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Page A4
X T I O K Special Edition
May 17. 2006
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
O pinion
Achievement Clouded by Race
anymore? Or (Rafael) Palmeiro?
W henever I go home I hear
people say all the time, 'B ase­
ball ju st d o e sn ’t like black
people. H ere’s the greatest hit­
ter in the game and they’re
roids? Huh? What would happen scrutinizing him like crazy.’ It’s
if we put pictures of all of us in killing me because it’s about
our 20s and then put them side- race.”
by-side with our pictures in our
It may not be all about race,
40s and jump to the same con- but race certainly is a rain cloud
Barry Bonds
treatment unfair
W allace R yan K uroiwa
Okay, I’ll admit it: I am a San
Francisco Giants baseball fan.
Always have been, always will
be.
Maybe it’s because living in
Hawaii. I used to get the Giants
games on the radio. Maybe it’s
because in my first year of semi­
nary in the Bay Area, 1 watched
Juan Marichal pitch and the two
Willies — Mays and McCovey
— homer in my first live Major
League game! So I will admit to
a bias in my following rumina­
tion:
I have watched with some
dismay as slugger Barry Bonds
has been vilified in the media and
by fans as he nears the home run
milestone of 714 home runs, the
record the immortal Babe Ruth
held until Hank Aaron eclipsed it.
Most of the discussion has
centered on the purported use of
steroids by Bonds. Although there
has not been any substantiation
of steroid use in the legal arena,
Bonds has been tried and con­
victed in the media. Television
commentary will show pictures
of Bonds as a younger player and
then pictures of his present mani­
festation, and then cone lude: now
who can say he hasn’t used ste­
by
G lobally speaking, sports
serves as a microcosm of Ameri­
can society. The insidious reach
of racism is always near the sur­
face of the dynamics of human
interaction, if it is not overtly
present. Whether it is in the New
Orleans debacle or the immigra­
tion debate, economic globaliza­
tion or whatever, you don’t have
to look far to find race lurking.
t
Whether it is in the
New Orleans debacle or
the immigration debate,
economic globalization
or whatever, you don't
have to look far to find
race lurking.
Barry Bonds
Double Standard at Play
The overt reason for C h ief F oxw orth’s sudden ouster
does not m ake sense; how ever, the covert one does.
Is this not a vicious retaliation fo ra perceived threat to a
jo b ? Foxw orth began to replace clerical positions in the
departm ent with disabled police officers. A dd in an illicit
affair, and there is plenty o f fuel forthe fire.
W hat about race? Although one white paper’seditorial
clearly stated — this is not about race, get rid o f him — it
was the white newspapers that gleefully dragged Foxworth’s
name through the mud by printing ingreat detail salacious—
and rem em ber heretofore private— em ails betw een “two
consenting adults.” They show ed no restraint, no dignity,
and jeopardized his possible return by such sham ing o f his
character.
The black newspapers showed respect and dignity, only
printing the needed information about the accusations and
his departure via a leave o f absence.
Foxw orth, it appears is being held to a m uch sterner
standard, a double standard here at play, and h e ’s being
elusion?
I believe Minnesota Twins
outfielder Tori Hunter hit on a
re a lity w hen he o b serv ed :
“They can say what they want,
but there’s no way they would
launch an investigation if Barry
Bonds was not about to break
Babe R uth's record. It is so
obvious w hat’s going on. He
has never failed a drug test and
said he never took steroids, but
everybody keeps trying to dis­
grace him. How come nobody
even talks about Mark McGwire
over the whole issue. Race has
been a specter over sports for as
long as I have been alive and
much longer. Remember Jesse
O w ens in G erm any? Jack
Johnson? Jackie Robinson? Even
Hank Aaron received death threats
as he approached the beloved
Babe's record.
Those who would claim that
sports is a level playing field, that
anyone with talent can make it in
sports, need to take their heads
out of the sand. Race matters, as
Cornel West simply put it.
’’ E v e r y b o d y c a n b e G r e a t
B ec au se A nybo dy C a n S e r v e "
Martin Luther King Junior
We will never make progress
toward a more just society until
we own up to that and move
forward.
So my defense of Barry is
more than just being a Giants fan,
much more. It’s about need to
name the sin. When we do that,
we can start to do better. And we
do need to do better as a society,
much better.
Wallace Ryan Kuroiwa writes
fo r Justice and Witness Minis­
tries in the United Church o f
Christ.
asked to pay a very high price. His retirem ent threatened,
his reputation degraded — the Police union, still w hite
dom inated shows him no support and the black comm unity
is very quiet — perhaps due to his bureaucratic public
response to high-voltage cases such as Kendra Jam es and
Jam es Perez.
Still, talk o f how he has ‘violated the public tru st’ is
hypocritical. L o tso f people, including politicians and even
form er police chiefs have been known to be philanderers.
Do they stand to lose as m uch as Foxw orth already has?
Linda Kanzinger
Northeast Portland
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