In an interview with USA Today, baseball great Hank Aaron took a careful look at the racism he faced when he was in pursuit of breaking Babe Ruth’s record, and he came to the conclusion that not much have changed since the racist letters he received back then and the things President Obama is going through now.
Mr. Aaron shared parts of one of the letters he kept all these years, a portion of which read “[y]ou are not going to break this record established by the great Babe Ruth if I can help it. Whites are far more superior than jungle bunnies. My gun is watching your every black move.”
When asked why he kept the letters, he said “[t]o remind myself that we are not that far removed from when I was chasing the record. 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,” he continued. “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 in the country.”
“The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”
