Santana is Booed for Using Baseball's Civil Rights Game
to Speak Out for Civil Rights

By Dave Zirin 
The Nation 
May 16, 2011

http://www.thenation.com/blog/160693/santana-booed-using-baseballs-civil-rights-game-speak-out-civil-rights

Major League Baseball's annual Civil Rights Game was
poised to be a migraine-inducing exercise in Orwellian
irony. Forget about the fact that Civil Rights was to
be honored in Atlanta, where fans root for a team
called the Braves and cheer in unison with the
ubiquitous "tomahawk chop."

Forget about the fact that the Braves have been
embroiled in controversy since pitching coach Roger
McDowell aimed violent, homophobic threats at several
fans. Forget that this is a team that has done events
with Focus on the Family, an organization that is to
Civil Rights what Newt Gingrich is to marital fidelity.

The reason Atlanta was such a brutally awkward setting
for a Sunday Civil Rights setting, was because Friday
saw the Governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal, sign HR 87, a
law that shreds the Civil Rights of the state's Latino
population. Modeled after Arizona's horrific and
unconstitutional SB 1070, HR 87 authorizes state and
local police the federal powers to demand immigration
papers from people they suspect to be undocumented.
Those without papers on request will find themselves
behind bars. Civil rights hero, Atlanta's John Lewis
has spoken out forcefully against the legislation
saying "This is a recipe for discrimination. We've come
too far to return to the dark past."

But there was Major League Baseball commissioner Bud
Selig, celebrating civil rights in the Georgia, and
chortling excitedly about the 2011 All-Star game in
Arizona. In the hands of Selig, irony becomes arsenic.
Thank God that Commisioner Selig was stupid enough to
choose the Civil Rights Game to honor, among others,
the great musician Carlos Santana. Santana was supposed
to be the Latino stand-in, a smiling symbol of
baseball's diversity. And maybe, he would even play a
song!

But Bud picked the wrong Latino. Carlos Santana took
the microphone and said that he was representing all
immigrants. Then Santana added, "The people of Arizona,
and the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you should be
ashamed of yourselves." In a perfect display of Gov.
Nathan Deal's Georgia, the cheers quickly turned to
boos. Yes, Carlos Santana was booed on Civil Rights Day
in Atlanta for talking about Civil Rights.

Then in the press box, Santana held an impromptu press
conference where he let loose with an improvised speech
to rival one of his virtuoso guitar solos. He said,
"This law is not correct. It's a cruel law, actually,
This is about fear. Stop shucking and jiving. People
are afraid we're going to steal your job. No we aren't.
You're not going to change sheets and clean toilets. I
would invite all Latin people to do nothing for about
two weeks so you can see who really, really is running
the economy. Who cleans the sheets? Who cleans the
toilets? Who babysits? I am here to give voice to the
invisible."

He went on to say, "Most people at this point they are
either afraid to really say what needs to be said, this
is the United States the land of the free. If people
want the immigration law to keep passing in every state
then everybody should get out and just leave the
American Indians here. This is about Civil Rights."

Where was Bud Selig during all this drama? It seems
that Selig slunk out of a stadium backdoor in the 5th
inning. If there is one thing Bud has become an expert
at, it's ducking his head when the issues of
immigration, civil rights, and Major League Baseball
collide. If Selig really gave a damn about Civil
Rights, he would heed the words of Carlos Santana. He
would move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona. He
would recognize that the sport of Jackie Robinson,
Roberto Clemente and Curt Flood has an obligation to
stand for something more than just using their memory
to cover up the injustices of the present. If Bud Selig
cared about Civil Rights, he would above all else, have
to develop something resembling a spine. But if Bud is
altogether unfamiliar with the concept of courage, he
received one hell of an object lesson from Carlos
Santana.

[Dave Zirin is the author of "Bad Sports: How Owners
are Ruining the Games we Love" (Scribner) and just made
the new documentary "Not Just a Game." Receive his
column every week by emailing [log in to unmask]
Contact him at [log in to unmask]]

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