False images of racial progress

BY ADAM GIULIANO

Fifty years ago this week, Jackie Robinson stepped into history when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African-American Major League baseball player of the 20th century. His actions displayed genuine courage and more bravery than most modern fans and players are capable of understanding. For those of us alive today, he is an icon and a hero, a storied breaker of racial barriers. But while his legacy has been renewed by the anniversary of his achievement, it has also been misappropriated and misused to cover up the shortcomings of our progress as a society in the decades since Robinson first walked onto the field.

Many have written about how important his actions were in allowing others to follow in his footsteps and play pro sports. Relatively few, however, have discussed the difficulty in following his example and agitating to open up new opportunities. What Robinson achieved as an individual still eludes us as a society: overcoming the status quo.

Athletics, in general, are acknowledged to be among the most racially diverse fields in modern society. In part, this diversity stems from the groundwork laid by Jackie Robinson and other pioneers like him. While the efforts of these individuals have been used to exemplify the progress of society, their success in integrating sports has also been used to hide the more widespread entrenchment of inequality in other sectors. While many minority athletes followed Jackie Robinson onto the field, there has been no similar burst of opportunity inside the walls of academia or corporate boardrooms.

While it is true that the number of minority employees has generally increased, in all but a few industries these individuals are still under-represented. Furthermore, while minority employees and workers have gained a foothold, they have not had much success in gaining positions of responsibility in upper management.

I have difficulty not with what Robinson accomplished, but with the false senseof pride we evoke in commemorating his life. Looking back at the past, at the overt injustices that Jackie Robinson and millions of others faced solely due to their skin color, it is easy for us to pat ourselves on the back and commend ourselves for the progress that we have made. While the achievement is impressive, we are still only a little way down the road towards a color blind society.

We almost universally praise the example set by those like Robinson, while decrying the kind of activism that it took to make this possible. Robinson's example of activism demonstrates how apathetic we have become in the false assumption that all great social accomplishments have been achieved.

So is Jackie Robinson to blame for the persistence of prejudice? No, of course not. We are to blame for abusing his legacy by covering those problems that have stubbornly outlived the efforts of various individuals. We must recognize that while the desegregation of baseball remains a positive good, inequality elsewhere mutes that accomplishment. Robinson's legacy of opportunity in athletics protects other fields from the scrutiny that they deserve. His courage remains undeniable, and his achievement must still be ranked as an impressive feat.

What needs to be recognized and remembered is that for all his efforts, he only broke through the wall of prejudice a little bit. We must follow not his footsteps but his example, chipping away at the inequalities that persist.

Adam Giuliano is a sophomore in Pierson.

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