The
Confused American Left Ask,
Am I A Racist?
By David Truskoff
20 April, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Jackie
Robinson the icon of American baseball was the first black player to
play in the Baseball Major Leagues. Both the political right and the
politic left claimed Robinson as their own.
On April 15, 2007, the 60th
anniversary of Jackie Robinson's MLB debut, Major League Baseball invited
players to wear the number 42 just for that day to commemorate Robinson.
Robinson made his Major League
debut on April 15, 1947
What few Americans know is
that the American Communist party was the driving force that broke the
baseball color line after World War Two.
The Communist newspaper the
"Daily Worker" pounded the issue for years prior to Robinson’s
emergence. A sports writer for the "Daily Worker" named Lester
Rodney wrote pointed articles that not only embarrassed the wealthy
owners of the teams, but brought demonstrators to Ebbets field in Brooklyn
the home field of the Brooklyn Dodgers the team Robinson was to play
for. Ebbets field became a shrine for the left. My own brother was one
of the demonstrators. It was no wonder that the left felt Jackie was
one of their own when the FBI opened a file on Jackie and brought him
before the house un-American activities Committee after he appeared
at the Harlem Solidity Center of the " International Workers Order,"
listed as a "Red" organization.
Years after Robinson left
baseball he became a vice-president for the Chock Full O' Nuts
. Coffee Company that employed
blacks in their many restaurants, and that is when I first met him in
1963.
I was booking him on a television
show to promote the Coffee Company. I expected him to arrive via a chauffeur
-driven car, but no I picked him up at the train station and brought
him to the TV station where I worked. After the show we sat in the car
and talked. It was early and he did not want to wait at the station
and be bothered by autograph seekers. I was already known as a Civil
rights activist and that was a subject he welcomed. I was horrified
when he told me that he was going to support the right wing candidate
Richard Nixon for president. I mentioned the Daily Worker and the effort
of the left to bring him to baseball, but he said that John Kennedy
"couldn’t even look me in the eye." And the civil rights
issue was his main concern. It was devastating to the Liberals and the
leftists. It created a serious breach. Many thought that he had been
bought off with the Chock Full Of Nuts Job. How could Jackie Robinson,
who owed so much to the left turn his back on them?
It was a hard lesson for
all of us and today I must think back at that time. Yes there were racists
among us liberals then and even though Robinson was himself the grandson
of a slave many racists doubted his mental ability to see Real America.
There was much talk then about a prominent Professor’s theory
that African Americans were mentally inferior.
Today the liberals are once
again asking themselves the question," "Am I after all, a
racist?"
On April 4,2007 a morning
"Shock Jock" which is terminology " used to describe
filthy mouthed low level characters who elevate themselves by using
their power of the airwaves to insult people. This time the shock Jock
called, "Imus" referred to a predominately black college women’s
basketball team as a group of, "nappy-headed hos." If you
are an intelligent adult you probable never heard the expression or
know what it means. African American hair can sometimes be Kinky of
nappy. Hair strengthener ads dominate Black magazines. The "Ho"
I am told refers to whore. I myself while driving into the city have
heard this man make such stupid remarks about one of his co-workers
on the air. But this one gave the self declared professional Black leaders
a media feast. The result was that Imus was fired.
Jessie Jackson who can smell
a TV camera a mile away lodged a protest. This is the same Jessie Jackson
that once called New York City "Hymmie Town" A very offensive
anti- Semitic remark and one that set race relations back many years.
In a recent survey by a television
station 67% of respondents said they do not believe that Imus should
have been fired for his remarks and that is a red alarm for America.
The Imus issue has placed many Americans between Jessie Jackson; Al
Sharpton and the other so called Black leaders and a white Shock Jock.
Black Television programs;
modern Black music and Black attitudes in general are all in the line
of fire. Liberal left Americans particularly Jews who can no longer
deny or defend the blatant racism of Zionism and dreamed along with
Doctor King about a better America are disappointed in Black efforts
to help bring that about and are again asking themselves the question,
am I, after all, a Racist.
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