thenation--2020-10-19--Can Jaime Harrison Really Beat Lindsey Graham?

olumbia , —Does Jaime Harrison really have a chance to unseat Lindsey Graham ?
Yes .
But it won ’ t be easy—despite some current polls showing the race in a dead heat and Harrison raising money hand over fist .
In a hopeful mood , I ’ m curious to see how the state that introduced “ interposition and nullification ” to our ongoing racial strife , was the first to secede from the Union , and which remains the soul of the Confederacy handles sending two Black senators to Washington .
I could be “ just whistling Dixie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beating Graham might be doable .
First , in this election year , one person makes all the difference for me and many others .
That person is Donald Trump .
I ’ m voting against him—and Harrison reaps the benefit .
Our BBQ restaurant , which shuttered in March and reopened in mid-June for take-out , sits across the street from the Richland County Administration Building housing the county election office .
Since early voting began on October 5 , lines have been around the block , with voters lining up early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballots .
Tom Steyer ’ s South Carolina Support Isn ’ t Just About the Benjamins Most of the early voters I ’ ve seen have been Black .
Despite efforts to protect voting by mail , most Black voters are choosing not to trust mail-in voting and are showing up in person at early voting spots across the state .
Once inside , voters are taking about 10 minutes or less to cast their ballot—which suggests they ’ re voting a straight Democratic ticket .
I come to work early in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote .
When they have to use the restroom ( the county building has been pretty much closed since March ) , they walk across the street to us .
They need water , and we ’ ve given it to them with the joking stipulation ( OK , we ’ re kind of serious ) that they come back and buy some barbeque .
They need a place to park ; park in our lot .
Maybe early voting will help Harrison win—but it sure has helped our restaurant financially survive the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chance , Harrison needs to come close to , match , or exceed Barack Obama ’ s 2008 or ’ 12 turnout numbers .
In 2008 , though losing the state to his Republican challenger , Obama garnered 862,449 votes—and 865,941 in his second go-round in 2012 .
Presently , there are over 1 million nonwhite registered voters in the state .
Record turnout along with an erosion of support for Graham is critical for Harrison .
Graham ’ s vote totals from 2008 to 2014 show significant erosion of support among Republicans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ running against Lindsey .
Harrison and the Democrats have spent money on billboard ads using Graham ’ s negative comments against Trump as a weapon .
Comments like : “ He ’ s a race-baiting , xenophobic , religious bigot ” or “ You know how you make America great again ?
Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.
” Or “ We have to reject this demagoguery , and if we don ’ t reject Donald Trump , we ’ ve lost the moral authority…to govern this great nation.
” Over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debate forum with Harrison , “ If you ’ re a young African-American , an immigrant , you can go anywhere in this state , you just need to be conservative , not liberal.
” In a couple days , Graham was buying time on Black radio stations for damage control to cover what was deemed an insult by Black people .
Although the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearings are once again putting Graham center stage , they also put the spotlight on his Achilles ’ heel : his hypocrisy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to flipping over to the Trump cause , but also his “ Use my words against me ” quote when his party denied Barack Obama the opportunity to even get a hearing for his Supreme Court nominee , Merrick Garland , in the last 10 months of his term .
Blacks see denying Obama the Garland nomination yet allowing Trump to place Barrett in Ruth Bader Ginsberg ’ s empty seat as not only hypocritical but racist to boot .
I like Harrison—although he ’ s no Bernie Sanders progressive , and most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last Democratic senator , the late Ernest “ Fritz ” Hollings .
I haven ’ t been personally involved in South Carolina Democratic Party politics , other than as a critic , in decades .
I met with Harrison and his staff along with the Rev .
Jesse Jackson last summer during the state party convention .
It was the first time that I had attended the convention in 35 years .
Nineteen eighty-eight was the first and last time I spoke at the State Convention—after Jackson had won the state presidential caucus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At the time , Blacks had no major role in the party leadership and our demand was for the chair of the party to be Black .
Our cry then was , “ If not now , when !
” Harrison and the progress in leadership , and his ability to run a campaign and get support from the party , grew from our grassroots efforts .
I only mention this because Harrison began the work of reaching out to many of the disinterested and often ignored factions early in the process .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ South Carolina , from former Governor Dick Riley to Fritz Hollings , shows that victory comes when the Democrats build a grass roots–based campaign , ignoring no one—as opposed to just spending money on media .
Still , Donald Trump is a powerful motivating force to get Black people to the polls .
Ironically , that ’ s what Trump and Obama have in common : their ability to motivate Black voters .
And that bodes well for Harrison .

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C olumbia, S.C. —Does Jaime Harrison really have a chance to unseat Lindsey Graham? Yes. But it won’t be easy—despite some current polls showing the race in a dead heat and Harrison raising money hand over fist.
In a hopeful mood, I’m curious to see how the state that introduced “interposition and nullification” to our ongoing racial strife, was the first to secede from the Union, and which remains the soul of the Confederacy handles sending two Black senators to Washington. I could be “just whistling Dixie” but here’s why Harrison beating Graham might be doable.
First, in this election year, one person makes all the difference for me and many others. That person is Donald Trump. I’m voting against him—and Harrison reaps the benefit.
Our BBQ restaurant, which shuttered in March and reopened in mid-June for take-out, sits across the street from the Richland County Administration Building housing the county election office. Since early voting began on October 5, lines have been around the block, with voters lining up early morning through late evening to cast their ballots. More From Kevin Alexander Gray Remembering Frank Watkins, Longtime Lieutenant to Jesse Jackson September 30, 2022 Smoking Meat, Hoping to Survive December 23, 2020 Tom Steyer’s South Carolina Support Isn’t Just About the Benjamins February 27, 2020
Most of the early voters I’ve seen have been Black. Despite efforts to protect voting by mail, most Black voters are choosing not to trust mail-in voting and are showing up in person at early voting spots across the state. Once inside, voters are taking about 10 minutes or less to cast their ballot—which suggests they’re voting a straight Democratic ticket.
I come to work early in the morning and voters are out waiting to vote. When they have to use the restroom (the county building has been pretty much closed since March), they walk across the street to us. They need water, and we’ve given it to them with the joking stipulation (OK, we’re kind of serious) that they come back and buy some barbeque. They need a place to park; park in our lot. Maybe early voting will help Harrison win—but it sure has helped our restaurant financially survive the Covid-19 pandemic.
To have a winnable chance, Harrison needs to come close to, match, or exceed Barack Obama’s 2008 or ’12 turnout numbers. In 2008, though losing the state to his Republican challenger, Obama garnered 862,449 votes—and 865,941 in his second go-round in 2012. Presently, there are over 1 million nonwhite registered voters in the state. Current Issue View our current issue
Record turnout along with an erosion of support for Graham is critical for Harrison. Graham’s vote totals from 2008 to 2014 show significant erosion of support among Republicans. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
In a way, Lindsey is running against Lindsey. Harrison and the Democrats have spent money on billboard ads using Graham’s negative comments against Trump as a weapon. Comments like: “He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” or “You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.” Or “We have to reject this demagoguery, and if we don’t reject Donald Trump, we’ve lost the moral authority…to govern this great nation.” Related Article Lindsey Graham Just ‘Committed a Crime in Plain Sight’ John Nichols
Over the previous weekend, Graham quipped in a debate forum with Harrison, “If you’re a young African-American, an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state, you just need to be conservative, not liberal.” In a couple days, Graham was buying time on Black radio stations for damage control to cover what was deemed an insult by Black people.
Although the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearings are once again putting Graham center stage, they also put the spotlight on his Achilles’ heel: his hypocrisy. Not just his hypocrisy as it relates to flipping over to the Trump cause, but also his “Use my words against me” quote when his party denied Barack Obama the opportunity to even get a hearing for his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in the last 10 months of his term. Blacks see denying Obama the Garland nomination yet allowing Trump to place Barrett in Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s empty seat as not only hypocritical but racist to boot.
I like Harrison—although he’s no Bernie Sanders progressive, and most likely he’ll govern like the last Democratic senator, the late Ernest “Fritz” Hollings.
I haven’t been personally involved in South Carolina Democratic Party politics, other than as a critic, in decades. I met with Harrison and his staff along with the Rev. Jesse Jackson last summer during the state party convention. It was the first time that I had attended the convention in 35 years. Nineteen eighty-eight was the first and last time I spoke at the State Convention—after Jackson had won the state presidential caucus carrying 64 percent of the delegates. At the time, Blacks had no major role in the party leadership and our demand was for the chair of the party to be Black. Our cry then was, “If not now, when!” Harrison and the progress in leadership, and his ability to run a campaign and get support from the party, grew from our grassroots efforts.
I only mention this because Harrison began the work of reaching out to many of the disinterested and often ignored factions early in the process. The history of winning Democratic candidates in South Carolina, from former Governor Dick Riley to Fritz Hollings, shows that victory comes when the Democrats build a grass roots–based campaign, ignoring no one—as opposed to just spending money on media.
Still, Donald Trump is a powerful motivating force to get Black people to the polls. Ironically, that’s what Trump and Obama have in common: their ability to motivate Black voters. And that bodes well for Harrison.


