Thursday, October 27, 2005

All Latino Team

Before last night's world series game, the All Latino Legends team was introduced. The players were selected by ballots distributed worldwide. Am I the only one who sees this team as a slap in the face to every non Latino player? Why should Latinos get singled out before a World Series game? When will Poles like Carl Yastrzemski be honored in a special World Series tribute? When will Jews like Hank Greenberg be honored? What about whites like Ty Cobb? The answer? Never. Can you imagine the outrage if the idea of an all white team was ever discussed?

The All Latino team did draw some criticism from White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen because the team was apparently not Latino enough for his tastes.

Said Guillen of Alex Rodriguez "Alex Rodriguez is from New York. He has a USA passport!" So Guillen won't recognize Latinos who happen to be American citizens. The only good Latino is apparently a non-American. And tell me again why the American Pastime came up with this team?

To top it off, it was suggested at one point that Ted Williams should have been on the team because his mother was Hispanic. Guillen went in to a purported rage at this point, stating "Ted Williams on a Latino team? What the (expletive) is this? He never said hola in his life and he's on the (expletive) Latin team?"

So to be a Latino, you have to speak Spanish and you can't be an American. So much for the good ol' melting pot. Ozzie, if you don't want any hint of Americanism nor English languange tinting the All Latino Team, maybe you should get the (expletive) back to Venezuela. I'm sure the all star team there will be authentic Latino, and you'll never have to worry about any all star team member carrying an American passport.

USANow - still waiting for the day when we'll have a nation void of discrimination, scholarships, beauty contests, college admission standards, and government contracts based on race, color, or religion.

Here's the full story.

Back to Blogging

In today's news, the head football coach at the Air Force is under fire for comments he made after a loss to TCU. Said coach Fisher DeBerry, it was clear that TCU "had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did."

As you would expect, caucasians are up in arms. They've been categorically labeled as being slow by a head coach at a Division 1 school. This coach shifted blame away from himself, and onto the skin color of his players. So the coach has apologized, saying "I realize the things I said might have been hurtful to many people, and I want everyone to understand that I never intended to offend anyone".

But wait, in a shocking turn of events, it turns that it's not the caucasians who are upset. Says blackathlete.net:
    Exactly what was DeBerry implying. Supposedly something sinister about African Americans. Just as Paul Hornung had last year in having the 'lapse in judgment' to say that the problem with Notre Dame football was an insufficient number of Black players so they could win a National Championship.

    The subliminal message of both statements of course is that if the Air Force Academy and Notre Dame lower their "academic standards" more African Americans will make it through the eligibility barriers. If that is what they meant to Say look for the biggest Stones to throw at them. But remember about casting the First Stone.

Talk about a chip on the shoulder. DeBerry said nothing about eligibility standards. He was simply complimenting black athletes. But unfortunately even recognizing the color of a black man and complimenting him on his athletic prowess is cause for some to shout racism and oppression.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Riots in Toledo

Today the National Socialist Movement (NSM) planned to bring attention to black on white violence in Toledo, Ohio by marching through city streets. NSM is a neo-Nazi group with a white supremacist agenda. Ironically enough, members of the neo-Nazi NSM were pelted by black residents with bottles and rocks before the march began. At this point, I could almost sympathize with residents for reacting angrily towards the presence of the NSM in their neighborhood. But the march was cancelled, and the angry mob turned their anger towards police and local businesses, bashing in windows of a grocery store and stealing the contents and setting fire to a pub. It's pretty clear that an NSM march isn't required to illustrate the random violence plaguing Toledo. Toledo blacks became poster children for the type of violence against which NSM was protesting.

So America is left again with images of angry and violent blacks taking advantage of a situation to commit random crimes. This is the time for Louis Farrakhan to speak up with words of condemnation....not at the whites who somehow oppressed these gang members, but at the gang members themselves. It's time for Jesse Jackson to recognize that the great majority of social problems in the black community are self-induced. Now's the time for harsh words promoting responsibility and accountability, and condemning violence. It's time for black leaders to do what they're supposed to be doing....lead.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Broussard Fights Back

Recall the Tim Russert interview with Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard. Broussard emotionally recounted a tragedy involving one of his associates, where his associate repeatedly called his nursing-home bound mother in the week following Katrina. Broussard recalled the associate on the phone saying "I'm coming to get you momma" for four days after Katrina hit. Broussard's intent was to support his opening salvo with Russert, where he stated that "America has abandoned us", and "bureaucracy has committed murder".

The only problem with this story is that the man's mother died on Monday, the day the storm hit. There were no phone calls in the days following Katrina. There was no possibility for federal relief agencies to rescue the woman on Tuesday. So Broussard either fabricated the story entirely, or it's possible these events transpired on the Thursday through Sunday prior to Katrina making landfall. In either case, it appears Broussard was attempting to deflect the the fact that local officials failed to evacuate the nursing home.

These inconsistencies have been pointed out to Broussard, who has said "Somebody wants to nitpick a man's tragic loss of a mother because she was abandoned in a nursing home? Are you kidding? What kind of sick mind, what kind of black-hearted people want to nitpick a man's mother's death? They just buried Eva last week. I was there at the wake. Are you kidding me? That wasn't a box of Cheerios they buried last week."

Nobody's has ignored the tragedy of a woman dying in a nursing home as a result of Katrina. However, that "nitpicky" detail of when the woman died completely undermines your characterization of the relief effort. It's not only legitimate to correct your version of the story, it's imperative, especially if we hope to learn from our mistakes.