Mitch Albom's Sportwriter's Take on Racial Equality

This column by Mitch Albom contains profound observations on racial equality that I had to excerpt and share here. Taken from the op/ed page of the Park City Daily News, Bowling Green KY, November 12, 2008:

“[F]rom the start of the presidential campaign, I’ve been less concerned with Barack Obama than some of my countrymen. There were many white voters who were hesitant about a black president. Some were painfully blunt. . . . Others, who didn’t want to appear so racist, embraced labels like ‘radical’ or ‘terrorist.’ But it stemmed from the same part of human nature: We distrust that which is different.
“Well, one thing you get accustomed to as a white sportswriter is ‘that which is different.’ You get accustomed talking to black Americans doing better than you financially, being better known, more widely respected. You get accustomed to black coaches making trades, black executives returning your phone calls – or not. The music you hear is often not your music. The slang in the locker room is often not your slang. In the case of Latino or Japanese players, it may not even be your language.
“But you know what? You do your job. Everyone else does his or her job. And pretty soon all that stuff fades to the background.
“I remember a scene in the football movie Brian’s Song, where Gale Sayers is called into the coach’s office. He is nervous. What has he done wrong? They tell him they are thinking of rooming him with a white man, Brian Piccolo. ‘That’s all?’ he says. ‘You had me worried. I thought this was something really.’ ‘This is something really,’ a coach says. At the time depicted – 1965 – it was something ‘really.’ But it isn’t anymore. And of the two attitudes, Sayers’ is the one to admire. The one that says ‘That’s it?’ The one that says this is only as big a deal as you choose to make it. . . .
“Look, nobody’s being Pollyannaish here. Racism did not die Tuesday. But the first step is dismantling prejudice is taking it out of the system. You room a black football player with a white one, you haven’t eliminated everyone who hates it. But you have eliminated the idea that they’re right."