thenation--2020-10-20--Women’s Rights, No Strings Attached

Women’s Rights, No Strings Attached

Roe v. Wade allows women to have abortions without undue government restrictions .
Trump ’ s SCOTUS picks may change @ @

Women’s Rights, No Strings Attached
Women’s Rights, No Strings Attached
Roe v. Wade allows women to have abortions without undue government restrictions. Trump’s SCOTUS picks may change that.


thenation--2020-10-20--Trump Is Butchering Our Regulatory Infrastructure

In the frantic scramble toward November 3 , there ’ s a huge amount of Noise distorting the Signal .
There are the flashback-inducing idiotic “ lock her up !
” chants at Trump rallies , this time aimed at Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer—who was recently the target of a kidnapping plot hatched by pro-Trump militia members .
And there ’ s Trump ’ s chilling response , “ Lock ’ em all up , ” the “ all ” presumably being everyone in the political arena who doesn ’ t fall into lockstep with Trump ’ s worldview .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s “ troops to back him up ” and protect whatever “ victory ” an embattled No .
45 may try to declare before all the votes are counted .
And there ’ s Rudy Giuliani , who continues to disseminate whatever propaganda tidbits the Russian intelligence agencies care to send his way .
Now , more than ever , it ’ s crucial to filter out all this Noise .
For , if anything , the closer we get to the election , the faster the pace of real change in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump administration is doubling down on its assault on America ’ s regulatory infrastructure .
The New York Times recently reported on a crescendo of rules changes that lock into place weaker environmental , workplace safety , and transportation protections ; that eviscerate labor standards ; and that escalate Trump ’ s assault on the legal immigration process .
Want more from Sasha ?
Check out the first-ever Nation Festival featuring Sasha Abramsky alongside an extraordinary group of speakers .
Nov. 18-21 .
While it ’ s standard operating procedure for vulnerable incumbents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they still can , this administration has taken that practice to an extreme .
It is essentially bypassing the public-comments period required for major alterations to existing regulations and rapidly implementing fundamental regulatory changes without adequately studying their likely impact .
This isn ’ t just another power grab ; it ’ s a seriously dangerous approach to public policy .
For it breaks down existing protections—for example , on when dangerous liquefied natural gas can be transported through urban areas on the nation ’ s rail network—without putting in place properly thought-through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump Is Urging Republicans to Break the Law Not surprisingly , environmental groups as well as many state governments are horrified at this particular act of regulatory vandalism .
Fifteen states have sued to block the rule change , and , in a separate lawsuit , several environmental groups have also taken on the administration .
On immigration , over the past few weeks , US Citizenship and Immigration Services has been quietly toughening up regulations on who qualifies for cultural visitor visas and whether holders of Temporary Protected Status can in any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ put them on a path toward permanent residency .
Perhaps most perniciously , it is putting into place far harder financial eligibility requirements for who can sponsor immigrants .
This is in keeping with accelerated efforts in recent years to put in place de facto wealth tests for would-be immigrants .
Collectively , these regulatory changes are rewriting American immigration law without Congress giving its imprimatur .
Meanwhile , attempts to use the Census to dilute the political and economic clout of immigrants continue apace .
Shortly after the election , the Supreme @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s efforts to factor out undocumented immigrants when calculating the apportionment of congressional districts , which will also affect the amount of economic assistance the federal government gives to counties and states .
Since the court has already ruled that the Census can not ask respondents about their legal status , it ’ s not clear how Team Trump intends to estimate these numbers ; but what is clear is that , however they do so , this is a power grab intended to reduce the size of congressional delegations from California @ @ @ @ @ @ @ big liberal states , and to limit the flow of federal dollars to immigrant-friendly parts of the country .
There are two weeks to go until Election Day , and it ’ s a fair bet that every one of those 14 days will feature Trumpian disinformation , misinformation , and one shameless power grab layered atop the next .
There will be a whole lot of white noise out there too , largely intended to enrage , to push liberal buttons while camouflaging what ’ s really going on .
Tune it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And in your discussions with friends , family , and colleagues , make sure that they too filter out the distractions .
Person by person , vote by vote , state by state , it is time to put this great democracy back on its feet once again .

