I may owe Sammy Sosa an apology.
In a recent post, I wrote about Sosa's apparent use of a skin product designed to make him appear whiter. I wondered if the baseball great's light skin was a capitulation to the colonizer mentality. This mindset holds that anything white is superior, and it has caused many black people to go to absurd lengths to seem whiter (both culturally and literally).
As we know, Hispanics can be of any race or skin color. I myself am a light brown.
Sosa, a Dominican, is obviously a dark-skinned Latino. Many people have wondered if he is trying to renounce his Hispanic and/or black status.
As it turns out, maybe Sosa isn't to blame if he wants to be white. Apparently, some of the man's fellow players think that he is not really black in the first place.
Specifically, Los Angeles Angels outfielder Torii Hunter, a great player and multiple All-Star, believes that black players from Latin America are "imposters." Hunter said that he and his fellow African American players "have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us. It's like they had to get some kind of dark faces, so they go to the Dominican or Venezuela because you can get them cheaper. You can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips."
I must admit that I didn't know the rates for Dominicans were so reasonable. Perhaps we should all get one.
Hunter goes on to pose the ultimate rhetorical question about a former MVP. Hunter asks, "Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player? Come on, he's Dominican. He's not black."
I have no idea if Guerrero considers himself black. Perhaps he answers, "Hispanic" or "Dominican" or "human" or "right-handed slugger" when asked about his status. But he's certainly within his rights to say, "black" or "black Latino."
In the picture below, Hunter is on the left. Guerrero is on the right. One of them is positively not black.
Perhaps Hunter meant that Guerrero and other players from Latin America are not African American. That's a noncontroversial point. However, Hunter comes across as a cultural jingoist, reminiscent of people who said President Obama is not really black.
His comments bring up the whole messy topic of how we categorize race and ethnicity, and why. I've written before about this, and several readers have chastised me for (among other offenses) saying that Chicanos are Hispanic and Spaniards are not. I'd like to think, however, that I was a bit more diplomatic than Hunter.
Perhaps we are indeed all too hung up on race and who is one category and who is not. But to deny that these constructs - artificial as they are - actually exist is to deny their power. And that's why, despite the earnest pleas of many Americans, we will go on talking about race and racial matters.
As for Hunter, he has claimed that his comments were taken out of context. If so, it lessens the creepiness of their content, but not the stupidity of their mere existence.
Hunter ended his racial-conspiracy rant by saying, "I'm telling you, it's sad."
Oh, it's sad, alright. But not in the way that Hunter thinks. It's sad that he said, "They're not us" when referring to teammates like Guerrero.
As the baseball writer Craig Calcaterra points out, "the fact that more and more of baseball's black players happen to come from a couple hundred miles south of an artificial political border doesn't mean that there is no one around to receive the torch passed down from Jackie Robinson."
In fact, many of the players who thrive under Robinson's legacy are Hispanic. And yes, they may even be black too.
Here are the relevant definitions as per the Royal Spanish Academy dictionary:
Hispanic: “Or of relation to Spain” or “or relating to the Hispanic-origin population that lives in the United States”
Latin: 10 definitions, but the relevant I think is “the peoples of Europe and America who speak languages derived from Latin (such as Spanish, French, Italian, etc.)”
There should be no debating then that Ms. Cruz is both Hispanic and Latina. But in the U.S., the world "Hispanic" or "Latino” traditionally define people who's origin is specifically Latin America. Assuming you are using this definition you are correct, Ms. Cruz is not Hispanic or Latina. But you have to understand that people who grew up in Spain thinking of themselves as “Latinos” would surely have a problem with someone telling her that they are not...
Only a few people who've posted on the subject have brought up the idea of "boriqua" and having pride in that. If we're honest, "blackness" is not something wholley embraced by many latinos of mostly african descent. And a few posters who reject such a claim does not change that.
I’m a black man from the Dominican Republic. In answer to your post, Torii Hunter was not denying anyone “blackness”; his point was that African-American player’s proportion of MLB roster is lower every day and people don’t notice it because of the presence of black Latin American players.
I don’t know what you understand by “boriqua” and having pride of that; I lived 20 years in Puerto Rico and know that word refers to the Taino word for the island (“Boriken”) and it have nothing to do with a particular race. Puerto Ricans call themselves “Boricuas” the same way that Dominicans call themselves “Quisqueyanos”.
Finally, you are right that “blackness” is not something wholly embraced by many Latinos of mostly African descent, but that is only because we see it only as a trait, not as something to be defined by. So I cannot be more or less black than what I am, no matter what I do.
You say that you see it as only a "trait", and nothing to be defined by, but aren't you in some ways, whether you like it or not defined by it? When I talk of blackness, I'm not just talking about a trait, but I'm also talking about an experience. Black people in the Americas - North, Central, and South do have a shared trait and experience. We've had to endure slavery, segregation, and prejudice even today. Blacks in all of these areas are typically at the bottom of the social/economic status relative to others in their populations of non-african descent.
In media, blacks are seldom represented, and from what I've seen in hispanic media, black beauty is seldom seen, or celebrated.
So again, it appears that whether we like it or not, society defines us by our traits. If a black man is profiled, whether he's american, dominican, brazilian, puerto rican, carribean, or native african, all of us are impacted. But seldom do we ever come together in solidarity to recognize our shared struggle and our battles to over come it.
The minor rift in the multi-cultural community was created outside of the community as powerbrokers attempted to play one hated group against another and reap the profits (the old house and field meme). This policy started (noticeably) under Reagan, where the floodgates of so-called illegal immigration were thrown open by those in power who sought cheaper more prone to manipulation labor (so they thought). Many of the same people crying about immigration today were champions for the cause at the floodgates yesterday. I do not care what Mr. Hunter says, for his limited experience in no way changes the richness of my personal experience concerning my Latino family. I know there are Latino people who have sold-out mentally for a larger piece of steak on the plate, but that is not specific to Latinos, but to weak people everywhere, of all hues. Black is the experience and never the color (see Clarence Thomas), and it is a culture that stands in direct opposition to the vulture that divides and conquers thereby rendering an entire nation – hypocritical and bonkers.
I wonder who Mr. Hunter thinks the people he's talking about are trying to fool. After all, to call them "imposters" suggests a certain nefarious agenda. Does he not understand that somewhere way back in his genetic lineage and that of Sammy Sosa and Vladimir Guerrero and my friend J. Anderson (who you would never mistake for being Scandinavian!) are people who were born and lived in Africa? If he knows anything about anything, he would understand that his ancestors and those of J. and Sammy and Vladimir all came to this hemisphere the same way. And it was not their decision.
So who is real and who is... imaginary?
But I have been in Torii Hunter's shoes, I am black but not of African American ethnicity, if that makes any sense. The real issue of contention is the difference between American and immigrant not actual ethnicity or even race as Scott Boras adds in the interview. As far as being in Torii's shoes, I too had baseball dreams and played competitively in college. Yet the opportunities just were not there for me to continue. The real outrage is in the MLB's recruiting and employment practices. What Torii is highlighting is the fact the league would rather not have a hip hop generation American Black of any ethnicity who would have an attitude. These sort of black men have the ability to talk back without fear of losing their work visa and the ability to live in this country in one felt swoop. They also have the ability to sue and more likely will sue if terms of their contracts are breached. It's not that Dominican players are worth a bag of chips but rather they can be and often are given less lucrative deals than their American counterparts. So, teams rather look the other way when a cheaper manageable option is a plane ride away or in some cases like the Dominican Rep. a phone call away to their facilities in DR.