You Wear It, You Own It
Back in 1990, the White Sox pioneered the concept of “turn back the
clock” games with period uniforms and whatnot.
For their July 11th game against the Brewers, the Sox wore
1917 uniforms, announced player names via megaphone and dressed team employees
in period fashion. One thing rang false,
though—black players got to play.
I mean, if you really wanted to turn back the clock, you would’ve imposed
a one-day color line, benching Ivan Calderon, Lance Johnson and Sammy Sosa. As for Ozzie Guillen, Latin players not
trying to pass as native-born American started playing in the major leagues in
1911, only they were Cuban and quite white in appearance. Guillen is not the sort of person to try to
pass as anyone other than Ozzie. And if
you didn’t like his looks, well….
All of which brings us to the recent kerfuffle over the Bears’ plan to
wear throwback uniforms from 1936.
Oops. There were no black players
in the NFL back then. What to do? Basically, several players offered a kind of
time-machine defense, to argue wearing those old uniforms meant they were
integrating the past, owning it.
As long as everyone realizes the truth lies
elsewhere, I have no problem with that.
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