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July 8, 2003 My first few years were spent in Connersville, Indiana, the county seat of Fayette County. Sports interests in Connersville, other than finding ways to catch swimming things or shoot running things, were centered on the high school basketball team and the Cincinnati Reds. I grew up in a sports-minded family and listened as wonderful names like Brooks Lawrence and Ted Kluszewski and Vada Pinson were bandied about. I did not know or understand baseball other than my dad would toss one underhanded to me and I would swing a bit wooden bat and try to hit it. Black people were even more of a mystery than the game of baseball. My parents never brought the subject of race up at any time. They certainly never said anything negative about Black folks. So I decided in my pre-kindergarten brain that Black folks were just different and they avoided White folks for that reason Therefore when I finally went to kindergarten and there were no Black kids in the whole school, I was not amazed. As I finished 1st grade and summer began, my grandparents decided that my cousin and I should go to an actual baseball game! It was going to be a night game, at good old Crosley Field (torn down in 1970) and I was finally going to see these Reds I had heard my mom and dad and others discuss. The immensity of the park, the green of the grass and the taste of the hot dogs awed us. But then the players came onto the field. I was dumbfounded! Some of the players were Black! I saw one black player in the outfield and asked my grandma who that Black man was? She told me that it was Frank Robinson! Frank Robinson. A guy my grandparents affectionately referred to as “Robby”, one of my dad’s favorite players. The best player on the whole team, my cousin said. He was a Black guy! I discovered that Vada Pinson, who had the coolest name I ever heard, was also a Black guy. I, who had no real instruction on the subject, immediately decided that Black people were not only real, they had to be good because Frank Robinson was good. I didn’t mull over it much, just allowed it to be a fact and went about enjoying the game. About a year later, I learned from another cousin that “nigger” was a derisive name for a Black person. So I therefore refused to say the word. This caused that cousin, my uncle and even my dad to laugh long and hard at me when I found a Geode that was known in those parts as a “Niggerhead”. I would not say that word, calling it a Negrohead instead. But I would not yield, because I knew Black people were people like me, just a different color. I am so thankful that Frank Robinson was a Black guy! Professional sports have proven to be a great opportunity for minorities in this country. It is true that only a few of the thousands, even millions of young kids who aspire to a career in sports ever succeed. However, those that have succeeded have provided and example and inspiration to all others. A black man is considered the greatest basketball player of all time (Michael Jordan) and the best golfer in the world at this moment is Tiger Woods. I think it gets harder and harder for white society to admire and root for a Black man and then look down at Black people in general. AS A MAN BELIEVES IN HIS HEART, SO IS HE But Black people in general need to take a better look at Michael and Tiger as well. Neither of those men were handed success on a silver platter. They worked and practiced and dedicated themselves to success. They believed in themselves and success followed. I hear some Black leaders talk about how the Black man and woman are still downtrodden and oppressed. Remember the “Reparation for Slavery” movement? Black people as a group still tend to simply vote a straight Democratic ticket. The Democrats, after all, were the champions of civil rights and welfare in the 1960’s. Unfortunately, a system in which poor people are getting a “handout” rather than a “hand up” tends to keep them and their children in poverty and engenders an entitlement mentality. Welfare recipients are not all unmarried moms with 5 kids by 3 fathers and yet welfare does tend to discourage marriage and it penalizes people for taking entry-level employment. The Democrats know this, but they have been successfully riding into office on the backs of the poor for decades and certainly don’t want to tip the apple cart! Is there prejudice against minorities in this country? Obviously yes, but the way to overcome prejudice is not to cry about it, or hate it, or stab it in the back or simply give up and succumb to it. Proving it wrong best defeats prejudice! Prejudice is grown from fear and ignorance and resentment. As light dispels darkness, a growing legion of capable and successful Black men and women in business and politics and the sciences will continually expose prejudice for what it is: Ugly and unfounded hatred. The Louis Farrakhans of this world, like the David Dukes, are in it for themselves and simply propagate more of the hatred associated with prejudice. When will mankind learn that we are not made taller by cutting our neighbor down? "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955) I am simplistic, an idealist, you will say. I accept and agree with that assessment. There are millions of people in this country that really don’t care if you are black or brown or white. Do well and live well and the vast majority will be glad that you exist. Prove the rest of them wrong. Frank Sinatra said it well: “The best revenge is massive success.” ------------ About the author Kimbal Ross Binder: Erstwhile gym-rat, former independent driven by disgust for the Democratic Party into the arms of the Republicans, current parent and expert at puns, jokes that make people groan and eating Debbie's cooking. Mr Binder lives out in the boondocks of NW Indiana. Email Kimbal Ross Binder: radar@eternalisp.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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