black, Hispanic players hold up better under heat

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Do I care what he said? Not really. But what if Tony LaRussa had been the skipper to say this and not Baker?...

 

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/spo...rts/6246955.htm

 

Halfway 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 Chicago 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 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 lead 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 overheating, or avoid what we call heat stroke.

 

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.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

the one thing I've learned about Dusty since he came to Chicago is that he is a REALLY weird guy. I laughed when he told Sammy to "go underground" though.

[Guest Choken One]

Since it seemed he was joking...I'm not takin it too seriously...

 

Besides..We've known Baker been kooky for years...this is nothing new.

[Guest Anglesault]

Since it seemed he was joking...I'm not takin it too seriously...

Regardless, if a white manager said something like that, Al Sharpton would be marching, Jesse Jackson would boycott and the guy would be fired.

[Guest Choken One]

Its the same as when Rock says something about "Niggas be crazy" in his speeches...

 

According to the rules of society...

 

Black people can say this and still make white cracka jokes...but whitey can't even THINK about a joke...and whitey can't make white jokes because they dont know the struggle of the black man...

 

Ya know...the usual PC bullshit.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

The Cubs should get Jimmy the Greek to give his two cents on this situation. (If he's still alive. If not, I don't care to hear his opinions)

[Guest Ripper]

Yeah, black people have it so easy because they can make jokes.

 

Its messed up, because in a country where everything is equal and minorities are treated the same as the majority, its horrible that people would try to hold down the white man by not letting them make jokes about other races. Its almost like white people have a history of treating other minorities like second class citizens and their comment could be taken seriously or something. PC bullshit.

[Guest Ripper]

And yes that was sarcasm.

 

Jesus, I swear, sometimes you guys just stroll through all the news you can to try and find ways that the white man is being held down. Get over it.

 

If I said that all smokers should die of lung cancer because they are dirty bastards without cracking a smile, all the while smoking a Newport, would that be taken more or less serious as when a non smoker says it in the same way? Dusty Baker CAN say this because in essence, he is talking about himself.

 

I don't think any white manager would be stupid enough to make this statement and if he did, maybe he should be fired because who wants a fucking idiot to be the manager of their baseball team.

 

There is a huge difference between mocking yourself and mocking others.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Jesus, I swear, sometimes you guys just stroll through all the news you can to try and find ways that the white man is being held down. Get over it.

Sometimes? I look for ways that my people have been oppressed ALL THE TIME.

 

You get over it, whitey-hater...

[Guest Youth N Asia]

According to the rules of society...

 

Black people can say this and still make white cracka jokes...but whitey can't even THINK about a joke...and whitey can't make white jokes because they dont know the struggle of the black man...

 

Ya know...the usual PC bullshit.

Also, Whitey can't strangle his basketball coach and try to kill him. He'd be banned for life, charged with assualt and a hate crime, and that would be that...yet Sprewell can do the same thing, and his "punishment" is going to a better team for more money.

 

I'd better stop now, cause even though I never mean to I come off like an ass in arguments like this. Dusty's a nut though.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Dusty also told Hee-Seop Choi to "stop looking at my dog like that, I know what you Koreans do"

[Guest Choken One]

I wasn't trying to come off as an Racist or whatever but I was trying to say it's bullshit that when a black and hispanic person says this it's a "Joke" or is swept under the rug but yet white person says the same deal and it's media hell for life...

 

It needs to be an equal balance.

[Guest ant_7000]

I felt that he was joking and poking fun at himself. It shouldn't be taken seriously, you white guys here always looking for a double standard, now if white guy would've said white players play better in the cold I wouldn't take offense to that.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

Methinks Dusty should cancel his stand-up comedian tour ... if he was just joking with that diatribe than he ain't funny.

 

And the repeated usage of "right" seems to indicate that he was either looking for repeated to agree with what he was saying, or he was purposely being sarcastic in response to something that someone else said.

 

Either way, he sounds like a dick when he makes jokes like that and regardless of his skin-color should be held accountable.

 

Oh, and white guys don't play better in the cold, Inuits do.

[Guest Anglesault]

Its messed up, because in a country where everything is equal and minorities are treated the same as the majority, its horrible that people would try to hold down the white man by not letting them make jokes about other races. Its almost like white people have a history of treating other minorities like second class citizens and their comment could be taken seriously or something. PC bullshit.

So, in other words, all races hould be treated equally, and the first step in that process is giving minorities preferential treatment.

 

In some fucked up way, that makes sense.

 

No, no it doesn't.

