Grade A Negro

[janduscframe]

Don't get mad at me... that's what the Sporting News called this player as he could attract blacks and whites to major league games...

[ian2813]

Don't get mad at me... that's what the Sporting News called this player as he could attract blacks and whites to major league games...

Yikes. Just a guess, but Frank Robinson?

[janduscframe]

Yes it was... I was surprised considering it was the 60's.. if it had been earlier I wouldn't have been so surprised..

[Tyrus4189Cobb]

I read the title thinking "grade a negro," as in "can a brother grade a negro for me?" Boy, what phonetics can do.

[Seattle1]

Yes it was... I was surprised considering it was the 60's.. if it had been earlier I wouldn't have been so surprised..

Well, consider that the Revered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself was still using the term "negro" well into the 1960s. His famous "I have a Dream" speech in 1963 is riddled with the word "negro."

Language is a funny thing sometimes. Strange how seemingly harmless words can come into such ill repute over time given the right circumstances to where there can even be virtually an element of criminality attached to them. George Carlin was a master of pointing out the absurd in our language. His "Seven Words You Can't Say on T.V." routine is really good.

:twocents:

[EdTarbusz]

Yes it was... I was surprised considering it was the 60's.. if it had been earlier I wouldn't have been so surprised..

This isn't surprising for the 1960s. Negro was the preferred term for a lot of black people in that era.

[TonyK]

George Carlin was a master of pointing out the absurd in our language. His "Seven Words You Can't Say on T.V." routine is really good.

:twocents:

We can't say them on here either. I think baseball might have been Carlin's favorite sport.

[PlanetZoltan]

We can't say them on here either. I think baseball might have been Carlin's favorite sport.

Of course it was. George was a very smart man.

[TonyK]

Of course it was. George was a very smart man.

Anyone who could figure out that tennis was merely ping pong with the players standing on the table had to be an ace.

[westsidegrounds]

Well, consider that the Revered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself was still using the term "negro" well into the 1960s. His famous "I have a Dream" speech in 1963 is riddled with the word "negro."

because it was, and had been for many years, the preferred term among Black people. United Negro College Fund, Negro League baseball, WVON radio "the voice of the Negro", etc etc etc. The TSN quote would have been just as offensive if it had used "Black" or "African-American" because what it's saying is, "He's Black, but he's a good guy." It really is hard to believe that kind of thing could get printed in the mainstream press as late as the (mid?) 60s.