
where they arc; and to fi:eeze
the money to disrupt their
actions.
• In a September 24, 2001,
letter to Confess, Bush
noted, ‘’Tbrrorists and terror
ist networks operate across
international borders and
derive their financing fiom
sources in many nations.
Often, terrorist property and
financial assets lie outside
the jurisdiction of the United
States.” He affiimed his com
mitment to working with
intemational agencies such
as the Financial Action Task
Force ‘’to build momentum
and practical cooperation in
the fight to stop the flow of
resources to support terror
ism.”
• A White House fact sheet
published on September 24,
2001, noted the launch of the
Treasury Department’s
Foreign Terrorist Asset
Tracking Center: “The FTAT
is a multi-agency task force
that will identify the network
of terrorist funding and
fi:eeze assets before new acts
of terrorism take place.”
• In a September 26, 2001,
statement. Bush said, ‘We’re
fighting them on a financial
fiont. We’re choking off their
money We’re seizii^ their
assets. We will be rdentless
as we pursue fheir sources of
financing. And I want to
thank the Secretary of
Treasury for leading that
effort.”
• On October 1, 2001, Bush
told FEMA employees, “As
you may remember, I made it
clear that part of winning the
war against terror would be
to cut off these evil people’s
money, it would be to trace
their assets and fi^ze them,
cut off their cash flows, hold
people accountable who fund
them, who allow the funds to
go through ffieir institutions;
and not only do that at home,
but to convince others aroimd
the world to join us in doing
so.”
• On October 10, 2001,
Bush stated tiiat the ‘’nations
of NATO are sharing intelli
gence, coordinating .law
enforcement and cracking
down on the financing of ter
rorist organizations.”
• During ranarks at FTAT,
then-Treastuy Secretary
Paul ONeiU said, ‘’[W]e have
begun to act — to block
assets, to seize books, records
and evidence, and to follow
audit trails to track terrorist
cells poised to do violence to
our common interests.”
ONeill added, ‘We have built
an intemational coalition to
deny terrorists access to the
world financial system.”
• A December 2001 report
on the steps the administra
tion had taken to combat ter
rorism noted that the FATF
a 29-nation group promot
ing policies to combat money
laimdering — adopted strict
new standards to deny terror
ist access to the world finan
cial system.”
• A September 10, 2004,
Treasury Department state
ment read: “The targeting of
terrorist financing continues
to play an important role in
the war on terror. Freezing
assets, terminating cash
flows, and following money
trails to previously unknown
terrorist cells are some of the
many weapons used against
terrorist networks.”
This is not about Ihe New
York Times. It’s another
naked effort to squash dis
sent and intimidate the
media. Having already
placed the media on the
defensive by claiming it has a
‘liberal bias,” conservatives
are now tryir^ to lay the
grormdwork for weakenir^
the First Amendment’s pro
tection of a fi^ press.
GEORGE E.. CURRY is editor-
in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers
Association News Service and
BlackPressUSA.com.
Spellman grads make the mainstream
As an Afilcan American
child growing up in the 1940s
and ‘50s in the midst of
America’s segr^ation epoch,
it was imderstood that you
had to be twice as good as a
H white person
to be consid
ered equal in
the economic
mainstream.
The pursuit of
excellence
^ was a black
Sherman American
Miller expectation.
However, an
unintended consequence of
Ihe civil ri^ts epoch is some
how mediocrity has displaced
black American yesteryear’s
eccellaice zeal, thereby offer
ing cred^ce to some closet
white racist teachers to find
little value in educating black
children in today’s desegre
gated public schools.
In an article, “How White
Tbachers Perceive the
Problem of Racism in Their
Schools: A Case Study in
“Liberal”. Lakeview,” Julie
Kailin shares the white
teachers’ perception of black
children when considering
issues of racism. “Research
findings indicate that most
white teachers operated fiem
an impaired' consciousness
about racism; that a majority
blamed the victim,’ assigning
causality for racism to blacks.
Findings further indicate
that of those who 'witnessed
racist behavior by their white
colleagues, the majority
remained silent and did not
challenge such behavior.
Because teach^ play a piv
otal role in the sum total of
race relations in education, it
is critical to consider how
they percave the problem of
racism in their schools. Their
perceptions may influence
decisions about how to inter
pret and respond to racial
inequality”
Kailin offers a strong case
for the need of today’s
Historically Black Colleges
and Universities because
racial desegregation has
meant a hostile attitude in
some white teachers’ minds .
against Aftican American
children or tadt approval of
racism of otha* white teach
ers by remaining silent when
witnessing rac^ actions per
petrated against black chil
dren.
We hear a great deal of dis
cussion about the poor perfor
mance of minority stud^ts
in the public schools but we
do not hear enough on the
economic impact of white
teacher racism on the
upward mobility of Black
America. Tbday the bachelor
level d^ree fiom an accredit
ed college is a key require
ment for full partidpation in
the economic mainstream. Its
finandal value is estimated
at rou^y two million dollars
over a lifetime of eamir^.
Thus, today’s poor black aca
demic performance under the
tutelage of white radst teadi-
ers may be helping to dose
college doors to black
America.
In reading the history on
some HBCUs, you may find
that their creation was to
offer access to hi^er educa
tion, espedaUy since it had
been against the law- during
sla'very to educate blacks and
white America was not ready
to embrace any hint of radal-
ly integrated schools in the
late 19th and early 20th cen
turies. However, fallout of the
dvil rights movfement is that
today’s black colleges m'ust
now compete against tradi
tionally white colleges for
black students.
In “A Call for Artides-
Educational Foundations,
Spedal Issue on HistcaicaUy
Black Colleges and
Universities” in the
TCRecord, we get a feel for
the HBCUs loss of control of
today’s black college stu
dents.
“Currently 300,000 stu
dents attend the nation’s 105
historically Black colleges (40
public four year, 11 public
two-year, 49 private four
year, and 5 private 2 year).
This amounts to 24 percent of
aU Afiican American college
students (National Center for
Educational Statistics,
2004).” This statement sug
gests that 76' percent of
Afilcan American college stu
dents are now going to tradi-
ticnaUy white colleges. Thra«
was an additional statement
to the above comment that
calls attention to the need of
black colleges today:
“... However, at a time whm
black access to historically
white institutions is once
again in decline, we need
additional research to treat
more comprehensively the
basic assumptions and ques
tions behind the Afilcan
American institutions that
might fin the gap.”
In this competitive environ
ment, HBCU Spelman
College shows that it is nor
mal to be a first rate HBCU
with a 100 percent black stu
dent body and be numb^ one
of all colleges in graduating
its students. Spehnan’s four-
year graduation rate is
approximately 24 percentage
points higher than the
Uni'versity of Georgia. On the
other hand, HBCU Delaware
State University’s four-year
graduation rate is 38 percent
age points below the
University of Delaware.
SHERMAN MILLER is a syndi
cated columnist.