But Jackie did that so Tim Anderson didn’t have to go through that, and I think that that’s the major point that Tim Anderson was making a couple of years" ago in the Sports Illustrated story. There’s a reason why Martin Luther King said he was a sit-inner before the sit-ins and a Freedom Rider before the Freedom Rides. Moore, in his interview with USA TODAY Sports' Josh Peter, added: “To be clear, what Tim Anderson has to go through is not what Jackie Robinson had to go through. Jackie was treated very bad by a lot of folks around baseball." Now it seems like a compliment, but it wasn’t a compliment in real time. "A lot of people in baseball didn’t like him. Louis Moore, who teaches African American, civil rights, American and sports history at Grand Valley State University. “One of the things that stood out to me immediately was Jackie, when he was alive, was treated awful, by a lot of people," said Dr. Why? Because they endured hell so we didn't have to. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., Shirley Chisholm, and so many others are part of our genome. Overcoming hateful speech in baseball will be harderĪnderson understands this. MORE: Suspending Josh Donaldson was easy. He is the person who endured all of that so the people who followed, mostly, wouldn't have to.ĭONALDSON'S APOLOGY: Josh Donaldson says he has 'mutual understanding' with Tim Anderson, apologizes to Jackie Robinson family He is the player who was called the N-word, had his life threatened, all so he could integrate the sport of baseball. He is the person who absorbed the vitriol and the ugliness. Even if you never saw Robinson play, Black people know instinctively what he represents. He isn't a hashtag or a patch on a uniform to most of us. What Donaldson missed is how important Jackie Robinson is to Black people. It is a blunt lesson, a historic one, an old one, and it speaks to the way Black people view the trailblazers who came before us. For now, there's a lesson to be learned, one that I think many fans, some players and media, and others, have missed. We can analyze the hieroglyphics of Donaldson's aPoLUgY another time. Well, kinda did. Apology adjacent?ĭonaldson was suspended for one game by MLB after he called Anderson "Jackie" which was a referral to a 2019 quote in which Anderson compared himself to "today's Jackie Robinson."Īnderson believed the remark was racist. New York Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson has apologized to Chicago's Tim Anderson. Watch Video: Why MLB continues to strike out on social awareness
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