College Board, Thou Dost Protest Too Much (re: FL Ed Standards)

 Here's the news article that prompted this post: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/college-board-pushes-back-florida-work-group-member-likened-new-black-rcna97525

So it would seem that the good, pure-hearted folks at the College Board, creators of the SAT and CLEP and the ubiquitous Advanced Placement exams that high school students must pay $98 for to get college credit for their AP courses, don't like being linked in with the controversial new education standards in the great anti-woke state of Florida.

To review, Florida's African-American history curriculum now contains language saying "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." Frances Presley Rice, a member of the work group that devised these standards, defended them against backlash by suggested that "the highly-praised AP African American History course has nearly the exact language and sentiment as is in the text under question."

The College Board did not like this. They did not like it one bit. They disliked it so much that they knew they must put out a p. r. statement correcting this misinformation. Said statement reads:

“We are aware that some in Florida have reviewed the Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies framework and have suggested that the state’s recently approved middle school African American History standards align with our course requirements. We resolutely disagree with the notion that enslavement was in any way a beneficial, productive, or useful experience for African Americans. Unequivocally, slavery was an atrocity that cannot be justified by examples of African Americans’ agency and resistance during their enslavement.”

Well said. Well played. That settles it. 

Only one problem. If one looks at the actual wording of the AP framework as "adjusted" to meet the approval of Florida's "anti-woke" decision-makers in the past years, it reads as follows:

"In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South. Once free, African Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others."

Oops. True that it doesn't say the word "benefit." But the benefits of having been taught these skills (involuntarily, at the point of whips and guns) is the gist of this whole section.

Really, College Board. Enough with the Orwellian doublespeak. Your bi-ass is showing.

Race and the Indictment

 As the Blog title suggests, Race is never NOT a part of things in our society, so I take a moment to point out the race angle in the news of former President Trump's indictments on charges related to false claims of election fraud and unlawful attempts to subvert the will of the voters and remain in power.

1) Gini Thomas, white wife of Black U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, may well be "co-conspirator #6" as labelled in the indictment. The identity of the first five unnamed co-conspirators is fairly clear. The identity of #6 has became DC's favorite parlor game. Thomas fits the description of "political consultant" and is known to have been involved in efforts in Arizona to get the second set of "fake" electors loyal to Trump approved by state legislators there. So, what does that have to do with race? She's white, he's Black, he's anti-Affirmative Action, she preposterously claims that she never discusses her far-right-wing political activism with her husband. 'Nuff said.

2) Trump challenger Fla. governor Ron DeSantis reacted to the indictment by claiming that there is no way Trump can get a fair trial in the "swamp" of Washington, DC and its federal courts. "Washington, DC is a "swamp" and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality" https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-gop-challengers-have-very-different-reactions-jan-6-indictment-1816815

It just "so happens" that the District of Columbia is the ONLY state or territory in the continental United States where the majority of the population is African-American. Swamps are known to by stinky and sweaty and to be populated by slimy snakes, rats, alligators, snapping turtles, spiders, and the like. Connect the dots.

3) The reactions of the three African-American candidates for the GOP nominations: Based on the Newsweek link above, SC Sen. Tim Scott, the one of the 3 garnering the most attention and support, followed the Trump line of condemning the indictment as evidence of DOJ being "weaponized" to go after Biden's opponents. Former TX Rep. Will Hurd, on the other hand, was very anti-Trump in his reaction, condemning the former president's attempts to overturn the election and remain in power. The third Black candidate, talk radio host Larry Elder, said “We've seen a pattern of partisan prosecution and this is another example.” https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/2024-candidates-lawmakers-react-to-trump-indictment/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThis%20reaffirms%20the%20need%20for,office%20and%20end%20his%20campaign.%E2%80%9D&text=Other%20candidates%2C%20including%20Vivek%20Ramaswamy,and%20this%20is%20another%20example.%E2%80%9D

4) The judge that the trial has been assigned to, Tanya Chutkan, is Black. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said today on his podcast that "Judge Chutkan was appointed to the DC District Court by Barack Obama, and she has a reputation for being far left, even by DC District Court standards" https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-trump-jan-6-judge-tanya-chutkan-bias-confirmation-2023-8

So we have objection to the random draw of a Black woman judge, mentioning that she was appointed by our only Black president, and once again bringing up, like DeSantis did, DC as if our majority-Black nation's capital is hell on earth.

Re: Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town" song and video

 Funny there aren't any clips of George Floyd or Sandra Bland or Eric Garner or Philando Castile or Tamir Rice or Breonna Taylor or Ahmaud Arbory or Trayvon Martin--or of the actions of law enforcement in our nation's capital on June 1, 2020, or the actions of "patriots" against law enforcement on Jan. 6, 2021.

Observant Jew Digging Deep and Uncovering a Jewel

 Jeffrey Salkin hit the nail on the head late in the article linked here:

https://religionnews.com/2022/08/05/tisha-bav/

"For those of you who are fans of “Star Wars”: Luke Skywalker needed to understand the dark side of the force. America needs to understand the dark side of the American force — and that dark side has always been white supremacy and the hatred of the other."

