Jackie Robinson Day is a pure celebration – and that's the problem

Tuesday, in everyone in baseball, Jackie Robinson Day The commemorations will again take the front of the stage. Since 2004, April 15 has been a compulsory notch on the baseball calendar, an opportunity for the Major Baseball League to honor, apologize and force the public when observing a particular memory of the inheritance of Robinson.

The back of each jersey will feathand the iconic Robinson n ° 42 in Dodger Blue. Jumbotrons of the stadium will launch dramatic tributes put moving music. The broadcasters will wave a poetic wave on the balance and the courage of Robinson in the face of vitriolic racism.

But there is a difference between seams 42 on hundreds of uniforms and a powerful and powerful exhibition in the history of Robinson. Because under the disinfected public glorification of this American icon is a darker and more uncomfortable truth – that which the major baseball league chooses to bypass.

The glory of Robinson's tale and the part on which the league chooses to concentrate – the rupture of the colored barrier of sport – was made possible by the system which prohibits black athletes like him from playing in MLB. He had a lasting power because his journey and his pure existence were subversive, radical, provocative.

But Jackie Robinson Day, as MLB currently shows, is nothing like this bite.

Like the The league clearly declares On his website, “Each year on April 15, baseball honors Jackie's heritage by celebrating his life, his values and his achievements.”

There is nothing wrong with celebration, as long as it is accompanied by a legitimate calculation. A significant story of history. A poignant and impactful application from the past to the present.

Unfortunately, this does not happen.

There is nothing controversial, stimulating or uncomfortable on how the league tells the story of Robinson. The money is given, the time is voluntary, the Jackie Robinson Foundation is included, and yet the whole day transmits a kind of energy from Kumbaya, the one that whispers the saccharin comforts in a post-racial tone.

“Jackie Robinson transcends any debate that takes place in today's society on the questions surrounding Dei,” said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred In a recent interview. “What Jackie Robinson represents is to go beyond a kind of manifest segregation that I do not believe that anyone really supports today.”

This way of thinking allows MLB to highlight the good without facing the bad, the difficult, the clumsy. But to remove Robinson from the Dei conversation, while being terribly practical, to whiten the non-based side of his life, in which he fought fiercely for civil rights.

The truth is that if each hero has a villain, too Jackie too. And in his case, this villain was America.

Here is what Robinson had to say in his autobiography of 1972, “I never did”: “Today, returns to this opening game of my first world series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey's drama and that I was only a main actor. As I write that I am a black man, I cannot bear and sing the white world.

Farm, fierce, shamelessly blinked – All the fundamental aspects of Jackie The Man, all the themes completely absent on Jackie's Day, all the uncomfortable truths that MLB prefers to bypass. And now, nowadays, he never has the failure of MLB to defend the entire inheritance of Robinson has been more obvious or more damaging.

Jackie Robinson Day is a celebration for baseball, but the passivity of the Light of recent events is a bad service to the inheritance of Robinson.

(Grant Thomas / Yahoo Sports)

As the recent events in this country have pointed out, MLB failed to disseminate the real message in the history of Robinson.

At the end of March, a history on the website of the Ministry of Defense on Robinson's military career was deleted in the context of the Trump administration efforts to clean the material involving diversity, equity and inclusion. In the middle of the public outcry, the page was quickly relaunched – but not before a series of controversial declarations of Dod spokesperson from Sideliné John Ulyot, including the following.

“We do not see neither highlight (the subjects of the deleted pages, including Robinson) through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity or sex. We only do so by recognizing their patriotism and their dedication to the mission of fighting war like all the other Americans who have worn the uniform.”

Not seeing Jackie Robinson through the prism of the race is like not seeing food through the prism of taste. Yes, Robinson was a lot in addition to a black man who shattered the color barrier of a sport – a father, a ball player, a business manager, a lieutenant – but his stature in American society is inextricable from his race. This is particularly true for Robinson's time in the armed forces, during which he was courted by the court after refusing to move to the back of an army bus.

That the DOD Fiasco has not dissuaded certain political actors from continuing to attack Robinson's heritage. An executive decree implemented by President Trump on March 27, entitled “Restoring the truth and mental health to American history”, “ led to the signaling of 900 titles in the Nimitz library of the American Naval Academy. It would take the inclusion in this pack was a biography of Jackie Robinson. To date, Bio Robinson has not been purged, Although 381 other books wereBut he seems to remain under study.

And most concerning all, with regard to the MLB, the references to “diversity” were removed from the League website at a given moment this spring. The details of the league rented diversity pipeline program, which offers baseball opportunities to sub-represented communities, have also been deleted.

In a declaration to athletics, an official of the league said: “As the commissioner said, our values on diversity remain unchanged. We are in the process of assessing our programs for any modification of the eligibility criteria necessary to ensure that our programs comply with federal law when they continue to move forward. ”

It is predictable, even understandable, that the MLB would adjust its public oriented language to ensure that it remains beyond the anger of President Trump. Public confrontations with the administration, especially on the breed, would be bad for business. There is a pragmatic argument for playing long game. And on his credit, MLB has made significant investments in black baseball, including the baseball recovery program in the city center and a donation of $ 100 million to the Players Alliance, a collective of large black leaguers seeking to make sport more “fair and accessible”.

But in this particular case, the passivity of MLB is a bad service that Robinson defended.

Indeed, not to run your story forward, do not connect it to the flagrant shortcomings of modern America, not to use this opportunity to make a point is an invalidation of the entire Jackie Robinson Day project.

Why defend the past if it is not used to have an impact on the future?

The MLB should celebrate Robinson's courage and its grace. This should honor his achievements. But that should also tell the full story. It should dwell on the hardness. He should testify to the uncompromising parts of American racism which required the bravery of Robinson. This should remind us of why this severe story remains so relevant in 2025.

Quite simply, if MLB wants to honor Jackie, he must make more than make his players wear No. 42. He must carry the total weight of Robinson's inheritance – not just his number – on his back.

Source Link