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| Hank Aaron |
Tell that to Hank Aaron, who is the subject of a new wave of racist hate mail this month, 40 years after he received floods of racist mail when he broke Babe Ruth's home-run record in 1974. The calendar may have a different year on it, and methods of sending racist prose might have changed — it can be emailed now — but the sentiment is unfortunately the same.
Bob Nightengale explains in a story published in USA Today on Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball, of all days:
"Hank Aaron is a scumbag piece of (expletive) (racial slur)'' a man named Edward says in an e-mail to the Braves front office and obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
Edward invokes the epithet five times in four sentences, closing with, "My old man instilled in my mind from a young age, the only good (racial slur) is a dead (racial slur)."
And:
The Braves have been besieged by hundreds of letters, e-mails and phone calls deriding Aaron for his comments made to USA TODAY Sports.
Marion calls Aaron a "racist scumbag.'' Ronald won't attend another Braves' game until Aaron is fired. Mark calls Aaron a "classless, racist.'' David says that he will burn Aaron's I Had A Hammer autobiography.
What did Aaron do to revive the ire of 40 years ago? Well, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of his historic homer, he told Nightengale that he still holds on to the racist letters he got back in 1974 to remind him what the world was like then. Aaron, 80, says he looks around today and it's not as different as people might think. This is what Aaron said earlier in the month:
"We are not that far removed from when I was chasing the record. If you think that, you are fooling yourself. A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There's not a whole lot that has changed. We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated.
"We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country. The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts."
If you boil it down, Aaron's basic point was that racism still exists in America. And people who were upset about that figured the best way to respond was to send racist email directed at him and/or call him a racist?
That's sad, though not all that surprising, because Hank Aaron is right. This, obviously, is not a post-racial America.
That's sad, though not all that surprising, because Hank Aaron is right. This, obviously, is not a post-racial America.
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