Gary Sheffield And His Mouth.

The last time I addressed comments coming out of Gary Sheffield’s mouth, I wound up having to apologize and own up for it, because what he was guilty of was not being the most articulate with what his “Latin players are easier to control” bit in GQ Magazine — and I was leaning on the fence that he was just outright stupid. So, with that in mind, I’m gonna catch the Real Sports interview first on HBO before I make a final decision, but there are things that bother me about the initial reports out about the interview and the pontifications already populating newspapers and websites about it; these fail to separate “prejudice” and “racism.” Sheffield isn’t accusing Joe Torre of racism; he’s accusing him of involuntary, unconscious prejudice. There’s a difference, and it would serve the discussion better to acknowledge this first. Drew Sharp and Kevin Blackistone both tried to get this in the discussion on Jim Rome is Burning and Around the Horn, but it didn’t do them a fat lot of good.

I’ll grant that Sheff sounds a bit naive or willingly stupid if he believes the only types of steroids are the ones you have to inject. As for his accusations against Torre, I don’t think the world will ever know, and most of us are always inclined to give Torre the benefit of the doubt. I just wish he’d be a bit more delicate about Jeter’s mixed-race heritage:

In the visiting clubhouse at Safeco Field on Friday, Sheffield stood behind what he said — that Torre is not a racist — but also tried to clarify some statements. In the piece, when it was mentioned that the Yankees’ most prominent player — Derek Jeter — is black, Sheffield quickly clarified that Jeter is “black and white.”

When asked the significance of that, Sheffield said, “It’s really no significance. It’s just you ain’t all the way black.”

Yes, that was kind of a leading response by Andrea Kremer by bringing up Jeter to Sheffield; in fact, it’s actually kind of designed to provoke a response like that. Media and American culture still kind of operates on the “one drop” rule when it comes to black blood; we’re still getting used to miscegenation and aren’t quite there to acknowledging the cultural differences that come with it. This is the only thing I’ll condemn Sheffield for until I watch the show — it’s one thing to say that he and Jeter have had different life experiences, and have been treated differently. But to say Jeter isn’t all the way black in a country where a majority of people do see a man of color seems reductive, and conducive only to more arguments of artificial ideas of what black authenticity is.

I suppose this is personal, because I’m fairly tired of going through the motions about authenticity, whether you “belong” to one race or another, or what have you — that was a fun component of middle school through college that I really could have done without. So, any time I see something close to it in print, it makes me kind of hostile.  Maybe I’m overreacting to the comment, but I can only wish he’d handled that part better — he was right to note that Jeter’s experience is vastly different than his own, but it kind of sucked to see him fall back on that old trope about being more black.

Again, I find myself, if not agreeing with Sheffield, at least compelled by what he has to say. I just keep waiting for him to find a way to say it that doesn’t require additional clarification after the fact.