[Guest Anglesault]

I wasn't trying to come off as an Racist or whatever but I was trying to say it's bullshit that when a black and hispanic person says this it's a "Joke" or is swept under the rug but yet white person says the same deal and it's media hell for life...

 

It needs to be an equal balance.

Remember when Shaq made fun of the Asian basketball player (Whose name escapes me) and nothing ever came of it?

 

The best example I can think of.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Yao Ming would be the guy you're thinking of.

 

Yao didn't really seem to be that angry or anything, I remember

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Well you know THOSE PEOPLE are a passive folk...

[Guest Ripper]

I wasn't trying to come off as an Racist or whatever but I was trying to say it's bullshit that when a black and hispanic person says this it's a "Joke" or is swept under the rug but yet white person says the same deal and it's media hell for life...

 

It needs to be an equal balance.

Remember when Shaq made fun of the Asian basketball player (Whose name escapes me) and nothing ever came of it?

 

The best example I can think of.

Nothing except the press slamming him for being a racist, the Asian community coming out and slamming him for it, him on televison every 10 seconds apologizing and learning how to say "I'm sorry" in Yao's language. Yeah...nothing was said.

 

I don't even like shaq, think he is a damn near retarded asshole but I know that he was put through the ringer for it.

 

My main point is that on this board, I have NEVER seen a minority start a thread on any race issues. It is always a white person that is coming with this "Blacks can do this and we can't" stuff ALL THE TIME. It is getting really annoying. Do you think that the minority members of this board can't find PLENTY of times in the media when blacks ran through shit that white athletes/stars wouldn't be. Do any of us come on this board and bitch about it? NO.

 

If there was a minorty on this board that every five minutes was posting something about the diparity in the treatment of whites and minorities in this county, there would be a ~BAN PLZ~ thread about him/her right now. It is bullshit, it is annoying, and all it does is set up the oportunity for nasty arguments or statements that will come across wrong on a message board. There is no point to it. Give it a rest already.

[Guest Anglesault]

I don't even like shaq, think he is a damn near retarded asshole

WE AGREE~!

 

My main point is that on this board, I have NEVER seen a minority start a thread on any race issues. It is always a white person that is coming with this "Blacks can do this and we can't" stuff ALL THE TIME. It is getting really annoying. Do you think that the minority members of this board can't find PLENTY of times in the media when blacks ran through shit that white athletes/stars wouldn't be. Do any of us come on this board and bitch about it? NO

 

Some of that may come from-and I'm not an authority on this, so don't lynch me- that, for the most part, white people are not at all that vocal in demanding equal treatment. For the most part, it's minorities.

 

So when something like minorites being able to make statements or jokes regarding race but white people being strictly forbidden comes to the forefront, it looks like an obvious double standard.

 

And really, how does that do anyone any good?

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

My main point is that on this board, I have NEVER seen a minority start a thread on any race issues. It is always a white person that is coming with this "Blacks can do this and we can't" stuff ALL THE TIME. It is getting really annoying.

 

Do you think that the minority members of this board can't find PLENTY of times in the media when blacks ran through shit that white athletes/stars wouldn't be. Do any of us come on this board and bitch about it? NO.

 

If there was a minorty on this board that every five minutes was posting something about the diparity in the treatment of whites and minorities in this county, there would be a ~BAN PLZ~ thread about him/her right now. It is bullshit, it is annoying, and all it does is set up the oportunity for nasty arguments or statements that will come across wrong on a message board. There is no point to it. Give it a rest already.

Too bad...

[Guest Ripper]

My main point is that on this board, I have NEVER seen a minority start a thread on any race issues.  It is always a white person that is coming with this "Blacks can do this and we can't" stuff ALL THE TIME.  It is getting really annoying. 

 

Do you think that the minority members of this board can't find PLENTY of times in the media when blacks ran through shit that white athletes/stars wouldn't be.  Do any of us come on this board and bitch about it? NO.

 

If there was a minorty on this board that every five minutes was posting something about the diparity in the treatment of whites and minorities in this county, there would be a ~BAN PLZ~ thread about him/her right now.  It is bullshit, it is annoying, and all it does is set up the oportunity for nasty arguments or statements that will come across wrong on a message board.  There is no point to it.  Give it a rest already.

Too bad...

Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Seeing how I posted this topic, I think I have contributed enough.

 

Don't worry though, in the interest of diversity, the next topic I post will be of a bonehead thing that one of "my people" does.

 

I wouldn't want Jesse Jackson and his merry group of hired protesters to picket outside my house because I'm only picking on minorities...