Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) is one of the most famous baseball players in the US. He was #42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1947 to 1956. On April 15th 1947 he became the first Black person to play in the major leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1885.
Milestone: It was not just milestone for baseball and team sports in general in the US, it was a milestone for US society as a whole, a dry run of desegregation, the beginning of the end of Jim Crow. When Robinson played his first major league game, it was a year before President Truman ordered the racial desegregation of the military (Blacks and Whites had served in separate units). It was seven years before the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of schools.
Major league baseball in the 1940s was the biggest sport in the US, played in all parts of the country, north and south, east and west. It also had largely objective measures of who was better than who, like batting averages. That made it a perfect field for Blacks to prove that they were just as good as Whites, helping to undermine racism.
Stereotypes: Jackie Robinson did not completely destroy racism, of course. In fact, many Whites simply added “good at sports”, along with “good at dancing” and “good at music”, to their “positive” stereotypes about Black people. Just as they would later preserve their anti-Asian racism with the stereotype of Asians being “good at science” and “good at mathematics”.
Jackie Robinson was a great player in his own right. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1947 and Most Valuable Player in 1949, when he led the league with a batting average of 0.342 and 37 bases stolen. As a Dodger he would steal home base 19 times! He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
But he had to be more than just a good baseball player: he had to put up with death threats, the N-word, White players hurting him “by accident” – all of it without getting into a fight. He had to be the picture of character and grace if other Blacks were to get into the major leagues.
Negro league baseball: By 1959, all the major league teams had Black players. Like him, they were the best players of the Negro leagues, people like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Satchel Paige. In 1960 the last of the Negro leagues died.
Politics: Robinson was a liberal Republican of the Nelson Rockefeller sort, supporting Nixon against Kennedy in 1960. He raised money for civil rights organizations like the NAACP and the SCLC. He would not stand and sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” or salute the flag. He knew that “money is America’s God” and that he was a “black man in a white world.”
He died at 53, his hair already white, his heart failing. Some say that all the hell they put him through drove him to an early grave.
In 1997 all the major league baseball teams, not just the Dodgers, retired his number, 42.
– Abagond, 2017.
See also:
- Jim Crow
- 1949 in 33 pictures – Jackie Robinson is one of them
- Star-Spangled Banner
- stereotypes
- N-word
- Jesse Owens
- Muhammad Ali
- John Carlos
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There is an argument that Jim Crow at some level still exists in the US, but at the very least I believe it’s safe to say that “official” (that is, not prohibited by law) Jim Crow continued in place at least until the Fair Housing/Community Reinvestment legislation of the late 1970’s.
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If Jackie Robinson had fought back against the players who verbally abused him, it would not have prevented future black players from making it into the major league, although the arc of the story could have been a little different if he had gotten into physical fights. It might be useful to keep in mind both that fighting is not generally part of baseball and that all of the players are athletes and for the most part capable of handling themselves in a fight. Fighting may be part of ice hockey because the sport allows it, but it is not part of any other North American major league sport or tolerated in them.
Speaking of stereotypes, isn’t the idea that Robinson, simply because he was black, had a special propensity for violence which then had to be specially restrained itself a stereotype? I am sure a lot of insults are traded on the baseball field which could be classified as “fighting” words.
Robinson is recognized not only because he was a first, but because he possessed virtue in the old Roman sense of the word, civic virtue. He was called in the day a “credit to his race”. That he may have been, but he was, don’t forget, a credit to his country as well, a credit to America, and that, and his virtue, are the reasons why his number 42 is retired throughout professional baseball.
Myself, I would like to see a couple of other numbers retired, and for much the same reasons, Lou Gehrig’s number 4 and Roberto Clemente’s number 21. Tell me who better represents the native-born elements who made this American game what it is.
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Jackie Robinson was a coon. I hate to say it. But he was.
The Negro leagues were bigger than the majors. You had a built in audience. Black run stadiums, black coach’s.
In fact they started having night games and that tripled the money and then the major done the same.
Plus they wanted his brother Mack Robinson who came second to Jessie Owens in the 1936 olympics, but his brother was no ass kisser. Some of those Negro leagues players were ten times better than Jackie but Jackie would smile and not respond to racism.
They loved that.
At the time white baseball players were decline. White guys going to war and they had to make the USA seem nice and fair because you can’t fight Hitler’s racism if your still lynching black people. So Robinson was a mascot for that
But Robinson always attacked real black men like Paul Robeson who went in on racism and Jackie Robinson testified against him, Jackie Robinson would talk shit about Malcolm X and he hated on Muhammad Ali
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKHcKpc5TpA&feature=youtu.be&t=116)
He’s total sellout
Joe Louis was another sellout
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@TheHipHopRecords (@TheHipHopRecord)
“Jackie Robinson was a coon. ”
+1000. Glad someone said it (but be careful using that word or you might be attacked by one).
“and he hated on Muhammad Ali”
In the video, Jackie Robinson sounds exactly like the many white NFL fans who are so upset over Colin Kaepernick’s protest.
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@resw
“…but be careful using that word or you might be attacked by one…”
LOL!!!
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@scribh aka lord of mirkwood aka xpraetorius
Firstly, I used neither of the words to which you are referring on this thread, so find a better way to troll me next time.
Secondly, just because racist white supremacists like you use those words as “racist epithets” does not give you the right to tell others if and how they may use them. So learn to stay out of other people’s affairs.
Thirdly, saying a word doesn’t make one racist, especially not in the context TheHipHopRecords used it, but behaving the way you’ve behaved since you started commenting on this blog certainly does.
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@resw:
Don’t you just love how they flip the script?
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@Herneith
Yep. I expect nothing less from a racist troll.
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42 is a good movie to watch.
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@ResW
Robinson was an ass kisser who sucked up to whites.
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Jackie Robinson is trashy. He hurted the Negro League. The Negro league was a strong economy engine for black people.. players, owners, hotel, etc now it is just a memory. This was the biggest con game that played on Black People.. integrating the major did nothing for black people.. trade off small number of players for thousands of employed people..THANK COON ROBINSON
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