Last week, the MLB announced that 27.7 percent of the league’s 846 players were foreign born. This number is up from the
previous year but not as high as the all-time high in 2005. This percentage leaves many people confused. While the percentage of foreign born players, such as those from Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic has risen, the percentage of African American players has gone down. According to the last analyzed census, African Americans and Latinos were about equal in the population (12.3 and 12.5) respectively, yet African Americans were down to 9 percent in the MLB in 2009. Latinos were 27 percent. What does this mean for baseball and African Americans? Does this speak to the globalization of baseball and the draw of the MLB to baseball players all around the world? Or is this a matter of institutional discrimination where the discrimination against African Americans is built into the baseball system because the Latinos, who are often immigrants, do not have the power to fight against the oppression they might face?
Strangers in a Strange Land
Whites need not apply
Last week, after BYU was eliminated from contention, reporters asked Jimmer Fredette whether he thought his style would fit well in the NBA. It seemed to me like a perfectly natural question. However, whoever was taking over for Mike Greeneburg the next morning on Mike and Mike (I believe it was Doug Gottlieb), commented that no one asked Kemba Walker the same question. Gottlieb’s explanation was because Fredette is white and Walker is black. The idea that a white man might have more difficulty being drafted into the NBA than a black man might be referred to as reverse racism but, the way many sociologists think about is with a basis in power. The non-dominant group, which in American society is still black men, cannot be racist towards white men because they do not have the power to. Perhaps there is prejudice–the belief that one group is inferior or superior–which leads to discrimination–behavior which differentiates between people based on those prejudice but not racism.
I don’t watch enough NCAA post-game news conferences but could there also be other reasons why Fredette was asked that question? Is it also possible that someone did ask Walker the question and it just didn’t get the same amount of attention?
UPDATE: Jimmer Fredetter wins player of the year. Is this an apology for the previous racism? Or is this a way of saying he is player of the year in the NCAA but probably won’t be in the NBA?