Baltimore Orioles' manager on Baltimore protests: 'I've never been black, Ok?'
theGRIO REPORT -
Wednesday, the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox played a game with no fans in attendance.
The move was announced due to growing safety concerns surrounding the Baltimore protests. But what didn’t get a lot of attention was the postgame press conference with Orioles manager Buck Showalter.
A reporter asked Showalter, who is white, if he had any advice for Baltimore’s black men.
Showalter’s response was refreshingly honest.
Watch Showalter’s candid answer to a question about Baltimore’s black men below:
[youtubevid video=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qN5-WSbLHaM” id=”qN5-WSbLHaM” w=”640″ h=”360″]
“I tell guys all the time when they talk about it … I’ve never been black, OK? So I don’t know,” Showalter begain. “I can’t put myself there. I’ve never faced the challenges that they face, so I understand the emotion, but I can’t … It’s a pet peeve of mine when somebody says, ‘Well, I know what they’re feeling. Why don’t they do this? Why doesn’t somebody do that?’ You have never been black, OK? So just slow down a little bit.”
A public figure telling assembled media to slow down on an important issue. Who would have thought that was possible?
Showalter continued his measured response offering up much more than the appearance of neutrality.
“We talk to players, and I want to be a rallying force for our city. It doesn’t mean necessarily playing good baseball. It just means everything we can do. […] Tere are some things I don’t want to be normal (in Baltimore again). You know what I mean, right? I don’t. I want us to learn from some stuff that’s gone on on both sides of it. I could talk about it for hours, but that’s how I feel about it.”