In the frantic scramble toward November 3, there’s a huge amount of Noise distorting the Signal. There are the flashback-inducing idiotic “lock her up!” chants at Trump rallies, this time aimed at Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer—who was recently the target of a kidnapping plot hatched by pro-Trump militia members. And there’s Trump’s chilling response, “Lock ’em all up,” the “all” presumably being everyone in the political arena who doesn’t fall into lockstep with Trump’s worldview. There’s Steve Bannon urging Trump’s “troops to back him up” and protect whatever “victory” an embattled No. 45 may try to declare before all the votes are counted. And there’s Rudy Giuliani, who continues to disseminate whatever propaganda tidbits the Russian intelligence agencies care to send his way.
Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to filter out all this Noise. For, if anything, the closer we get to the election, the faster the pace of real change in the political arena will be. The Trump administration is doubling down on its assault on America’s regulatory infrastructure. The New York Times recently reported on a crescendo of rules changes that lock into place weaker environmental, workplace safety, and transportation protections; that eviscerate labor standards; and that escalate Trump’s assault on the legal immigration process. Want more from Sasha? Check out the first-ever Nation Festival featuring Sasha Abramsky alongside an extraordinary group of speakers. Nov. 18-21.
While it’s standard operating procedure for vulnerable incumbents to try to secure their agenda while they still can, this administration has taken that practice to an extreme. It is essentially bypassing the public-comments period required for major alterations to existing regulations and rapidly implementing fundamental regulatory changes without adequately studying their likely impact.
This isn’t just another power grab; it’s a seriously dangerous approach to public policy. For it breaks down existing protections—for example, on when dangerous liquefied natural gas can be transported through urban areas on the nation’s rail network—without putting in place properly thought-through safeguards in case things go wrong. More Signal:Noise Trump Is Urging Republicans to Break the Law Sasha Abramsky Trump Deploys the Strongman’s Playbook Sasha Abramsky
Not surprisingly, environmental groups as well as many state governments are horrified at this particular act of regulatory vandalism. Fifteen states have sued to block the rule change, and, in a separate lawsuit, several environmental groups have also taken on the administration.
On immigration, over the past few weeks, US Citizenship and Immigration Services has been quietly toughening up regulations on who qualifies for cultural visitor visas and whether holders of Temporary Protected Status can in any circumstances get an adjustment of status to put them on a path toward permanent residency. Perhaps most perniciously, it is putting into place far harder financial eligibility requirements for who can sponsor immigrants. This is in keeping with accelerated efforts in recent years to put in place de facto wealth tests for would-be immigrants. Collectively, these regulatory changes are rewriting American immigration law without Congress giving its imprimatur.
Meanwhile, attempts to use the Census to dilute the political and economic clout of immigrants continue apace. Shortly after the election, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the administration’s efforts to factor out undocumented immigrants when calculating the apportionment of congressional districts, which will also affect the amount of economic assistance the federal government gives to counties and states. Since the court has already ruled that the Census cannot ask respondents about their legal status, it’s not clear how Team Trump intends to estimate these numbers; but what is clear is that, however they do so, this is a power grab intended to reduce the size of congressional delegations from California, New York, and several other big liberal states, and to limit the flow of federal dollars to immigrant-friendly parts of the country.
There are two weeks to go until Election Day, and it’s a fair bet that every one of those 14 days will feature Trumpian disinformation, misinformation, and one shameless power grab layered atop the next. There will be a whole lot of white noise out there too, largely intended to enrage, to push liberal buttons while camouflaging what’s really going on. Tune it out. Focus on the important stuff. And in your discussions with friends, family, and colleagues, make sure that they too filter out the distractions.
Person by person, vote by vote, state by state, it is time to put this great democracy back on its feet once again.


thenation--2020-10-20--Why Are People Watching Less Sports?

Why Are People Watching Less Sports?

This week we speak to Jane McManus , New York Daily News sports columnist and director of the Center for Sports Communication at Marist College .
We talk about a new survey from Marist College on recent sports viewership .
We dive into theories on why there has been a drop in sports viewers since the pandemic as well as the broader American sports world ’ s response to the virus and why it ’ s been found to be lacking .
We also have Choice Words about the NBA ’ s Bubble , the effectiveness of it , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In addition , we have Just Stand Up and Just Sit Down awards to the legendary John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the anniversary of their iconic protest at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico , and the Tennessee Titans for their irresponsible behavior in the wake of large scale coronavirus diagnoses on the team .
All this and more on this week ’ s show !
Want more from Dave ?
Check out the first-ever Nation Festival featuring Dave Zirin alongside an extraordinary group of speakers .
Nov. 18-21 .
Jane McManus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ return , we first need to have a healthy society , NY Daily News

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This week we speak to Jane McManus, New York Daily News sports columnist and director of the Center for Sports Communication at Marist College. We talk about a new survey from Marist College on recent sports viewership. We dive into theories on why there has been a drop in sports viewers since the pandemic as well as the broader American sports world’s response to the virus and why it’s been found to be lacking.
We also have Choice Words about the NBA’s Bubble, the effectiveness of it, as well as its impact on protest. In addition, we have Just Stand Up and Just Sit Down awards to the legendary John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the anniversary of their iconic protest at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico, and the Tennessee Titans for their irresponsible behavior in the wake of large scale coronavirus diagnoses on the team. All this and more on this week’s show! Want more from Dave? Check out the first-ever Nation Festival featuring Dave Zirin alongside an extraordinary group of speakers. Nov. 18-21.
Jane McManus
Twitter: @JaneSports
For sports to return, we first need to have a healthy society, NY Daily News
Zirin
NBA Bubble Postmortem


thenation--2020-10-20--First-Time Voters Want to Have a Say in Our Country’s Future

The ongoing struggle for racial justice .
The future for immigrant families .
The health and well-being of all Americans .
The very fate of our fragile planet .
The US faces a crossroads in this year ’ s elections .
Seeking out the stories flying under the national radar , The Nation and Magnum Foundation are partnering on What ’ s At Stake , a series of photo essays from across the country through the lenses of independent imagemakers .
Follow the whole series here .
It ’ s been a rough few years to be a young person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who were too young to vote in 2016 , we ’ ve had to live through the administration of a president that none of us chose as it inflamed racial tensions , backed out of climate accords , and undid protections for queer and trans people .
For the millions of first-time voters this year , this election is about more than picking the next president ; it ’ s about staking a claim on the future of this country .
I know this story well , because it ’ s my own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trayvon Martin was murdered in 2012 , and his death and its aftermath , more than anything else , taught what it means to be Black in America .
Almost a decade later , I am now in college but I am still witnessing the very same prejudices leading to the murders of black people .
As the youngest of five Black women in my family , my mother and sisters always taught me to value my identity , and to fight for those like me .
First-time voters of color like me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of work , but regardless of who wins the presidency , we ’ ll need to keep fighting for the prosperity and justice we believe is our right .
My fellow first-time voters are the workers at your local grocery store , they are your neighbors , they are the students at your small-town high school classroom .
In my years of participation in social justice work in the New York area , I ’ ve met countless young people making an impact on their communities , and got to know the issues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comes to a head , I reached out to some of them , to hear what they are prioritizing in this election , and in the coming years .
Ashley Mcharris and Kayla Medeiros are both 19 , and they ’ re also best friends .
They chose to study criminal justice and political science to address the wrongs they ’ ve seen in their lives .
“ We ’ re taking things into our own hands and finding power in the ways that we know how .
We ’ re working with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says Mcharris .
“ You can see the passion and the fire among the people our age and we don ’ t have nearly as much complacency as our parents did .
We can ’ t stand by and watch our friends go through something and not demand a change.
” The rise of social media has only accelerated political participation among young people , certainly , but this newfound awareness is not just a trend : For many young people , it is a matter of life and death for them and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There ’ s a lot that we can try to do but we ’ re also not the ones with the resources , and the legislative power to do things .
The fact that we can ’ t hold the adults already there accountable for the systems that oppress us is quite unbelievable.
” Medeiros says .
Kiana ( Keys ) Le ’ che , a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan , also feels a disconnect between the challenges the country faces and what she sees as her own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wants to make a mark in the ways she can .
“ Although I ’ m a business major , I ’ ve always dabbled with the art students as vice president of BSU [ Black Student Union ] , ” Le ’ che told me , standing in front of a mural she organized to be created on the corner of 27th Street and Seventh Avenue .
“ I created the mural in July , to pay tribute to George Floyd , Breonna Taylor , and Oluwatoyin Salau .
We wanted to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while also empowering those in the Black community.
” Although she ’ s not yet old enough to vote , New Jersey resident Diana Sinclair is not waiting to make a difference .
At 16 , Sinclair is a photographer , designer , and social media manager of @ towards.utopia , a platform that raises funds to support Black trans young people and sex workers .
“ Working with Towards Utopia has been a great way to use my time , ” she told me .
“ We ’ ve raised $ 15,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ directly help fund the feeding and housing of Black trans people so they can get from point A to point B safely.
” Fresh out of college , Annie Lian is 21 and trying to make it on her own in New York City .
Growing up on Long Island , Lian would come to Manhattan ’ s Chinatown with her family , and continues to love the vibrancy of that community .
Discussing the impact of the current election on residents of Chinatown , Lian says , “ There ’ s been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been president , especially in the past year .
Overall , it ’ s my belief we need to be more accepting of immigrants coming into this country .
Families shouldn ’ t be separated.
” It has always been a place of community , care , and acceptance to Lian and she fears the discrimination will worsen if Republicans remain in power .
Sitting on her childhood stoop in Harlem , Amaya Hemmingway , 18 , reflects on the identity she ’ s grown to take pride in .
After growing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rochester when she was older , and was the only person of color in her entire school .
“ It was a huge cultural shock .
I faced racial discrimination from students and teachers alike.
” After her experiences in Rochester , she decided to become a voice for the discriminated against .
“ These are my people .
I look just like them .
When I ’ m in diverse areas like these , I feel like home.
” says Hemmingway .
With her first vote , she hopes the future of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to feel at home .
My first cousin Mi-Emy Howard says , “ The resurgence and uprising of white supremacy in this country , encouraged by the president , is a very scary thing to live with especially as a young Black man.
” Sitting on our grandparents ’ lawn , he told me , “ I am hoping to change the person in the highest office with my vote.
” That ’ s what I ’ ll be doing on November 3 as well , trying to make a change in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m voting for the first time in what feels like the most crucial election in many years .
I am looking forward to casting my ballot , but I am also afraid that I may not reap the benefits of true political and economic freedom in my lifetime until Black people can sleep peacefully in their beds , or jog down the streets of their neighborhoods .
The future of politics won ’ t be determined just by who is in the White House—though that will have a big impact .
It will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the young people who are just now coming into the political arena .

