"To remind myself that we are not that far removed from when I was chasing the record," he said. "If you think that, you are fooling yourself. A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There's not a whole lot that has changed. "We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated. We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go. "The bigger difference is back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts." Mr. Aaron spoke the truth. The racial problems of the United States are far from over. Some progress has been made, but much more remains to be done. And the racists themselves stepped up to prove Mr. Aaron's point. The Atlanta Braves were flooded with letters and comments from racists reacting to Aaron's comments.
This shouldn't come as any surprise to decent Americans. The president's election caused many racists in this country to crawl out from under their rocks, and air their ugly views again (hoping that the election of an African-American president would draw people to their sick cause). The 2012 election dashed their hopes, but it didn't drive them away. They may thinly disguise their racism with code words these days, but they are fooling no one.
All they have done is to expose the racism that still exists in our society, and show us that the fight for equality among the races is far from over. It is now time for the decent people in the United States to rejoin the fight for equality and justice for all. We may not be able to change these sick minds, but we should drive them back under their rocks so they can no longer stand in the way of progress. In fact, it is a moral imperative that we do so.
(The photo of Hank Aaron above is from the website blackfilm.com.)