Race and Baseball Today

[Alyssa]

I'm glad Ta-Nehisi brought up the Red Sox as a metaphor for how racist people and institutions can end up punishing themselves, because I think the metaphor can be extended even further. In 2002, the new Sox ownership started a comprehensive effort to address the team's racist legacy by, among other things, equipping a 16-team baseball league run through a network of black churches. Given that African-American representation in the Major Leagues is at its lowest point in more than twenty years (8.2 percent of MLB players are black), that seems to be an appropriate investment. The Red Sox Foundation, the team's charitable arm, also formed a partnership with the Dimock Community Health Center in Dorchester in 2004, helping keep its Teen Center open.

I'm not saying that any of this represents reparations for the virulent racism that kept black players out of Boston for so long, and that inspired such poor treatment of black players when they finally got to put on Red Sox uniforms. But I think that the new ownership, when it decided to confront this ugly chapter in Red Sox history, did an intelligent thing. They looked to community needs that the team could meet in ways that leveraged its unique resources: access to baseball equipment and training. They didn't just give away free tickets, they made an investment, and took action consistent with the principle that if you want to reconnect with people divided from you by race and economics, you meet them on their turf.

I'm not sure what the model would be for Obama to do that, given the nature of campaigning, especially the nature of his campaign, and given that he doesn't have any obligation to make up for past institutional and individual wrongs. But if he wants to be the person starting conversations about the impact of those wrongs and how to overcome them, starting in Appalachia, on someone else's ground, seems like a good idea.