Dave Zirin: Santana is Booed for Using Baseball's Civil Rights Game to Speak Out for Civil Rights

[marmar]

from The Nation:




Santana is Booed for Using Baseball's Civil Rights Game to Speak Out for Civil Rights

Dave Zirin
May 16, 2011


Major League Baseball’s annual Civil Rights Game was poised to be a migraine-inducing exercise in Orwellian irony. Forget about the fact that Civil Rights was to be honored in Atlanta, where fans root for a team called the Braves and cheer in unison with the ubiquitous "tomahawk chop."

Forget about the fact that the Braves have been embroiled in controversy since pitching coach Roger McDowell aimed violent, homophobic threats at several fans. Forget that this is a team that has done events with Focus on the Family, an organization that is to Civil Rights what Newt Gingrich is to marital fidelity.

The reason Atlanta was such a brutally awkward setting for a Sunday Civil Rights setting, was because Friday saw the Governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal, sign HR 87, a law that shreds the Civil Rights of the state’s Latino population. Modeled after Arizona’s horrific and unconstitutional SB 1070, HR 87 authorizes state and local police the federal powers to demand immigration papers from people they suspect to be undocumented. Those without papers on request will find themselves behind bars. Civil rights hero, Atlanta’s John Lewis has spoken out forcefully against the legislation saying “This is a recipe for discrimination. We’ve come too far to return to the dark past."

But there was Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, celebrating civil rights in the Georgia, and chortling excitedly about the 2011 All-Star game in Arizona. In the hands of Selig, irony becomes arsenic. Thank God that Commisioner Selig was stupid enough to choose the Civil Rights Game to honor, among others, the great musician Carlos Santana. Santana was supposed to be the Latino stand-in, a smiling symbol of baseball’s diversity. And maybe, he would even play a song! ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blog/160693/santana-booed-using-baseballs-civil-rights-game-speak-out-civil-rights

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr

[Kolesar]

2. Carlos Santana is the catcher for the Cleveland Indians

Best record in the AL, right now. Go Tribe!!

[Scuba]

3. Thank you Carlos. n/t

[Upton]

4. Telling the folks of any state they should be "ashamed"

is going to elicit boos regardless of the context. He could have been a bit more tactful in his wording, while still making the same point.

[JonLP24]

5. K&R

Glad he included Arizona!

[rurallib]

6. The all-star game is in Arizona?

Will Brewer's minions be checking papers on the Latino players?