The ongoing struggle for racial justice. The future for immigrant families. The health and well-being of all Americans. The very fate of our fragile planet. The US faces a crossroads in this year’s elections. Seeking out the stories flying under the national radar, The Nation and Magnum Foundation are partnering on What’s At Stake, a series of photo essays from across the country through the lenses of independent imagemakers. Follow the whole series here. This installment was produced with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
It’s been a rough few years to be a young person in America. For those of us who were too young to vote in 2016, we’ve had to live through the administration of a president that none of us chose as it inflamed racial tensions, backed out of climate accords, and undid protections for queer and trans people. For the millions of first-time voters this year, this election is about more than picking the next president; it’s about staking a claim on the future of this country.
I know this story well, because it’s my own: I was 11 years old when Trayvon Martin was murdered in 2012, and his death and its aftermath, more than anything else, taught what it means to be Black in America. Almost a decade later, I am now in college but I am still witnessing the very same prejudices leading to the murders of black people. As the youngest of five Black women in my family, my mother and sisters always taught me to value my identity, and to fight for those like me. First-time voters of color like me know that this election could undo years of work, but regardless of who wins the presidency, we’ll need to keep fighting for the prosperity and justice we believe is our right.
My fellow first-time voters are the workers at your local grocery store, they are your neighbors, they are the students at your small-town high school classroom. In my years of participation in social justice work in the New York area, I’ve met countless young people making an impact on their communities, and got to know the issues they care about. As this election comes to a head, I reached out to some of them, to hear what they are prioritizing in this election, and in the coming years.
Ashley Mcharris and Kayla Medeiros are both 19, and they’re also best friends. They chose to study criminal justice and political science to address the wrongs they’ve seen in their lives. “We’re taking things into our own hands and finding power in the ways that we know how. We’re working with what we’ve got,” says Mcharris. “You can see the passion and the fire among the people our age and we don’t have nearly as much complacency as our parents did. We can’t stand by and watch our friends go through something and not demand a change.” The rise of social media has only accelerated political participation among young people, certainly, but this newfound awareness is not just a trend: For many young people, it is a matter of life and death for them and the people in their communities. “There’s a lot that we can try to do but we’re also not the ones with the resources, and the legislative power to do things. The fact that we can’t hold the adults already there accountable for the systems that oppress us is quite unbelievable.” Medeiros says.
Kiana (Keys) Le’che, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, also feels a disconnect between the challenges the country faces and what she sees as her own ability to make a difference—but she still wants to make a mark in the ways she can. “Although I’m a business major, I’ve always dabbled with the art students as vice president of BSU [Black Student Union],” Le’che told me, standing in front of a mural she organized to be created on the corner of 27th Street and Seventh Avenue. “I created the mural in July, to pay tribute to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Oluwatoyin Salau. We wanted to make the public know how we feel while also empowering those in the Black community.”
Although she’s not yet old enough to vote, New Jersey resident Diana Sinclair is not waiting to make a difference. At 16, Sinclair is a photographer, designer, and social media manager of @towards.utopia, a platform that raises funds to support Black trans young people and sex workers. “Working with Towards Utopia has been a great way to use my time,” she told me. “We’ve raised $15,000 by selling prints as a way to directly help fund the feeding and housing of Black trans people so they can get from point A to point B safely.”
Fresh out of college, Annie Lian is 21 and trying to make it on her own in New York City. Growing up on Long Island, Lian would come to Manhattan’s Chinatown with her family, and continues to love the vibrancy of that community. Discussing the impact of the current election on residents of Chinatown, Lian says, “There’s been a rampant increase in racism since Trump has been president, especially in the past year. Overall, it’s my belief we need to be more accepting of immigrants coming into this country. Families shouldn’t be separated.” It has always been a place of community, care, and acceptance to Lian and she fears the discrimination will worsen if Republicans remain in power.
Sitting on her childhood stoop in Harlem, Amaya Hemmingway, 18, reflects on the identity she’s grown to take pride in. After growing up in Harlem, Hemingway moved to Rochester when she was older, and was the only person of color in her entire school. “It was a huge cultural shock. I faced racial discrimination from students and teachers alike.” After her experiences in Rochester, she decided to become a voice for the discriminated against. “These are my people. I look just like them. When I’m in diverse areas like these, I feel like home.” says Hemmingway. With her first vote, she hopes the future of politics will allow individuals of all communities to feel at home.
My first cousin Mi-Emy Howard says, “The resurgence and uprising of white supremacy in this country, encouraged by the president, is a very scary thing to live with especially as a young Black man.” Sitting on our grandparents’ lawn, he told me, “I am hoping to change the person in the highest office with my vote.”
That’s what I’ll be doing on November 3 as well, trying to make a change in the direction of the country. I’m voting for the first time in what feels like the most crucial election in many years. I am looking forward to casting my ballot, but I am also afraid that I may not reap the benefits of true political and economic freedom in my lifetime until Black people can sleep peacefully in their beds, or jog down the streets of their neighborhoods. The future of politics won’t be determined just by who is in the White House—though that will have a big impact. It will depend on the activism and action of the young people who are just now coming into the political arena.


