Red Sox release statement about multiple incidents of racism at Fenway Park

[BaseballJones]

What a tremendous post. Thank you so much, really. This is fantastic.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I hope it’s helpful to somebody at least.

 

[mauf]

Yep, wait to reprint the nationally syndicated story rather than do their own investigative journalism on something that happened under the Globe's watch. There's quite a history of the Globe giving horrible events in Boston a good leaving alone. Of course, if it suited Mr. Henry's narrative, they would have been all over this.

If you have evidence that Henry quashed an investigative report, provide a link. Otherwise, spare us your conspiratorial musings.

 

[threecy]

If you have evidence that Henry quashed an investigative report, provide a link. Otherwise, spare us your conspiratorial musings.

I did not state that Mr. Henry "quashed an investigative report."

Nevertheless, the African American victims were able to have their voices heard by an investigative reporter who recently left the Globe's employ. The victims want a settlement from the Red Sox.

 

[joyofsox]

I often ask people what their goal is when they're speaking to someone, what the goal of communication is, and quite regularly, I get this answer: "To say what I'm trying to say."

Which is normal, but, of course, 100% wrong. The goal of communication, as the speaker (or writer, as the case may be), is to be understood. The goal of communication, as the listener (or reader), is to understand. It's not "to say what I'm trying to say", because it only takes you as the communicator into account, and doesn't take into account that your audience may understand the world very differently from you.

Great post. Unfortunately, the phrase "defund the police" violates this first goal of communication.

The word "defund" has a very clear definition: "prevent from continuing to receive funds" or "to withdraw financial support from". It's a horribly imprecise phrase and it likely creates the wrong impression in the minds of most people who first hear it. If you have to explain what your phrase means every single time someone hears it, it's probably not the best phrase to use. It is great, however, for right-wingers to mischaracterize the people who are protesting police brutality.

 

[OCD SS]

I’ll add another factor into this discussion: brazenness. Having grown up on the East Coast but lived most of my adult life in the Midwest, there are real, regional, cultural differences. My experience has been that Bostonians are far less reserved, as a whole, than many Midwesterners (Chicago is probably an exception). They more often say what’s on their minds, even when the thoughts are repugnant. That’s far less common here in Minneapolis, where the “Minnesota Nice” veneer obscures similar racism.

But people don’t generally think of Minneapolis as racist, even though it’s here in this liberal city, too. Minneapolis is badly segregated, and while the city (and state) do very well on most quality of life indicators, the disparities between whites and blacks on almost every level are massive, and worse than Boston and Massachusetts. There are many reasons for this; for example, the clearly racist real estate practices from the first half+ of the 20th century.

But the racism is less overt. Minneapolitans rarely say the quiet part out loud. I’d be stunned to hear the N-word at Target Field, not because I don’t think the thoughts are there, but because fans here rarely even boo. It’s not like sitting in the bleachers in Philly. All of that seems to feed into perception and shape reality. Of course, the tragedies of George Floyd and before him, Philando Castile and Jamar Clark, are exposing some ugly truths here as well.

While I was born elsewhere and moved around as a kid, but I'm essentially from the Minneapolis suburbs; my Dad's family has been living in Minneapolis & the suburbs for over a century (came down from French Canada in the 1800's I think). My Grandfather was a doctor in SE Minneapolis before WWII, and afterwards moved the family out to the suburbs (or really it was probably more 'the country' at that point).

There are probably more incidents of my family dropping casual racism than I can remember, but I almost never had the chance to see it happen face to face for the utter lack of POC in our suburban bubble. I remember driving with my Dad through Minneapolis in the mid '80's to take a look at Grandpa's old family house in Minneapolis, and being told to lock my car door, this was a bad neighborhood. Despite it being an old-school Minnesota winter, freezing cold and with a lot of snow, and no one being out on the streets. The implication was clear.

Since my family is catholic and always attended mass (and made us kids do so as well), and I got a child's view of morality and ideals that was not reinforced when I asked questions about helping the poor. I didn't realize that in asking about the "poor", I was really asking my parents about BIPOC people, and African Americans in particular. When I asked about finding people homes, it became a matter of "they wouldn't take care of them" (I think Pruitt Igoe was trotted out, if not named). When I asked about false arrests, prisons, and the death penalty, my Mom (from Ohio, and from a family with similar views and privlidge) told me anyone who was arrested "had probably done something that put them in that position."

As the demographics of their suburb have changed and they have had to get to know more BIPOC people (especially if that meeting is at church) they're perfectly fine. But any political or economic change that might threaten their status quo is clearly a problem for them; as long as everything looks nice on the surface, they're happy.

The MPLS schools situation is a great example. Minneapolis public schools have one of the biggest achievement gaps between whites and blacks in the nation. The city recently proposed (and passed) a redistricting plan that essentially moves all magnet schools to the center of the city so that the heavily-minority areas (namely North Minneapolis) can access them more easily (there's also some money saving reasons in there due to busing, but helping to close the racial achievement gap is really the thrust of the redistricting).

