It was quite coincidental, the timing of two men’s comments, a mere 10 days apart. Two American sports icons, one a beloved Caucasian ex-basketball player from the cornfields of French Lick, Indiana, and the other an oft-reviled, much-spoiled, ever-privileged African-American son of a big league ballplayer. Both were foolish to say what they did. Both touched on an extremely sensitive, delicate issue that is still very much in the forefront of the collective American consciousness. The difference, though, is that one was right and deserves serious discussion, while the other was blatantly ignorant and easily dismissive.In case anyone was wondering, rumors of the demise of the issue of race (perhaps the number one defining problem in all of American history) have been greatly exaggerated.
Larry Bird was the first of the two to open his mouth. In the interest of full disclosure, I must reveal that Bird was a childhood hero of mine, a near-magical, mythical figure in Boston sports memory. His battles with archrival Magic Johnson, beginning with the 1979 NCAA championship game and continuing through the great Finals matchups of the mid-1980’s, are the substance of legend. As a sports figure, Larry Bird is a demigod to me.
That’s why I cringed when I heard what he said. In the ultra-sensitive, reality-blind world of 2004, I knew instantly that Larry would be hanged in the court of politically correct opinion.
“(Having more white superstars) is good for a fan base because, as we all know, the majority of the fans are white America. . . But it is a black man’s game, and it will be forever. I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-Americans.”
Compare that to Bonds’ statements of 10 days later, when he told Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe that he could never play in Boston because the city is “too racist for me.”
Somehow, Bonds got a free pass on his statement, which was undoubtedly only argued strongly within Metro Boston. Meanwhile, Bird’s comments drew the ire and suspicion of P.C. police everywhere, who suggested that the so-called Basketball Jesus was all along a closet racist, that making any statement (positive or negative) about a race was enough to warrant a tarring and feathering. They suggested that somehow, Bird’s insistence that that there are more exceptional black athletes than white ones revealed the inner demons of a man corrupted by a lifetime of bigoted prejudice towards the black community.
Meanwhile, Bonds is not taken to task at all for his ignorant stereotyping. In fact, some have praised him for having the courage to stand up for his convictions. They say nothing of the fact that Bonds, by his own admission, relied merely on “what guys have said” about Boston and the racial climate here.
It is no secret that Boston has a dark, troubled history of race relations. The white supremacist notions of longtime Red Sox owner (and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame) Tom Yawkey are well-known, as is the fact that the Sox were the last team in Major League Baseball to integrate, a full twelve years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. The forced busing crisis of 1974 is still fresh in many people’s memory, and images of enraged white South Boston parents hurling rocks at buses carrying innocent black schoolchildren from Roxbury and Mattapan surely dominate those perceptions as well. For many blacks in Boston (as is true across America), it has been a long struggle towards acceptance and empowerment.
Still, Bonds was wrong to impugn the entire city as being “racist.” Are there racists in Boston? Of course, just as people with racist tendencies live in Seattle, or Little Rock, or Montgomery, or San Francisco. Has there been a history of racial tension in Boston? Yes, but in the 30 years between the busing crisis and today, there has also been a lot of progress in racial harmony. Many black callers to WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan show echoed these sentiments, saying that if Barry Bonds ever visited Boston or talked to black people who actually live here, he would see a different picture of a “racist” city than the one he so casually and caustically branded on Boston.
On the other hand, Bird’s comments, while ill-timed and probably poorly worded, have some legitimacy behind them. Whereas Bonds is relying on hearsay and stereotype, Bird’s assertions about the fan base of the NBA being mostly white are correct. His statement about more great athletes being black is also correct. There is nothing wrong with his observation about athletes and their skin color, because, as Lebron James correctly points out during the same ESPN interview with Bird, sports is possibly the only area of American culture where race, creed, or any other label has absolutely no meaning whatsoever: “When the fans look at the game, (they’re) not looking at the race. (They’re) looking who can play basketball… It’s not the race issue. If you can play the game of basketball, you know fans are gonna love you.”