Baseball’s Race Problem

Roger Angell , who turned 100 in this year of pandemic and upheaval , is one of the best and most beloved writers on baseball , in large part because of his lyrical , sinewy prose .
Over the decades , he has cogently analyzed the “ summer game ” and its importance to American life .
Baseball , he wrote , boasts “ the most enviable corporate image in the world.
” Its evocations , overtones , and loyalties , firmly planted in the mind of every American male during childhood and nurtured thereafter by millions of words of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unassailable .
It is the national pastime .
It is youth , springtime , a trip to the country , part of our past .
It is the roaring excitement of huge urban crowds and the sleepy green afternoon silences of midsummer.1 Without effort , it engenders and thrives on heroes , legends , self-identification , and hometown pride.2 Yet even as far back as 1964 , when Angell wrote those words , he knew that this bucolic corporate image had been smudged and distorted by exploding television revenues and the owners ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for their teams .
The brusque departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants for the West Coast seven years before , he wrote , left those teams ’ fans bereft and with “ the new knowledge that baseball ’ s executives cared only for the profits inherent in novelty and new audiences , and sensed no obligation whatever…to the fans who had built their business.
” Still , because much of the American psyche was for so long tethered to baseball , the game remained at the very least a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Whether you liked baseball or not , you at least knew what it was , how it was played ( three strikes , etc . )
, what it represented , who its stars were .
And how you related to it ( or didn ’ t ) still connected you to a part of the country ’ s soul .
Despite more shifts of franchises and players from one city to another , despite Astroturf , cocaine , collusion , strikes , steroids , Pete Rose ’ s gambling bug , Al @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tackle football ’ s all but total conquest of America ’ s athletic dream life , baseball endured .
If none of those could kill the grand old game , it can certainly withstand a mutilated regular season with cardboard cutouts in the stands instead of people.4 What was also telling in 1964 was that the racial integration of baseball that the owners had fought—even after Jackie Robinson first took the field for the Dodgers in 1947—had altered more than just major league rosters .
Black players brought to major league ball a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that hadn ’ t been prevalent since the early 20th century , before Babe Ruth went to the New York Yankees in 1920 and inaugurated the boom , so to speak , of home-run appeal .
The contrast between 1964 ’ s National League pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals , with their roster of slick , speedy , and strong Black stars like Bob Gibson , Lou Brock , and Curt Flood , and their American League counterparts , the once-mighty and soon-to-decline New York Yankees , with an aging roster that featured Mickey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ford , demonstrated how far the AL still lagged the senior circuit in signing African Americans .
( The Cards won a tough seven-game World Series , with Gibson ’ s gritty pitching sealing the deciding game . )
5 Today , more than half a century after Black Americans helped reenergize the sport , baseball once again has a color problem : a steep decline of African American interest and participation in the game .
The trend was most trenchantly detailed in a 2015 visual essay for HBO ’ s muckraking Real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ argued that such problems have their roots precisely among the nuances , subtleties , and grace notes nostalgically exalted by the Roger Angells of the world .
Rock is a middle-aged New York Mets fan , as am I .
And as 50-and-over Black baseball fans , we are in no way happy with—but also in no way surprised by—the difficulties that baseball has connecting with younger fans , Black and white.6 “ Baseball , ” Rock said , “ wants everything to stay the way things used to be .
But the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ game is slower than ever… .
It ’ s old-fashioned and stuck in the past… .
[ It ’ s ] the only game where there ’ s a right way to play the game : the white way .
The way it was played a hundred years ago , when only whites were allowed to play.
” 7 When Rock ’ s Real Sports essay first aired , the percentage of Black Americans in major league baseball had fallen from its 1981 peak of roughly 18.7 percent to just 8.0 .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s birth , the figure was about 7.8 percent—and by some pessimists ’ reckoning , still dropping .
I can ’ t speak for Rock here , but if you believe , as I do , that the sport of baseball , while not always deserving of the secular worship it often draws from lifelong supplicants , should remain a vital American connection fusing generation to generation , creed to creed , and neighborhood to neighborhood , then it should alarm you as much as it does me that , according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ percent of collegiate baseball players are African American.8 Most players of color coming up through the minors and colleges are from Latin American powers like the Dominican Republic , Cuba , and Peru .
Some of those players are recruited to play for baseball teams at historically Black colleges and universities .
The rest of those HBCU baseball teams are predominantly—even overwhelmingly—white .
A 2019 New York Times story focused on Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach , Fla. , an HBCU with just four African American players among the 28 people on its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sometimes no Black players are on the starting roster when the team plays other HBCUs in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference .
Howard University , the alma mater of Thurgood Marshall , Toni Morrison , Vernon Jordan , Sean Combs , and Kamala Harris , dropped the sport in 2002 , though that was more because the school lacked the proper facilities .
Howard still fields a lacrosse team , but baseball hasn ’ t returned—and there doesn ’ t appear to be much of an outcry for it on campus.9 Change Comes to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Booker Still Running For President ?
“ At least I haven ’ t heard of any , ” says Gary Williams , a Howard alum who was the sports director of the school ’ s student-run radio station , WHBC-FM , in the mid-1980s .
He is now an announcer for sports events at Baltimore ’ s Coppin State University , whose baseball program is “ good and thriving , ” with a roster that he says is roughly half African American and half white or Latino .
So things may not be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the decline in Black America ’ s interest remains unlikely to be reversed anytime soon.10 “ It ’ s not the money , ” Rock says .
“ You can ’ t tell me Black kids can ’ t afford baseball when everybody ’ s buying Jordans [ basketball shoes ] for $ 300 .
That ’ s six gloves right there !
” 11 ( Well , actually , Chris , an aluminum bat can cost as much as $ 350 , and a decent to good glove can run @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as many active and retired Black American players can tell you , if a child qualifies for a traveling youth team that can provide valuable experience for playing as an adult , the costs involved can run into the thousands .
We good ?
Let ’ s move on . )
12 Being an entertainer , Rock identifies much of the problem with what he sees as anachronisms in presentation .
“ You got cheesy old organ music at the games .
I mean , where ’ s the Beats by Dre ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ point .
I went to a San Francisco 49ers game last fall , and instead of a brass band or organ , there was a DJ working up the crowd with his turntables and speakers along with the cheerleaders at Levi ’ s Stadium .
So 21st century ! )
Also , as with other critics of baseball as it is played now , Rock thinks the games can take too long , and he ’ s right , with innings lengthened by shifting lineups , pitching changes , and the relatively new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of base running or fielding plays—not , thank the baseball gods , balls and strikes , not yet , anyway.13 Major League Baseball has been trying to address its timing issues by experimenting with pitch clocks that give a pitcher 20 seconds to throw , which are already used in the minor leagues and college baseball to speed up the pace .
The major leagues tried them during spring training a year ago but balked , as it were , at mandating them unilaterally .
There ’ s even been loose talk by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shortening the game from nine to seven innings , meaning that games on average “ would finish closer to two-and-a-half hours than three hours or longer , ” he told ESPN , and thus would be a “ better fit for the common attention span.
” 14 Maybe .
But picking up the pace is , as far as I ’ m concerned , the least of baseball ’ s immediate worries .