Now, my kids currently go to one of the schools that will lose its magnet status, so they will likely have to change schools and go to a "lesser" elementary starting in 2 years. My view (and my wife's view) is that this is a sad inconvenience for our kids, but any alleged drop-off to our neighborhood school is pretty marginal and it's in the service of a good cause, so "oh well." I know other parents who feel the same way. "Aw shucks, that's too bad." kind of thing. We believe that helping close the achievement gap is important, and our kids will be fine.

But there is a vocal minority of parents who, although they surely identify as city-dwelling, bike-riding, diversity-loving, liberals, are absolutely infuriated by this plan. The fact that their kids have to go to a *marginally* "lesser" school in order to help...OTHER PEOPLE...is just beyond the pale to them. The arguments they make are 100% steeped in callous indifference and drip with white privilege. And frankly, I'm sort of relieved I won't have to bump elbows with them at school events anymore.

"My kid likes her school. Why should WE have to give up our magnet when WE moved here just two years ago to send her there?"
"Why are they ruining their GOOD schools to make their BAD schools go from "awful" to "slightly less awful?!""
"If this passes, I am leaving Minneapolis because it's obvious they don't care about me!"

That sort of stuff. So yeah: there's a lot of performative progressivism going on here. It's still a liberal city, but not as liberal as lots of people would like to think (which is true for pretty much everywhere, of course).

We get this a lot where we live in Brooklyn as well; NYC schools are (IIRC) the most segregated in the nation. My wife was very influenced by Nikole Hannah-Jones' writing (founder of the 1619 Project) and the idea of white familys resource hoarding in education and housing. When it came time to find a middle school for our oldest son, it was pretty important to us that he go to a school with demographics that look like Brooklyn. Sadly, most of the "best" schools are almost entirely White or Asian, and we wouldn't consider those. I was slow to come around to this idea.

Another Dad who did send his older daughter to a "good" arts middle school, "You can't throw your kid on the barricades." But they paid a consultant to help them get her into that school, something that we can't afford, and neither can most of the families in NYC. It was both shocking and sadly not when the rates of acceptance into the most prestigious HS programs in NYC this year had such low minority placement. Middle schools were probably just as bad.

Ultimately we decided that our son would really be fine almost no matter where he went; I have to give my wife all the credit for helping me come around to this idea. The school he really wanted to go to the most is admission by lottery only, and he didn't get in. He wound up in an early college admission program (tracks through to finishing college early and graduating with a good deal of college credit), and it's hard to tell how it's going when over 3 months of the school year falls apart, but we are able to give him a lot of support that is harder for other families in our area.

I work with a guy who lives in a Minneapolis suburb. In a social conversation I asked him if he had been impacted by any of the unrest. He immediately went into a rant about being pissed about people "...martyring this guy when he had a long criminal record and Fentanyl in his system.."

I said, "He was not resisting! He should die for that?"

He said, "I just don't think this guy should be martyred. This is not a good guy..."

I ended the conversation.

Conclusion: Minneapolis definitely has work to do, at least as much as Boston.

I think the bottom line is that all white people have a lot of work to do, no matter where they live in this country. The mayor of Minneapolis's NY Times op ed about well meaning liberals being willing to go along with superficial fixes that allow them to preform as if they're supporting BIPOC people, but then in actuality fighting against any substantive reform to funding for low-income housing or school integration is still adhereing to white supremacy. Until we are willing to put our money where our mouths are, and distribute resources where they are needed instead of just letting them trickle down, the underlying problems are not going away, let alone getting fixed.

 

[section15]

For those calling for the Red Sox to take larger actions, what would those larger actions be? Aside from banning a fan next time this happens, what else should they do?

And are lifetime bans even a deterrent for non-season ticket holders? Do they actually stick? If Joey from Revere gets lifetime banned for dropping an N-bomb and shows up to a game a month later, does anyone notice?

Update on this -

1) now that the "Ballpark App" is essentially the only way you can enter the park, a lifetime ban can be enforced more than before.
2) certainly, if someone was banned, all tickets he purchased from the Sox could be invalidated. And his MLB account revoked, making it more difficult to buy tickets.

*but the big enchilada

3) if someone is issued a lifetime ban, it usually comes with a registered letter or a served paper -" you have been barred from Fenway. Should you be caught entering the park, or inside it, you will be charged with criminal trespassing. The penalty is minor - $100 and/or 30 days in jail. But, that's probably enough of a deterrent to stop someone from trying to go there after he's been told not to.

I think the most important thing I'd gather - I've been going to Fenway for 62 of my 70 years. It's a place of joy, of celebration, etc. and to me, it would be a complete, horrific shock if for some reason I was never allowed back in again.

As I'm sure it would be for many SoSHers.

 

[mauf]

Deleted a post that ran afoul of the rule against political posts in this forum. (The line can be fuzzy at times on a subject like this, but this particular post wasn’t a close call.)