Dusty Baker's Racial Spin on Playing in the Heat...
07-07-03, 11:38 AM
I heard them talking about this on ESPN radio this morning and they said the reporters talked about how this conversation turned awkward and uncomfortable...
they were specifically speaking about a black journalist in Dallas (have to find that article) reported that these comments were very strange to be made to a group of media -- that if the same comments were made by a white person about white people, it would be a huge deal...
espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0707/1577519.htmlCHICAGO -- Dusty Baker has already warmed up to the idea of having to manage all those dog-days-of-summer afternoon games at Wrigley Field. He can't change the schedule, and being a California native and former player, he was accustomed to long days in the outfield sun.
But did he spend too much time in it?
Baker, in his first year as Cubs manager, delved into heat and skin color when talking to reporters Saturday, saying black and Hispanic players hold up better under the summer sun and heat.
"It's easier for most Latin guys and it's easier for most minority people because most of us come from heat. You don't find too many brothers in New Hampshire and Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Right?" he said with a chuckle.
"We were brought over here for the heat, right? Isn't that history? Weren't we brought over because we could take the heat?"
"Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. I don't see brothers running around burnt," Baker said before the Cubs beat St. Louis at Wrigley. "That's a fact. I'm not making this up. I'm not seeing some brothers walking around with some white stuff on their ears and noses."
Do you think these comments were a little strange?
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
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b-ball-lunachick
b-ball-lunachick
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#2
07-07-03, 11:53 AM
here's the story from the black journalist in Texax -- this guy makes some good points and really disagrees with Baker:
Cubs' Baker needs sunblock for mouth
07/07/2003
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...one.23a91.htmlHalfway into his first season of having to manage all those dog-days-of-summer afternoon ballgames at Wrigley Field, there is evidence that Dusty Baker has been standing out in the sun far too long. The only thing is, you probably couldn't get him to believe it.
The first-year black skipper of the Cubs argued the other day that black and Hispanic players hold up better under summer sun and heat.
"You have to pretend that you're a construction worker out there," Baker explained to assembled media before his Cubs beat the Cardinals, 6-5, on a hot and humid Saturday in Chicago. "You have no choice. It's easier for me. It's easier for most Latin guys and it's easier for most minority people. Most of us come from heat.
"We were brought over here for the heat, right?" Baker continued. "Isn't that history? Weren't we brought over here because we can take the heat?"
Oh, brother.
It should be pointed out that The Associated Press prefaced Baker's comments by noting that he was chuckling when he launched into his dizzying dissertation. That was to suggest that maybe he wasn't taking his own words seriously. Unfortunately, he plowed ahead.
"[Black's] skin color is more conducive to heat than it is for lighter skin people, right?" he went on. "You don't see brothers running around burnt. Yeah, that's a fact. I'm not making this stuff up. Right? You don't see some brothers walking around with white stuff on their ears and noses."
Who, boy.
Now, I'd like to just chuckle along with Baker, too. In fact, had he said the same thing to me in the privacy of a corner booth in some watering hole, I probably would have just chuckled at his commentary and shook my head.
But he said what he did to the media. Outlets around the country, including The Dallas Morning News, picked it up, and it was incorrect. It stood only to fuel a misnomer that has led to a stereotype.
There are probably a lot of folk, including other black folk, who think dark-skinned people don't wilt so easily in the heat of summer and who think dark skin is a natural protector against the sun's dangerous rays. For the record, dark skin doesn't have much to do with saving one from getting sapped in the sun or collapsing from it. That has to do with the body's ability to cool and not overheat or avoid what we call heatstroke.
Baker probably hasn't been around Chicago long enough to know this, but during a blistering July there in 1995, most of the folks who died in metropolitan Chicago were black.
There is even a military study that suggests black soldiers who carry the sickle trait, which is African in nature, are more prone to heat-related death than anyone.
And while they were most likely descendants of African slaves (yes, some were enslaved by other Africans, for those of you who for some reason feel more comfortable with that truth), African slaves weren't imported to the Americas because of their skin color.
They weren't selected because of some innate ability to stay on their feet in unforgiving heat, either, although it's been written that native Americans and Europeans didn't fare as well in the same conditions. Africans were imported because the Americas' economy required an inexhaustible human pool that could be exploited, and Europeans viewed Africa as just that.
Although skin pigment, or melanin, does provide some protection from the sun's rays, it is hardly foolproof. Unfortunately, so may dark-skinned people think so that melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is more deadly among folk like Baker who don't think sunblock out of a tube is necessary for them.
That is but another reason Baker's comments should be debunked. They really are unhealthy.
There is one more reason to deplore Baker's words, too. It is the not so small fact that to let him go unscathed would invite the charge of double standard. It levels that black critics grant black offenders to good intelligence easy escape from castigation.
I don't want any of my previous or future condemnations of similarly foolish statements out of white mouths to be dismissed because I refrained from criticizing my own. After all, wrong is wrong, no matter the perpetrator's skin color. And Dusty Baker was flat-out wrong.
E-mail kblackistone@dallasnews.com
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
bakntime
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#3
07-07-03, 12:01 PM
[EDIT: Ok, after posting this I went back and fully read that last article, about those studies and whatnot. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the studies are just inaccurate, with too many variables and too small sample size. Either way, I tend to stand by the claim that people who come from a culture that has lived in a hot and sunny area will better be able to deal with sun and heat, just like someone who's ancestors lived in Alaska for thousands of years will better be able to deal with the cold. Anyway, I'm leaving the rest of my post unchanged:]
Here's the thing. He crossed the line here. You just shouldn't talk about stuff like this. Although, I've always thought Dusty was an idiot. Who else would let their 3 year old in the dugout of the WS?
Anyway, it really is true that Africans are more suited to higher heat conditions. But I'm sure that's true of any culture that's derived from equitorial origins. That's called evolution. You become more "suited" to your environment. It's science, not racism. Fare skinned people will tend to have a tougher time with sun/heat than a dark skinned person. Not always, just in general. Like I said, that's not racism, it's science, it's genetics.
Dusty's not technically wrong, but the way he said things, making references to slavery, etc, was just plain wrong.
b-ball-lunachick
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#4
07-07-03, 12:25 PM
Originally posted by bakntime
Dusty's not technically wrong, but the way he said things, making references to slavery, etc, was just plain wrong.
I hear ya -- I'm not sure what is inaccurate or accurate, but it does seem to be wrong to speak about in that forum-- and this line in particular bothers me the most: "Weren't we brought over because we could take the heat?"
As for there being no brothers in Maine, NH, etc because it's cold -- doesn't it get just as cold in Chicago?
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
Bern Baby Be
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#5
07-07-03, 12:27 PM
I don't know if Dusty's comments were right or wrong. I think he was wrong to say them, only because of the aftermath that things like this brings about. When talking to the press people should just stay away from things like that because there are bound to be people who will take them the wrong way or will want to take them the wrong way.
I heard a caller on Michael Kay's show say that he thought it was wrong because the comments implied that White people can't take the heat. Don LoGrecca, who was subbing for Kay said that it's not a big deal if that's implied; not being able to take the heat is nowhere near as insulting as saying that Whites (or Blacks or any other group) "lack the necessities (to borrow a phrase from the late Al Campanis)" to do a certain job.