There ’ s also showmanship , bravado ; consider the hip-hoppers ’ idea of cool , as opposed to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t know , and those who know don ’ t show , ” as embodied by , say , Miles Davis or Steve McQueen .
My taste favors the latter version , which is why I ’ ve never been partial to showboating football players who turn every touchdown into performance art .
But if flourishes at the plate and on the basepaths are what get the kids hyped , then I ’ m with Rock when he disses the code of never showing outward or excessive exuberance after hitting a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a ball thrown at your head as payback.15 It ’ s not rocket science why black parents with athletically gifted children steer them to basketball and football .
In the deathless words of the late TV sports impresario Don Ohlmeyer , “ The answer to all your questions is money.
” In the wonderland that is American pro sports , basketball rules in terms of player income , according to the most recent available figures , with the average National Basketball Association salary about $ 8.3 million per year .
The MLB , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own among the rest , with its average player salary coming in at about $ 4 million .
The National Football League , considered the 800-pound gorilla of American sports , has an average salary of about $ 3.6 million.16 But surely much of the appeal of basketball and football is the room they allow for self-expression .
Even in the quasi-fascist , polyethylene-armored venue of tackle football , kids are indulged in the process of Being Themselves within the parameters of accepted behavior .
If flipping the bat like a circus juggler @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after taking one downtown , then it seems a relatively minor concession when compared with shaving off another generation of potential Black or non-Black players and fans.17 Clarence Carter III , a Bethune-Cookman player , alluded to such unofficial but sanctioned behavioral norms when he told the Times , “ If people could just accept us more in this sport , if they let us express ourselves—not in a disrespectful way—but just learn to accept how we actually play we will come out of our shell and start picking up the bats again.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ racial integration of the major leagues that began with Robinson helped nudge the sport back to its pre-Ruthian emphasis on base stealing , slick fielding , and other small-ball tactics , then what would it hurt for the big leagues to update the old Negro Leagues ’ emphasis on stagecraft ?
Shadow ball , say , when players pantomimed warming up with an invisible baseball.19 I know a lot of hard-core baseball fans who blame the grand sonorities of Ken Burns ’ s 1994 megadocumentary series Baseball for making the game seem even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ younger fans .
But when I listen to the colorful , almost Joycean patter of Buck O ’ Neil , a veteran and sage of the Negro Leagues , as he recounts at the end of the series ’ fifth installment the fateful bottom-of-the-ninth meeting between pitcher Satchel Paige and batter Josh Gibson , twin towers of Negro League history , in the 1942 Negro World Series between Paige ’ s Kansas City Monarchs and Gibson ’ s Homestead Greys , I think that it wouldn ’ t be the worst thing for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Paige ’ s outrageous decision to load the bases for the powerful Gibson , followed by his big , broad show of chugging down a foaming glass of seltzer before hurling the first of three strikes to his friendly rival.20 You ’ d need to figure out how best to go about staging such set pieces for a generation that takes its cues from Drake , Chance the Rapper , and Kendrick Lamar , which might mean finding rappers and others in the business willing to apply their craft and imaginations to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Haynes Jr. , formerly of St. Louis , didn ’ t play with the Cardinals , but he did flash some leather with the city ’ s amateur baseball association and remains a devoted fan of the sport .
You could at least start with him.21 At a time when the media has been paying greater attention to race—and when even the mainstream press now uses the term “ systemic racism ” —Black culture still sets the table for what young people think is hip and happening .
The post–George Floyd surge of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ involves more and younger white people , should offer baseball an even bigger incentive to amp up its ties to Black America.22 That baseball players , many of them white , were recently seen to kneel before ( not during ) the national anthem in solidarity with the BLM protests is a promising sign .
At this point , it ’ s only a sign .
But the overall response so far is a whole lot better than what Bruce Maxwell , a biracial catcher , faced in 2017 , when he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knee during ( not before ) the national anthem while playing for the Oakland Athletics , not far from where 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first made a similar gesture of protest .
Maxwell sustained death threats , racial epithets , and emotional stress severe enough to cause him to contemplate suicide .
After playing in the Mexican League and restoring his shattered confidence , Maxwell is back in major league baseball with the Mets.23 The work of connecting with younger fans begins by acknowledging just how much younger .
The average major league @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with only 29 percent of fans in that much-coveted ( by advertisers ) 18-to-34 demographic—the same age bracket that encompasses most active ballplayers .
In a summer when Covid-19 turned athletic contests into live TV shows without live audiences , the biggest baseball stories for older fans like me were the deaths of pitching greats Bob Gibson and Tom Seaver , along with that of Gibson ’ s teammate and peerless base runner Lou Brock in September.24 Seaver and Brock were contemporaries in the 1960s and ’ 70s whose exploits for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ became embedded in the memories of those growing up with the game in those years .
Reliving those memories , augmented by YouTube clips and social media tributes , provided the kind of release from worry and ennui that the present-day games were supposed to give us .
Whatever the current Mets and Cardinals were doing , somehow it didn ’ t seem to mean as much in the present time , especially when it remains uncertain whether this year ’ s World Series , planned to start October 20 , will go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surge of coronavirus cases.25 Even if it does , some of us oldsters will likely go to bed before those games end if , as seems likely , the networks maintain their prime-time playoff series schedules .
The prevalence of nighttime baseball on television , beginning as far back as the 1970s , helped lose a couple of generations of kids .
Think of the teens ( and younger ) who couldn ’ t hang out in front of the tube late enough to see some of the greatest baseball games of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comeback of the Boston Red Sox over the Yankees ( and their teams ’ respective histories ) in the 2004 American League Championship Series or the marathon everything-but-the-kitchen-sink seventh game of the 2016 World Series , when the Chicago Cubs ended their century-plus championship drought .
Maybe they wouldn ’ t all have become committed fans of the game from such exposure .
But that doesn ’ t mean the MLB shouldn ’ t try to find a way to start its prime-time games earlier in the day.26 Think of the all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and even fifty- to seventysomethings you might catch in your TV webs ( in Variety-speak ) if you regularly aired those games during Eastern Time happy hours .
Great games and great teams raise baseball ’ s profile on their own , even spur revivals in interest .
But they need to be seen and experienced as they happen , not just in game highlights served for early morning TV like cold pizza.27 Baseball , along with the rest of us , has a lot to deal with in the anxious present @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of confirmed Covid-19 cases among players and tests for all the others .
But what also occurs to me , at least , is that the constricted nature of this 2020 season might goad the MLB and its TV enablers to consider that not all games—and especially playoff series—have to be aimed solely at a prime-time viewership.28 Games in broad daylight might not seem so risky or esoteric a prospect , especially in a post-Covid economy that will almost certainly be transformed beyond immediate recognition .
The rhythm of daily life could once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weekday baseball in the afternoons more often than national holidays because—maybe—we will once again find ourselves needing the grace of baseball , with all the poetry , brashness , complexity , and above all , personality of America as we want desperately to believe it to be.29 If we must have home-run derbies , celebrity softball , and DJs to goose the ratings , so be it .
I ’ d also settle for a regular diet of shadow ball , please .
The legacy of the Negro Leagues , born the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be honored enough.30