One of the endearing features of athletic competition is that it represents the American ideal of meritocracy. On the athletic fields, your heritage, background, and race are all moot. All that matters is performance. Larry Bird didn’t start off every game with an automatic 5 points because he was white, nor does Barry Bonds receive an automatic home run per game as restitution for his black heritage. Accomplishments in athletics are earned, not awarded. That is why sports represents perhaps the purest example of the American dream.
However, human nature being what it is, this American dream can easily be turned into an American nightmare simply by infusing that most ugly of skeletons in our nation’s closet, racism. Both Bonds and Bird were stupid in making their comments. But there is a difference between being stupid and being wrong.
Barry Bonds was wrong to perpetuate an ignorant, malicious stereotype of racism and setting us all back a bit in our efforts for racial progress. Larry Bird was neither ignorant nor malicious, but his comments should remind us of the dream of true equality and merit-based accomplishment, sometimes forgotten in the real world but always present in the world of pure sport.
by Ryan McGowan 2004
6 replies on “Bird and Bonds- and Racism’s Ugly Head”
bravo good points, and well said.
absolutely one of the best articles I’ve read on the subject.
I’m no Bonds’ apologist but here is something from Newsday (http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-sphey233864802jun23,0,3795376.column?coll=ny-baseball-head
lines) that might help shed a little light on why he said what he said:
“It’s true the Red Sox were the last team in baseball to integrate, and because they were last, and [longtime owner Tom Yawkey] was so racist – he had a plantation – it’s understandable why it’s very hard for those players whose dads were players to let go,” said Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, assistant professor of the history of art and architecture and African American studies at Harvard University and granddaughter of Negro League player John Shaw.”
The rest of the article is an interesting read too. Including a part on how Babe Ruth, a Yankee, is more revered in Boston than Bill Russel. Bill delivered 11 championships! The only thing the Babe delivered was an excuse for losing every year.
Good point Good point Vin, but I think Russell’s lack of appreciation has more to do with the Celtics’ perennial second-fiddle status to the Sox (and now third fiddle to the Patriots). The Celtics have always been tenants/renters in their own arena and therefore have always been unappreciated by the general fan. Russell, however, is worshipped by “true” Boston fans as the epitome of a teammate, a winner, and a champion.
Bonds’ Comments Have Merit Thank you for the interesting and thought provoking piece.
On a purely idealistic level, your double standard notion has merit. Bonds, I’m sure, was piggy-backing on traditional notions of Boston being a racist city when he made his comments. Superficially, these comments are unfair to many Bostonians.
However, there is one problem. Reality. I am an African-American who has lived in Boston while attending graduate school at Boston University. I currently reside in New York City, but have lived in northern New England and various cities in Europe. So, I have a comparative experience to fall back on with respects to this issue. And I can honestly say, I’ve never lived in a more openly hostile city towards African Americans than the city of Boston. I cannot even recount all of the examples of public, brazen racism I experienced in just one sitting. A couple of examples come to mind though:
As I was walking with a white female friend from school (not a girlfriend) in Boston Common I repeatedly heard `go home nigger’ and comments like `nigger’s getting big for his britches’ from multiple sources.
Another instance: I was standing on Newberry St., near the curb, waiting for my friend to come out of a café when two white men driving a Mercedes pulled up, got out, and handed me their car keys, telling me it would be my ass if there’s so much as a scratch on the car. They must have thought I was the parking lot attendant, even though there was no valet parking anywhere near where I was standing. Needless to say, when they went into the restaurant, their keys went into the sewer.
You mentioned that racists and racism exist everywhere. Idealistically, you are correct. But certain levels of it exist in certain places. And I’ve never experienced that level anywhere else I’ve lived. Including cities that have a smaller black population.
Sure, you’ll find that there will be African Americans who will say that things are fine. That has always been the case. At the height of the civil rights movement, you could always find a black person down south that was happy with the status quo. I don’t dismiss these people as Uncle Toms as most would. However, I think the average black person that I knew in Boston who felt that way had never lived anywhere else. In short they just didn’t know any better. Once, as a minority, you live amongst whites who truly respect you as a human, you have zero tolerance for whites who don’t. It’s that simple.
