The new film that made its debut this past Friday, “42”, about the challenge faced by the first African American player in major league baseball, Jackie Robinson, 66 years ago tomorrow, is a brilliant portrayal of the racism and prejudice faced by Robinson, and how he overcame it with brilliant performance and tremendous personal dignity.
It is a good lesson for the many people in America who have no personal memory of Jackie Robinson, with many not even knowing who he is, due to our poor education in the field of history and public affairs, causing many Americans to have no clue on the past, as well as present day issues.
We are now in the midst of another massive revolution on the issue of acceptance of sexual orientation, which has caused just as much, if not more, violence and mistreatment of gays and lesbians over many years, than even that faced by the African American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian American, Jewish, and Catholic population, as each group has struggled to be treated equally under the law.
The issue of discrimination against gays and lesbians is reaching its peak, as the Supreme Court will soon determine the issue of gay marriage rights, and at the same time, bullying and actual physical attacks on gay and lesbians has been encouraged by so called “religious” preachers who claim to be true believers, but with the reality that their ancestor preachers promoted racism and bigotry in the past generations of American history against the various ethic and religious groups mentioned above.
But the pace of progress is moving forward, as it did for other groups, and no matter what the Court decides, change is coming to America, and will not be stopped by bias, prejudice, and narrow mindedness!
And this includes the likelihood of organized sports, which took a long time to integrate, soon to see gay athletes declare themselves, and start to change the image of narrow mindedness of American sports, and the conclusion that everyone should be judged by their performance and skills, not their religion, race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation!
Yeah, gay, lesbians and trans-whatever plight in America, past and present, is more than that suffered by African-Americans throughout our history. Good grief.
I did not say MORE, Juan, but gay discrimination has gone on, unreported, for many decades, and has made life miserable and repressive. It just has not gone mainstream until recent years, including what happens to kids in schools, long a secret that is now out in the open! Be happy if your son is not gay, because if he is, he will suffer worse in modern times than any group picked on!