Reggie Jackson on racism

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At one point, Eisen’s co-broadcaster jumps in and talks about hearing these stories growing up. At  about 8:09 Eisen responds, and says that for him Jackson’s words from that moment remind us that the past was ugly and it’s okay to bring it up.

I was sort of struck there by the fact that Eisen missed what his co-broadcaster was saying. His co-host was saying, I grew up hearing about this history–he was saying,  it was part of my upbringing to know that history (not just racism generally, but as per this discussion, the history of racism in baseball specifically). Eisen then responds by repeating that for him, the point is that it’s okay to discuss that history, and so Jackson’s words were important. I know what Eisen was doing–he was addressing the Maga tendency (but not just Maga) to say move on, racial conflict is over, and (to paraphrase the right-wing discourse) why are you being (wait for it wait for it the big word is coming…)…”divisive”. Okay. But at the same time…and it wasn’t this huge faux paux, just a “difference” that led to a missed moment. So while he was saying that absolutely yes people need to hear and talk about that history and that it’s valuable to do that, I also wanted him to add that at the same time some people–his co-host in this case–grew up knowing all about that history. But he didn’t even really hear that.

wv wrote:

, I’ve cringed plenty of times at the stuff the white-males have said (and ‘not said’) about race during the caitlin clark discussions.

Yeah, mainstream Caitlin Clark discussions are painful.

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