This article appears in the November 2/9, 2020 issue.
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Roger Angell, who turned 100 in this year of pandemic and upheaval, is one of the best and most beloved writers on baseball, in large part because of his lyrical, sinewy prose. Over the decades, he has cogently analyzed the “summer game” and its importance to American life. Baseball, he wrote, boasts “the most enviable corporate image in the world.” Its evocations, overtones, and loyalties, firmly planted in the mind of every American male during childhood and nurtured thereafter by millions of words of free newspaper publicity, appear to be unassailable. It is the national pastime. It is youth, springtime, a trip to the country, part of our past. It is the roaring excitement of huge urban crowds and the sleepy green afternoon silences of midsummer.1
Without effort, it engenders and thrives on heroes, legends, self-identification, and hometown pride.2
Yet even as far back as 1964, when Angell wrote those words, he knew that this bucolic corporate image had been smudged and distorted by exploding television revenues and the owners’ avarice for newer, more profitable locations for their teams. The brusque departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants for the West Coast seven years before, he wrote, left those teams’ fans bereft and with “the new knowledge that baseball’s executives cared only for the profits inherent in novelty and new audiences, and sensed no obligation whatever…to the fans who had built their business.” Still, because much of the American psyche was for so long tethered to baseball, the game remained at the very least a symbol of national continuity, even consensus.3
Whether you liked baseball or not, you at least knew what it was, how it was played (three strikes, etc.), what it represented, who its stars were. And how you related to it (or didn’t) still connected you to a part of the country’s soul. Despite more shifts of franchises and players from one city to another, despite Astroturf, cocaine, collusion, strikes, steroids, Pete Rose’s gambling bug, Al Campanis’s bigoted ramblings, and tackle football’s all but total conquest of America’s athletic dream life, baseball endured. If none of those could kill the grand old game, it can certainly withstand a mutilated regular season with cardboard cutouts in the stands instead of people.4
What was also telling in 1964 was that the racial integration of baseball that the owners had fought—even after Jackie Robinson first took the field for the Dodgers in 1947—had altered more than just major league rosters. Black players brought to major league ball a kind of base-running dynamism and defensive flair that hadn’t been prevalent since the early 20th century, before Babe Ruth went to the New York Yankees in 1920 and inaugurated the boom, so to speak, of home-run appeal. The contrast between 1964’s National League pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals, with their roster of slick, speedy, and strong Black stars like Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, and Curt Flood, and their American League counterparts, the once-mighty and soon-to-decline New York Yankees, with an aging roster that featured Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford, demonstrated how far the AL still lagged the senior circuit in signing African Americans. (The Cards won a tough seven-game World Series, with Gibson’s gritty pitching sealing the deciding game.)5 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Today, more than half a century after Black Americans helped reenergize the sport, baseball once again has a color problem: a steep decline of African American interest and participation in the game. The trend was most trenchantly detailed in a 2015 visual essay for HBO’s muckraking Real Sports by comedian Chris Rock, who argued that such problems have their roots precisely among the nuances, subtleties, and grace notes nostalgically exalted by the Roger Angells of the world. Rock is a middle-aged New York Mets fan, as am I. And as 50-and-over Black baseball fans, we are in no way happy with—but also in no way surprised by—the difficulties that baseball has connecting with younger fans, Black and white.6
“Baseball,” Rock said, “wants everything to stay the way things used to be. But the world has sped up, but the game is slower than ever…. It’s old-fashioned and stuck in the past…. [It’s] the only game where there’s a right way to play the game: the white way. The way it was played a hundred years ago, when only whites were allowed to play.”7 Current Issue View our current issue
When Rock’s Real Sports essay first aired, the percentage of Black Americans in major league baseball had fallen from its 1981 peak of roughly 18.7 percent to just 8.0. As of 2019, the centennial of Robinson’s birth, the figure was about 7.8 percent—and by some pessimists’ reckoning, still dropping. I can’t speak for Rock here, but if you believe, as I do, that the sport of baseball, while not always deserving of the secular worship it often draws from lifelong supplicants, should remain a vital American connection fusing generation to generation, creed to creed, and neighborhood to neighborhood, then it should alarm you as much as it does me that, according to NCAA statistics from 2018, only 4 percent of collegiate baseball players are African American.8
Most players of color coming up through the minors and colleges are from Latin American powers like the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Peru. Some of those players are recruited to play for baseball teams at historically Black colleges and universities. The rest of those HBCU baseball teams are predominantly—even overwhelmingly—white. A 2019 New York Times story focused on Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla., an HBCU with just four African American players among the 28 people on its team. According to the Times, sometimes no Black players are on the starting roster when the team plays other HBCUs in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Howard University, the alma mater of Thurgood Marshall, Toni Morrison, Vernon Jordan, Sean Combs, and Kamala Harris, dropped the sport in 2002, though that was more because the school lacked the proper facilities. Howard still fields a lacrosse team, but baseball hasn’t returned—and there doesn’t appear to be much of an outcry for it on campus.9 More From Gene Seymour The Monumental Improvisations of Sonny Rollins July 24, 2023 Philadelphia’s Next Mayor Will Almost Certainly Be a Black Woman May 18, 2023 Pick ’Em: Making Sense of the Free-for-All Primary for Mayor of Philadelphia April 26, 2023
“At least I haven’t heard of any,” says Gary Williams, a Howard alum who was the sports director of the school’s student-run radio station, WHBC-FM, in the mid-1980s. He is now an announcer for sports events at Baltimore’s Coppin State University, whose baseball program is “good and thriving,” with a roster that he says is roughly half African American and half white or Latino. So things may not be quite so dire in the HBCUs overall. But the decline in Black America’s interest remains unlikely to be reversed anytime soon.10
“It’s not the money,” Rock says. “You can’t tell me Black kids can’t afford baseball when everybody’s buying Jordans [basketball shoes] for $300. That’s six gloves right there!”11
(Well, actually, Chris, an aluminum bat can cost as much as $350, and a decent to good glove can run more than $400. Also, as many active and retired Black American players can tell you, if a child qualifies for a traveling youth team that can provide valuable experience for playing as an adult, the costs involved can run into the thousands. We good? Let’s move on.)12
Being an entertainer, Rock identifies much of the problem with what he sees as anachronisms in presentation. “You got cheesy old organ music at the games. I mean, where’s the Beats by Dre?” (He’s got a point. I went to a San Francisco 49ers game last fall, and instead of a brass band or organ, there was a DJ working up the crowd with his turntables and speakers along with the cheerleaders at Levi’s Stadium. So 21st century!) Also, as with other critics of baseball as it is played now, Rock thinks the games can take too long, and he’s right, with innings lengthened by shifting lineups, pitching changes, and the relatively new phenomenon of umpires convening to review videos of base running or fielding plays—not, thank the baseball gods, balls and strikes, not yet, anyway.13
Major League Baseball has been trying to address its timing issues by experimenting with pitch clocks that give a pitcher 20 seconds to throw, which are already used in the minor leagues and college baseball to speed up the pace. The major leagues tried them during spring training a year ago but balked, as it were, at mandating them unilaterally. There’s even been loose talk by at least one unidentified MLB executive of shortening the game from nine to seven innings, meaning that games on average “would finish closer to two-and-a-half hours than three hours or longer,” he told ESPN, and thus would be a “better fit for the common attention span.”14
