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Baseball-1 Racism-0
Game over! Go home now, please...
by Tom Adkins (7-23-01)


For three decades, baseball fans voted players of every shape, size and color imaginable onto the All Stars. But this year is a total shocker. Was it because so many white people voted for a black guy? No. Because so many black folks voted for a white fellow? No. Because a Latino led the voting? That was last year. This year, the leading vote-getter is ... Japanese???

Can you believe it? Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle's hot-hitting, base stealing, kamikaze outfielder got 3,373,035 votes from red, white and blue fans all over the USA. Didn't we bomb those guys to kingdom-come fifty years ago? Maybe, but Americans don't really care. Old news, baby. Suzuki is the best, so he got 800,000 more votes than the next guy. In fact, this year's All-Star lineups featured players from eight nations. I got news for you, folks: the American baseball fan has blown a 100 MPH strike three past racism, for the final out. Game over.

The American athlete has led the way to defeating racism. From Bear Bryant to the Boston Celtics, Americans learned that winning means more than skin color. And what do you know, in the absence of government quotas and gerrymandering programs, athletes from every background imaginable stepped up and excelled. In the process, racial barriers came tumbling down, tossed on the ash heap of human stupidity.

I fascinated over this while munching at my favorite breakfast joint. The entire staff - owner to dishwasher - is from India or Pakistan, or someplace on the other side of the Earth. Nobody really knows. Nobody really cares. For the best breakfast in town, suburbanites fight for a parking spot, plunk down their dough, grab a fork and dig in. I can't imagine one hungry customer who ponders the issue of the cook's skin color.

Stick a fork in it, folks ... racism is dead.

Then why are we obsessed with race? Because there is a lot of money in ticking people off. Years ago, liberals discovered they could secure a cushy political career by expanding poverty and government bureaucracy via the welfare state. Black liberals discovered racial warfare could further expand that power, even as the rest of America was trying valiantly to get along. Popular black culture became obsessed with hating white America to the point of rejecting everything about white culture. Education. Morality. Civility. Law. Order. Success. As the black underclass entrenched, white America was accused, and the gulf between white and black culture yawned.

Today, success-driven white culture rejects failure-driven black culture. But it's not racism. It's culturism.

You can understand culturism by watching Venus and Serena Williams on the pro tennis tour. Everyone hates them. In a sport steeped in polite tradition, the Williams clan behave like 'hood trash. They are arrogant and insulting. And in the heritage of American race baiting, they cry "racism" when the normally reserved tennis fans boo them. Which is often.

Meanwhile, success-driven athletes of every color have united Americans in adulation. White kids love Sammy Sosa. Black kids love Mark McGuire. And everyone admires Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Americans love champions, but we despise boors. That is why white Americans dislike Allen Iverson.

Or at least they used to. Iverson entered the NBA with a selfish "street" attitude, instilled by race pimps who sell poverty to ghetto disciples. He skipped practices, showboated and treated the world with disdain. But when coach Larry Brown took over, he convinced Iverson the real mark of a man isn't talent, but champion. That clicked. Iverson became a leader. The MVP inspired his battered team and carried the Seventy-Sixers on his skinny shoulders into the finals. A month after their heroic loss, Sixer flags still fly on cars from every Philadelphia neighborhood. Allen Iverson grew from punk to prince. Now, white fans love him.

Today, Americans brush aside the idiocy that separated our ancestors. Mixed marriages have tripled since 1960. The top rapper is white. The best golfer is black. And in baseball, our American past time, the best player is Japanese. What's a hate-monger to do? Oh, we can still find the occasional racists in the Aryan Nation or the Congressional Black Caucus, stirring the race pot for personal or political fame and fortune. But they are hopelessly behind the curve. When Americans meet someone who's different, that twang of discomfort usually disappears with a handshake or a smile. Or in the case of sports, victory. Because two centuries ago, America declared individuals have the right to achieve success. Today, we admire The Champion. Even if he's from Kasugai, Japan.

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