Torii Hunter
*So, is Torii Hunter hatin’ on our Latino brethren or is he just tellin’ it like it tis?
Either way, the Los Angeles Angels center fielder has stirred up controversy with his recent comments about baseball’s use of dark skinned (black) players from the Caribbean and South America.
“People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they’re African American,” Hunter tells USA Today. “They’re not us. They’re impostors.
“Even people I know come up and say, ‘Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?’ I say, ‘Come on, he’s Dominican. He’s not black.’ “
The fact is baseball’s African-American population is 8%, compared with 28% for foreign players on last year’s opening-day rosters.
“As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us,” Hunter reminded. “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. It’s like, ‘Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?’
“I’m telling you, it’s sad.”
UPDATE …
Now that the story has had time marinate, Hunter is changing his tune somewhat. He wants to clarify his use of the word “imposters.” Here’s what he posted on his blog:
“I am hurt by how the comments attributed to me went off the track and misrepresented how I feel. My whole identity has been about bringing people together, from my neighborhood to the clubhouse. The point I was trying to make was that there is a difference between black players coming from American neighborhoods and players from Latin America. In the clubhouse, there is no difference at all. We’re all the same.
“We all come from different places and backgrounds. Coming from Pine Bluff, Ark., my hometown, is no different than being a kid from San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic. We all share the common bond of a love of baseball, and it pulls us together on the field and in the clubhouse,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the article’s author, said he spoke by phone with Hunter for 30 minutes Wednesday after the player’s blog update was posted.
“He said: ‘I’m not going to apologize. I told the truth. I’m sorry if I used the wrong choice of words, but impostor is not a racist word,”‘ Nightengale said. “He’s more upset by the reaction to the story.”
Read more HERE.
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I can understand the distinction. American Blacks are not the same as African Blacks are not the same as Latino Blacks. They’re from different worlds. Culture can mean a helluva lot more than skin color. Now Hunter’s getting lambasted from the left and from the right for challenging that you can lump all of us together in one pot and call us the same. You can’t even lump all black Africans together. Do you know how BIG the continent of Africa is?!?
He is definitely telling the truth and I’m quite sure latino players appreciate knowing we do not consider them Black. Everyone sees what’s going on in baseball and Gary Sheffield was shut down for speaking on it. When it really starts to affect white players then they will sound the alarm.
How many young Blacks do you know playing baseball? It’s not like the Latino players are taking jobs away from qualified African-Americans.
Please, they ARE BLACK, they just got dropped off at a different port during the diaspora.
of course, u & i overstand that, but the reality is a great many afro-latinas take issue w/ being referred 2 as black. they prefer 2 b identified as latina. many brothers & sisters from the islands share the same sentiment. i’ve encountered several individuals from jamaica who would almost b ready 2 come 2 fisticuffs when referred 2 as african-american or black. very unfortunate, but this is the kind of thinking yt supremacy produces. the thought that nething is better than “black”.
All they’re doing is showing how conditioned they’ve become. They’ve fed into their oppressors belief. Therefore, they’ll never be free to learn the truth.
Speak on it Mothership. They are not African American because they are not Americans. Duh!! Ignorance is astounding. Tori Hunter and others like him should understand that African American is not synonymous with black. So are you saying that Naomi Campbell is not black? Fools. We all have our ancestral heritage from Africa, they were just slaves in the Caribbean and we were slaves in America.
Speak on it Mothership. They are not African American because they are not Americans. Duh!! Ignorance is astounding. Tori Hunter and others like him should understand that African American is not synonymous with black. So are you saying that Naomi Campbell is not black? Fools. We all have our ancestral heritage from Africa, they were just slaves in the Caribbean and we were slaves in America. But make no mistake they are black.
MOTHERSHIP is right…they are black. Their ancestral roots can be traced back to mother Africa just like ours. Old boy said ‘Come on, he’s Dominican. He’s not black.’ That statement alone means he does NOT have a clue about the Atlantic slave trade where BLACK slaves were dropped off at various ports that made up the triangular trade.
I understand the larger point he’s trying to make about folks seeing dark faces and lumping them all together as African Americans. But, to willing display his ignorance of the black diaspora to mainstream media is mind-boggling.
this is quite old but you realize your not latino… your proud of who you are your culture. even if they have dark skin this heritage was a long time ago and thus they are very proud of being latinos if they dont want to be called black then why is this wrong. the latin culture is one of the strongest i know this well as im venezolano. thats all i wanted to say
I agree with Mothership. Part of the problem is that sometimes we African-Americans, like our white counterparts, come off simply as arrogant Americans. We fail to recognize other perspectives and assume that we get to define everything our way. As a result we fail to understand the differences between race, ethnicity and nationality. People tend to identify stronly with their nationality once they leave their country of origin so a black person and a white person both from Chile with completely different ethnic backgrounds all of a certain become just Chilean when they arrive in the US. If more of us were to travel or live outside of the US we would realize that we do the same thing. I was surprised how much I connected with white Americans when traveling outside the country. Sometimes these were people I probably would have never socialize with here, but all of a certain I was just happy to talk to another American. When in another country, the locals will view a black guy from Detroit and a white guy from NC as just two Americans; however, that didn’t make me any less black.
Done- I was with you for a minute. When traveling in a different country (China is a good example), they typically don’t view blacks and Whites as simply Americans. They see black skin– some will want to take your picture like you’re an exotic animalor if you’re a cab driver, they keep it moving. Try catching a cab in Shanghai. We always put the white lady in our group out front to hail a cab.
Thanks DOne; you saved me time typing!.
To follow up on Tori Hunter’s comment, he and Gary Sheffield spoke up on it as well that most baseball talent evaluators are refusing to even look at black ballplayers. Knowing that they can go to the DR or any other Latin country and get a kid at 16 get them cheaper most of the time not even verifying their ages. This has been going on for at least 10 years now. You got kids in those countries who play baseball all day with no shoes, they all share gloves and live dirt poor. One guy who is a All Star today when he was signed, did not even have shoes on his feet when he signed the contract. And the Latin players never speak up about any situations when confronted which makes the black players angrier. There are several of them that I thought were black until I found out the names. Sammy Sosa today claims he cannot speak or read English, LOL.
Thank you, barnone. Guess folks will have to find out for themselves how Black skinned people from other countries try to distance themselves…until it comes to scholarships for Blacks or piggybacking off our gains.
Louis Gates did a special called Black in Latin America, he went to Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil and a few other Carribbean countries and he was offended that most of the locals didnt refer to themselves as “black”. He made it his mission to educate these people living in under developed countries. This type of debate is clear to me why everything is about “racism”. It’s silly.
Tori Hunter says: there is a difference between black players coming from American neighborhoods and players from Latin America. In the clubhouse, there is no difference at all. We’re all the same.We all come from different places and backgrounds. Coming from Pine Bluff, Ark., my hometown, is no different than being a kid from San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic. We all share the common bond of a love of baseball, and it pulls us together on the field and in the clubhouse
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so why did he feel the need to even bring this up?