Quote from Frederick Douglas

 When it was time to pick a quotation for my graduate student profile for the Virginia Tech sociology department webpage (https://liberalarts.vt.edu/departments-and-schools/department-of-sociology/sociology-graduate-students/Steven-McGlamery.html), I chose the following:

"[Slavery] has been called by a great many names, and it will call itself by yet another name; ... [we] had better wait and see what new form this old monster will assume, in what new skin this old snake will come forth next." --Frederick Douglass, May 1865

I had kind of assumed that this idea had been expressed some time later than in the immediate aftermath of emancipation--you know, how colonialism morphed into neocolonialism, slavery became convict labor and sharecropping, followed by ghettoization, segregation, mass incarceration (the "New Jim Crow" says Dr. Alexander), return to voter suppression, police intimidation and violence, etc.

I should have known that the white power structure, including academia, had once again marginalized and disregarded an important, prophetic voice of color.

Early black MLB players being thrown at

This is my first joint entry on my race and my baseball stats blogs!

Was looking at the cumulative stats for times hit by pitch (HBP) in the early years of black players in the historically white major leagues. (BTW, kudos to Major League Baseball for fully recognizing the "Negro Leagues" as "major leagues," and to baseball-reference.com for fully integrating the Negro League stats (such as they are) into their database.)

Using fangraphs.com, I looked at the stats from 1947-56 cumulative (1947 being, of course, the year the color line in major league baseball was crossed). Here's what I came up with for highest rates of being hit by pitch per Plate Appearances (PAs), minimum 1000 PAs for the range of years:

HBP    PAs   PAs/HBP  Player        Race
119    4598    38.64    M. Minoso    Black (Cuban)
032    1345    42.03    Fr. Robinson Black
080    3874    48.43    Sh. Lollar      white
053    2823    53.26    Sol Hemus    white
021    1246    59.33    T. Glaviano   white
028    1931    68.96    Luke Easter   Black
033    2352    71.27    F. Hatfield     white
080    5745    71.81    Nellie Fox     white
037    2712    73.30    Al Smith        Black
028    2167    77.39    C. Courtney   white
025    1975    79.00    Sam Jethroe    Black
072    5802    80.58    J. Robinson    Black

To clarify, this chart indicates that Minnie Minoso, for every 38 and 2/3s times he would step to the plate through 1955, it would end with him would be awarded first base due to being hit by a pitch.

So, we see that six of the 12 players most likely to be hit by a pitch during these 10 years were Black. This may not seem that stark a number, until we realize that of the 300 players who "qualified" based on at least 1000 PAs during those 10 years, only 19 of them were Black (or Latin Americans whose dark skin would have kept them out of the historically white leagues pre-1947). Thus, black players constitute only 6.3% of the player pool, but 50% of the HBP leaders for those years.

This provides empirical evidence for the many accounts from early black players of being targeted by pitchers for their skin color. There is an alternative explanation--some players (Ron Hunt in the 1970s being the most notorious) are known to SEEK being hit by a pitch, crowding the plate and leaning into some pitches, as a way of getting on base. On the list above, for instance, it may be that Minoso, Frank Robinson and Nellie Fox were known for, if not seeking, at least not minding reaching base in this way. But, far more likely, it is a case of white pitchers, often with the support and encouragement of management and teammates, sought to intimidate de-segregation pioneers, perhaps even with the hope of reversing the change. For, much like school integration in the decade plus following the Brown decision, baseball integration was more a trickle than a flood early on. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first_black_Major_League_Baseball_players, only twelve black players had appeared, on only five of the 16 historically white teams through 1950, four years after Jackie Robinson broke the barrier. It wasn't until 1954 that over half of the teams had "given in" to the new reality, and 1959 until the last team (the Boston Red Sox) was integrated.

Re: MLB Moving the All-Star Game

 It's amazing how blind we can sometimes be to the effects of race and racism. Take Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican U.S. senator of the past 40 years and one of only two since Reconstruction (Sen. Edward Brooks, MA, 1967-79 being the other). Here is his tweet, with blinders fully on, yesterday:

Tim Scott

@SenatorTimScott

23h

Georgia: Voter ID, 17 days of early voting. Colorado: Voter ID, 15 days of early voting. Atlanta is 51% Black. Denver is 9.2% Black. The @MLB is moving the #MLBAllStarGame out of ATL which has more day-of voting rights than CO? The Wokes are at it again, folks.

First off, the comparison in days of early voting is misleading, since Colorado allows no-excuse, no i.d. vote by mail, which is how the vast majority vote in that state, and they make plentiful drop boxes available during early voting. Georgia, meanwhile, has clamped down on these freedoms with the recently passed law.

But then look at how he brings up the difference in percent black as an argument against having moved the game. His point, I suppose, is the harm done to black workers and black-owned businesses in Atlanta. But, come on, the Braves aren't even in "Atlanta" since choosing to move their stadium out the of city, where it was near many black neighborhoods, to an unincorporated part of the metro area, where they know longer pay taxes to support those neighborhoods and where it is less convenient for black workers and businesses to be involved.

And--here's the main point, as brought out in my reply to Sen. Scott's tweet:

"Uh, you've kind of missed the point, Senator. Atlanta being 51% black and Denver 9% is a very good indication of why GA is trying to take away the votes of black people, while CO is seeking the widest possible participation of its citizenry in that sacred exercise in democracy."

For him to have totally missed (or intentionally ignored) this connection is mind-boggling. Is he not familiar with the history of the disenfranchisement of black voters in this country, especially in the South? What the ever-loving hell.