Unfortunately, we have moved into an era of race relations where some whites, who have been previously passive about this issue, are crying victim when they are lumped into a broader racist landscape of a particular community. They are outraged at merely being called a racist. Somehow, you’re a victim of racism. However, your suffering over being called a racist could not even come close to the suffering of an actual victim of racism. (I know from personal experience on both fronts.)
I found it telling that you used blacks who phoned into a radio program to represent black Boston. It is as if to say, `these guys think it’s okay, so…’ What do your black friends have to say about the issue? Do you have black friends? I’m not trying to single you out. One thing that I noticed about the city was that, aside from the large student population, there was no racial mixing whatsoever. Aside from Los Angeles, it was the most segregated city, outside of the southeast, I’d ever experienced.
Obviously, I’m not alone. Many blacks feel the same way about Boston. It didn’t take watershed events like bussing or the Boston Red Sox to shape these views. (That’s what it took for whites to see the problem.) Their views came from personal experience or the experience of those close to them. And unfortunately for your idealism, it isn’t in the past, it’s very much in the present. As a sports fan, if you have any doubts, take a look at the stands in Fenway and compare the racial makeup to Shea or Yankee Stadium. It’s striking. I’m lucky if I see three or four African Americans in the stands in Boston (dark-skinned Dominicans rooting for Pedro don’t count).
We Americans have this notion that if you can discredit the messenger, then the message is also discredited. This is especially true in dealing with racial discrimination. Bonds is somehow racially uninformed about Boston because he grew up the son of a wealthy athlete or because he never lived there. I’ve got news for you. I’ve never lived in apartheid South Africa, but I understood what other blacks in that world were going through. Racism isn’t really that difficult. In fact, it’s so simple, it’s become a cliché. It’s only difficult for those who cannot accept it’s existence within their own ranks. Then, somehow, the person who complains about racism is the true enemy, not the racists themselves. Don’t blame Bonds for pointing out the obvious, take a look around Fenway during a Sox game and try and figure out why you don’t see African Americans. But more importantly, figure out what YOU can do about it. Blaming those that call attention to racism has not done anything to help our society get beyond this issue.
Thanks for your insights. They are much appreciated. I think you should polish this up and submit it at a separate article for the front page.
The real issue is the way he states it There’s no merit in blindly labelling the city of Boston racist. I don’t see how you can call that “Superficially…unfair to many Bostonians” when someone of Bonds’ celebrity declares their home unfit for minorities. That does nothing but hurt the chances of Boston overcoming its racist problems.
You ask what the author can do to help the situation, but let’s face it, Barry Bonds has a lot more power to help the situation than a sportswriter. What does he do with that opportunity? He makes a broad generalization which is ignorant and insulting. If he had named a personal experience or even a story which he had been told to say there are too many racist people in Boston for him to be comfortable there, it would have illustrated that Boston still has racism problems without being ignorant or insulting. That would have been the truth and still a headline worthy quote that brings those problems to the forefront.
Of course there’s no way for me to understand the impact of the racism you’ve experienced, since I am not African-American nor a member of any other ethnic background that is regularly discriminated against (people who share my Portuguese heritage, which includes Bonds’ family, no longer experiences what they did 50 years ago in this country). The only way racism can be defeated is for it not to be tolerated on any level, but that also includes the relatively low level of reverse discrimination. You may feel that these situations have little impact in comparison to what you’ve experienced, but in fact they are major contributors to what motivates those examples of racism. It perpetuates the fear that causes people to yell at someone in Boston Common and it encourages the ignorance in the thought that people of a different skin color are different in many other ways. If you give in and label people based on the experiences you’ve had with a very low percentage of them or (as we can only assume is the case with Bonds due to his vague comments) label them based on stories you’ve heard, then you are no wiser than the racist people you’ve encountered. These stories, however, need to be told so that racism is not swept under the rug to be unseen by people who live outside of those situations.
p.s. – Do you think Dominicans are happy to hear that they don’t count as victims of racism?