The Party of Paranoia, Racial Obsession, and Totalitarian Thinking

7 thoughts on “The Party of Paranoia, Racial Obsession, and Totalitarian Thinking”

1. Example:

   http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/04/14/jackie-robinson-day-mlb-hank-aaron-racism-still-exists/7723045

   7.8% of Major League Baseball players are African American. I suspect they include all Latin players in the denominator and exclude them from the numerator. Then you get the desired result.

2. George Will: “Liberalism has a kind of Tourette Syndrome these days.”

3. “If being a pitcher or catcher is the best route to the big leagues, baseball has to figure out why there are only 12 African-American pitchers, and no catchers.”

   The conventional thinking is bigotry. These positions require leadership, quick decision making skills, and intelligence, so coaches were reluctant to entrust an African-American. Black players who made it to the pro level were pigeon-holed to the skill positions like the outfield or wide receiver because of their perceived superior athleticism.
   There used to be the same complaint about black quarterbacks in football up until recently with Russell Wilson winning the super bowl, Kaepernick almost getting there, Cam Newton getting into the playoffs RG3
   Now that a quarterback is expected to run more, blacks are recruited to play there (or so the thinking goes).

   That probably used to be the case. It’s no coincidence that sports and the greater society were integrated at the same time.
   Whether it still occurs or not, is another matter. There’s no institutional conspiracy, but who can say what’s in the hearts of coaches and general managers making these decisions.

   What gets overlooked, however, is that these positions are the most coached. By that I mean the coaches exercise the most control, direction, and management over these players during the game than the others on the field.
   Signals are relayed from the coach to the catcher to the pitcher in baseball, and the pitcher is the player in the field that is visited by the coach
   In football, plays are transmitted straight into the quarterback’s helmet from the offensive coordinator.

   These positions require the acceptance of micromanagement. Not only that, they require intense direction while the player is confined to a relatively small area, while the other players are all moving around under their own initiative.
   It requires a unique discipline, but it also requires someone who can accept the tradeoff between criticism, stricture, and constraint and reward.
   And sometimes there can be a lot more stricture than reward (as Cub fans know all too well).

   The immediate freneticism and feedback of skill positions and other sports like basketball probably seem a lot more appealing to a lot of contemporary kids, white or black. That’s why so many baseball players are now Dominicans, and a lot of catchers are Puerto Rican.

4. “If being a pitcher or catcher is the best route to the big leagues, baseball has to figure out why there are only 12 African-American pitchers, and no catchers.”

   Grurray

   “The conventional thinking is bigotry. These positions require leadership, quick decision making skills, and intelligence, so coaches were reluctant to entrust an African-American.

   Against that conventional thinking:after Jackie Robinson,fellow Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella and pitcher Don Newcombe were among the first black players in the majors. Both did rather well for themselves- and for the Dodgers.

   You have a good point about the acceptance of being micromanaged.

5. Roots of totalitarian liberalism. The Richard Bernstein book sounds interesting.

6. James Tananto on the Democrats’ intensification of their demagoguery on race.

7. …the Democrats’ intensification of their demagoguery on race.

   They do what they believe will be successful for them. And they have largely been correct. Consequences be damned.

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