Of course, if we ask 'society as a whole' that question, they will almost always say yes, without any hesitation. I just don't get why racism has to be brought up in situations where it seemingly has no relevance whatsoever.
This post isn't going to be some social commentary about racism and my point of view and what my life experience has taught me. No, nothing like that. And I am not ignorant enough to think that we live in a world free of racism of every form. By no means am I saying or even implying that. I just think it's ridiculous how many times race is made an issue these days, especially in the world of sports. The latest case in point: the story of Josh Hamilton.
Josh Hamilton, who is currently playing baseball for the Texas Rangers, has a well documented past. He was the first overall pick of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 1999 draft. He was supposedly the best prospect anyone had seen in a long time. He was going to be a star. Long story short, his MLB debut happened just last season, on April 2, 2007, for the Cincinnati Reds. The reason it took him this long to get to the big leagues was a long battle with drug abuse and addiction.
This season, Hamilton seems to have finally "arrived" in Major League Baseball. His stats are staggering so far this year. Since I judge how good a player is these days by how high he's ranked in fantasy baseball, his 3rd overall ranking ain't half bad. To put it lightly, Josh Hamilton's "comeback story" has received lots of attention. I have no particular personal connection to Josh Hamilton, but it's kind of a cool story.
But then someone had to go and ruin it. That guy would be a dude named Bomani Jones, who hosts some radio show in North Carolina. He officially brought up the 'R' word in regards to Hamilton's story sometime last week. He asked whether or not we all would be talking this much about a player coming back from drugs, if he wasn't white or if he wasn't Christian. (I was shaking my head in disgust as I just typed that.)
You can find the original story on the radio stations blog, here, and apparently Josh Hamilton's dad called into the show in the middle of their conversation. Also, here is a must read about the situation from JoeSportsFan and a post about it on The Big Lead. Both of those write-ups do a much better job of covering the issue than I can do.
To me it seems simple. I can't remember a black/minority athlete that has come back from years of drug abuse to play professional sports, and when he came back to find success, everyone ignored him. I just can't remember anything like that, but maybe you can. Like, JoeSportsFan says in his post, Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden both were revered during their comeback campaigns. I am sure there are other examples in the entire sports world too. So it kind of pisses me off that someone would assume that just because everyone's paying attention to this Hamilton guy and wanting him to succeed, that it's just because he is white and Christian.
Taking a story from current events, take Pacman Jones. He's trying to get back into playing football for the Cowboys, and given he didn't struggle with drug addiction for years and years, he was still suspended from the league he was playing in, much like Josh Hamilton. Do you think we're going to hear about Pacman's "comeback story"? Um, yeah I think so. And what if Pacman comes back to have the kind of success equivalent to Josh Hamilton's, and is dominating the NFL next season? You think it's going to be on SportsCenter every night? Are you kidding? He's the leading story as of right now, and he's only in minicamp. The season hasn't even started.
So please don't tell me that America only likes to see white, Christian guys do well at sports or anything for that matter.