Maybe. But picking up the pace is, as far as I’m concerned, the least of baseball’s immediate worries. There’s also showmanship, bravado; consider the hip-hoppers’ idea of cool, as opposed to the 1950s ethic of “those who show don’t know, and those who know don’t show,” as embodied by, say, Miles Davis or Steve McQueen. My taste favors the latter version, which is why I’ve never been partial to showboating football players who turn every touchdown into performance art. But if flourishes at the plate and on the basepaths are what get the kids hyped, then I’m with Rock when he disses the code of never showing outward or excessive exuberance after hitting a home run, for fear of getting a ball thrown at your head as payback.15
It’s not rocket science why black parents with athletically gifted children steer them to basketball and football. In the deathless words of the late TV sports impresario Don Ohlmeyer, “The answer to all your questions is money.” In the wonderland that is American pro sports, basketball rules in terms of player income, according to the most recent available figures, with the average National Basketball Association salary about $8.3 million per year. The MLB, however, seems to be holding its own among the rest, with its average player salary coming in at about $4 million. The National Football League, considered the 800-pound gorilla of American sports, has an average salary of about $3.6 million.16
But surely much of the appeal of basketball and football is the room they allow for self-expression. Even in the quasi-fascist, polyethylene-armored venue of tackle football, kids are indulged in the process of Being Themselves within the parameters of accepted behavior. If flipping the bat like a circus juggler is what a kid wants to do after taking one downtown, then it seems a relatively minor concession when compared with shaving off another generation of potential Black or non-Black players and fans.17
Clarence Carter III, a Bethune-Cookman player, alluded to such unofficial but sanctioned behavioral norms when he told the Times, “If people could just accept us more in this sport, if they let us express ourselves—not in a disrespectful way—but just learn to accept how we actually play we will come out of our shell and start picking up the bats again.”18
After all, if the racial integration of the major leagues that began with Robinson helped nudge the sport back to its pre-Ruthian emphasis on base stealing, slick fielding, and other small-ball tactics, then what would it hurt for the big leagues to update the old Negro Leagues’ emphasis on stagecraft? Shadow ball, say, when players pantomimed warming up with an invisible baseball.19
I know a lot of hard-core baseball fans who blame the grand sonorities of Ken Burns’s 1994 megadocumentary series Baseball for making the game seem even loftier and, thus, unreachable to younger fans. But when I listen to the colorful, almost Joycean patter of Buck O’Neil, a veteran and sage of the Negro Leagues, as he recounts at the end of the series’ fifth installment the fateful bottom-of-the-ninth meeting between pitcher Satchel Paige and batter Josh Gibson, twin towers of Negro League history, in the 1942 Negro World Series between Paige’s Kansas City Monarchs and Gibson’s Homestead Greys, I think that it wouldn’t be the worst thing for baseball to allow some contemporary correlatives to Paige’s outrageous decision to load the bases for the powerful Gibson, followed by his big, broad show of chugging down a foaming glass of seltzer before hurling the first of three strikes to his friendly rival.20
You’d need to figure out how best to go about staging such set pieces for a generation that takes its cues from Drake, Chance the Rapper, and Kendrick Lamar, which might mean finding rappers and others in the business willing to apply their craft and imaginations to the game. Nelly (aka Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., formerly of St. Louis, didn’t play with the Cardinals, but he did flash some leather with the city’s amateur baseball association and remains a devoted fan of the sport. You could at least start with him.21
At a time when the media has been paying greater attention to race—and when even the mainstream press now uses the term “systemic racism”—Black culture still sets the table for what young people think is hip and happening. The post–George Floyd surge of the Black Lives Matter movement, which involves more and younger white people, should offer baseball an even bigger incentive to amp up its ties to Black America.22
That baseball players, many of them white, were recently seen to kneel before (not during) the national anthem in solidarity with the BLM protests is a promising sign. At this point, it’s only a sign. But the overall response so far is a whole lot better than what Bruce Maxwell, a biracial catcher, faced in 2017, when he was the first major leaguer to take a knee during (not before) the national anthem while playing for the Oakland Athletics, not far from where 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first made a similar gesture of protest. Maxwell sustained death threats, racial epithets, and emotional stress severe enough to cause him to contemplate suicide. After playing in the Mexican League and restoring his shattered confidence, Maxwell is back in major league baseball with the Mets.23
The work of connecting with younger fans begins by acknowledging just how much younger. The average major league baseball fan now is 53 years old, with only 29 percent of fans in that much-coveted (by advertisers) 18-to-34 demographic—the same age bracket that encompasses most active ballplayers. In a summer when Covid-19 turned athletic contests into live TV shows without live audiences, the biggest baseball stories for older fans like me were the deaths of pitching greats Bob Gibson and Tom Seaver, along with that of Gibson’s teammate and peerless base runner Lou Brock in September.24
Seaver and Brock were contemporaries in the 1960s and ’70s whose exploits for the Mets and the Cardinals, respectively, became embedded in the memories of those growing up with the game in those years. Reliving those memories, augmented by YouTube clips and social media tributes, provided the kind of release from worry and ennui that the present-day games were supposed to give us. Whatever the current Mets and Cardinals were doing, somehow it didn’t seem to mean as much in the present time, especially when it remains uncertain whether this year’s World Series, planned to start October 20, will go ahead if there’s an autumn surge of coronavirus cases.25
Even if it does, some of us oldsters will likely go to bed before those games end if, as seems likely, the networks maintain their prime-time playoff series schedules. The prevalence of nighttime baseball on television, beginning as far back as the 1970s, helped lose a couple of generations of kids. Think of the teens (and younger) who couldn’t hang out in front of the tube late enough to see some of the greatest baseball games of the postmillennium, whether it was the rousing comeback of the Boston Red Sox over the Yankees (and their teams’ respective histories) in the 2004 American League Championship Series or the marathon everything-but-the-kitchen-sink seventh game of the 2016 World Series, when the Chicago Cubs ended their century-plus championship drought. Maybe they wouldn’t all have become committed fans of the game from such exposure. But that doesn’t mean the MLB shouldn’t try to find a way to start its prime-time games earlier in the day.26
Think of the all the teens and tweens, twenty- to thirtysomethings, and even fifty- to seventysomethings you might catch in your TV webs (in Variety-speak) if you regularly aired those games during Eastern Time happy hours. Great games and great teams raise baseball’s profile on their own, even spur revivals in interest. But they need to be seen and experienced as they happen, not just in game highlights served for early morning TV like cold pizza.27
Baseball, along with the rest of us, has a lot to deal with in the anxious present, mostly in trying to keep track of confirmed Covid-19 cases among players and tests for all the others. But what also occurs to me, at least, is that the constricted nature of this 2020 season might goad the MLB and its TV enablers to consider that not all games—and especially playoff series—have to be aimed solely at a prime-time viewership.28
Games in broad daylight might not seem so risky or esoteric a prospect, especially in a post-Covid economy that will almost certainly be transformed beyond immediate recognition. The rhythm of daily life could once again be stretched and adjusted to accommodate weekday baseball in the afternoons more often than national holidays because—maybe—we will once again find ourselves needing the grace of baseball, with all the poetry, brashness, complexity, and above all, personality of America as we want desperately to believe it to be.29
If we must have home-run derbies, celebrity softball, and DJs to goose the ratings, so be it. I’d also settle for a regular diet of shadow ball, please. The legacy of the Negro Leagues, born the same year as Roger Angell, can never be honored enough.30