In the court of Ronnie's opinion, I find Gary Sheffield to be not guilty of racism

The Gary Sheffield interview in the May-June issue of GQ magazine, has caused a little bit of controversy (oooh someone brought up race). In the article, he said that Latino players would displace Black players as the most prevalent minority in the sport. The rallying point for those who claim that this statement is racist, is that he said:



I called it years ago. What I called is that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English going to be coming out. … [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do -- being able to control them


So what's inferred here in the blue font is that Latin players are easier to control.


So this is what we are going to do boys and girls. We are going to break down why this is not racist by investigating the words, race and Latin.

Exhibit A

In the red font, Mr. Sheffield identifies that the new people coming to displace the African American (Black) baseball players will themselves be Black. This is key. How can Mr. Sheffield, a Black man, be accused of being racist if the people he is referring to are the same race as he is? What is not fully understood by mainstream America, is that Latin or Latino/a is not a race. All the term means is that you are from a country in the "New World" where Spanish is the primary language spoken because the regions indigenous peoples were exploited by the Spanish (when the Indians said for y'all to "help yourselves", they did not mean to everything! That is the last time we invite those guys over) who in turn brought west Africans over to toil and work the land for them (slaves). So now that you know some history, you should also know that if you were in say Peru or the Dominican Republic all of your life, you would not call yourself a Latino, you would be considered Black, white or Indian (referencing to indigenous people of the Americas).


So we cannot find Mr. Sheffield as being Guilty of racism but, we can get him on a separate lesser charge of ignorance.

"Where I'm from, you can't control us. You might get a guy to do it that way for a while because he wants to benefit, but in the end, he is going to go back to being who he is. And that's a person that you're going to talk to with respect, you're going to talk to like a man

"These are the things my race demands. So, if you're equally good as this Latin player, guess who's going to get sent home? I know a lot of players that are home now can outplay a lot of these guys."

So if we observe the blue text, we see that Mr. Sheffield is saying that people of his race demand respect over Latin people. As mentioned in exhibit A, Mr. Sheffield is speaking about the Black Latin players. So in order to know that this statement is ignorant, you have to know what race is. The scientific term of race says that their is only one race. The human race. The sociological/cultural use of the word was started by Europeans and was used to separate based on physical characteristics that are passed down genetically (think of this whenever you are filling out a job application or taking a standardized test). As an example, I am a Black man. I would be considered Black if I were born to the same parents in the United States, Germany, Korea or the Dominican republic.
So Mr. Sheffield, like any Black man entering a court in the United States, we have to find you guilty of something! I commend him for speaking out (something that more athletes NEED to do), on an issue. As an outsider looking in, it appears as if he was trying to say that since Latin players are coming from impoverished conditions, and baseball is there only way out, they are easier to manipulate and exploit by major league baseball. Major league baseball is looking for good baseball players. So Latin players provide the talent but at a cheaper price than the American players who might be just as talented but have other opportunities that they can explore (football or to get an education).

The real shame in all of this is that mainstream media ran with the idea that he is a racist rather than the idea that Latino ball players are possibly being mistreated. I live in the DC area and a local white sports talk radio host was comparing his comments to John Rockers. He went on to say that no one is complaining about their being less White people in baseball and that there is a double standard when it comes to who can say what in regards to race. I don't know why SOME white Americans try so hard to look for instances for them to be outraged about their "people" being treated unfairly because of their race. As far as comparing Sheffield to Rocker, That one is a reach that even Yao Ming couldn't make. How do you compare want man saying that he dislikes a place because of the type of people that live there to one man making an attempt at educated social commentary. He is right about there being a double standard. But if white baseball players are being discriminated against, who is discriminating against them? The white owners, the white gms or the white media?