Also, RIP Kobe Bryant. You'll always be an inspiration to us all!
42 was an amazing film which depicted the hardships Jackie Robinson experienced during his rookie season for the Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers. Being that Jackie was previously a part of the Negro League and was from the liberal state of California, it’s safe to say that Jackie hadn’t experienced the extreme racism he did in the MLB prior to 1947. The hardships he endured, includes the comments, said throughout the film, giving the perception that Jackie Robinson was either “superhuman” or even “too weak” to be in the MLB, playing with and against white players, because of the color of his skin. One, this is racist; two, it’s false.
While this may seem unrelated to the film, it’s very true that some people see African-Americans, especially African-American men, as stronger than other races. In the film, there were numerous times where Jackie was described as being “superhuman” or having “superhuman talent”, when he simply worked hard and was unapologetically himself. It was like the other white baseball players and white spectators couldn’t believe that Jackie was talented while being black, so there had to be something else to him. He must have superpowers! This is obviously racist because this discredits his actual talent, hard work and mental strength to play well, despite being constantly taunted with racist insults coming from the stands and dugouts.
This “black superhuman” ideology is something we still see and hear, present day, when innocent black men are killed by police officers. For example, in the shooting of Mike Brown on August 9th, 2014, the officer who killed him, Darren Wilson’s description of the incident was “When I grabbed him, the only way I can describe it is I felt like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan.” (Sanburn) FYI, Wilson is 6’4 – 210 lbs. and Mike Brown was also 6’4 but 292 lbs. So, Mike Brown wasn’t that much bigger than him, but in Wilson’s mind, he saw Mike Brown as a wrestler with incredible strength and this made him feel weak and threatened. This is probably how the white baseball players felt playing against Jackie Robinson; he ran too fast and was too good at swinging that baseball bat, so he was a threat.
Another issue that was very present in 42 was the commentary stating that Jackie was only in the MLB because he was black. This can be related to the policy we call affirmative action. People, usually racist people, use this as a way to discredit a person of color’s talent and work ethic to argue that their race is the reason why they are in certain positions. Even though Jackie Robinson’s invitation to play in the MLB was because of Dodger’s owner Branch Rickey’s “white guilt”, Jackie Robinson’s talent, including his hard work and devotion, is ultimately what allowed him to become Rookie of the Year during the 1947 season, a six-time All Star, World Series champion and Hall of Famer.
The only solution to fix these issues shown in this film would be to end racism. While this is a hard task and I don’t think it’ll happen in my lifetime, I do think in a few centuries racism will die. The hardest part with this solution is that in order for racism to die, racist people would actually have to acknowledge their racism and accept that they are racist. The beginning to this journey would be for said racists to ask themselves, “Why am I racist?” For example, in the film, when the young white boy sees his father yelling racial slurs at Jackie Robinson during a Dodgers game, he takes a moment to reflect and ask himself should he follow his father and spew hateful words at Jackie, which he does, or shouldn't he. When he sees Pee Wee Reese put his arm around Jackie, this causes him to feel conflicted because he sees someone who looks like him and his father, a white man, showing love to a black man. While he was still in his youth, this boy could decide whether he would be racist or not, realizing that we are all the same, human beings deserving of respect despite our differences in skin color and complexions.
Pertaining to the alleged "natural talent" in black athletes, there are statistics that show that this is, in fact, a fallacy. The talented black athletes we see on SportsCenter's Top 10 simply work hard and that causes them to be great at their sport. For example, the late Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest basketball players of all time because he was constantly improving his game and played with his entire being - body, mind and soul. Also, while there are a lot of black athletes in professional sport leagues, like the NFL and NBA, Tom Brady is still one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and Larry Bird is Larry Legend. Why? Because they work just as hard as their talented black counterparts. I say this all to say that Jackie Robinson wasn’t "superhuman" and didn’t have a "natural talent", he was simply a man who loved baseball and played with such passion that, decades later, he is still recognized as one of the greatest MLB players to go down in history. He just happened to be black!
Works Cited
Sanburn, Josh. "All the Ways Darren Wilson Described Being Afraid of Michael Brown." TIME magazine (2014).
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