We don’t often post on sports-related stories, but the following is a “race-baiting” and media-based story as much as a sports story.
It is quite amazing that a recent rant by White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen hasn’t been destroyed by the sports media. The substance of the rant is actually getting serious consideration.
This may have something to do with the quality and, in some cases, the politics of many in the national sports media.
Guillen argues:
Japanese players are treated better than Latino players because the Japanese players are given translators by Major League Baseball (MLB). In his example he then uses a Korean player.
The following is simple even for ESPN’s talking heads. There are numerous Latino players on baseball teams and there are numerous people on those teams who can speak both English and Spanish, including managers such as Guillen. There’s no need for personal translators.
On the other hand, an Asian player is usually the only Asian player on the team (or only Asian player from that specific Asian country on the team) and therefore is in need of a translator.
That isn’t hard to understand. ESPN should point out this obvious point and slam Guillen for his ignorant remarks, and then move on to real stories (which to ESPN includes doing specials on where a player is going to play in the upcoming year–how about a special where Favre tells us whether he is going to play for Minnesota?)
I say this all the time, but there are enough legitimate issues regarding race, ethnicity, gender, etc. We need to call people out when they are creating make-believe issues.
