Happy Thanksgiving! Almost 400 years ago, early settlers of this country met with a group of Native Americans to celebrate the mutual cooperation between the two groups. That was, of course, before these newcomers marauded and depleted the Native American way of life to realize their “Manifest Destiny.”
In the dawn of the 21st Century, race relations have dramatically improved, but some straight white men refuse to sacrifice their privilege for the common good. Take, for instance, the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig. When MLB awarded the District its first baseball team in three decades, everyone knew they were going to need to replace the old team name, the Senators. First, the Senator’s trademark is held by the Texas Rangers (who were born of the last DC franchise). Second, and more importantly, the District has no senatorial representation on the Hill; the “Washington Senators” would be a misnomer.
The early water-cooler consensus was that the team would be named the Washington Grays after the Negro League team that resided in the city before Jackie Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier. The Grays had a winning tradition (a stark contrast to the star-crossed Senators), and given DC’s large African American population, the name fit the city nicely. But then, suddenly, word came down from on high that the team would be the Nationals. Why? According to The Washington Post, while the Mayor preferred the Grays, Selig wanted to revert to the Senators. Nationals was seen as a compromise.
We know the Mayor’s reason for his aversion to naming the team the Senators (taxation without representation), but why didn’t Selig like the Grays? MLB did focus groups and Grays didn’t test well. Where were these focus groups, Loudon County? Apparently, White America is still unprepared to acknowledge our diversity and racially charged past. And MLB’s commissioner is unwilling to challenge the self-awarded privilege of the majority.
Well done, Bud. You’ve given us one fewer thing to be thankful for this year.
Very good points. I think this avenue of thought is particularly interesting given the Throw-Down in Motown, laden as it was with all sorts of ethnic and socioeconomic undercurrents.
I was wondering how the Expos became the Nationals instead of the Senators. I had not considered the Grays, but that would have been by far the best name!
God save us from focus groups. Like most social science, it seems that about 2% of the practitioners do them correctly (curse you, Frank Lutz!) while all the ones we usually hear about come from the other 98%.
Actually, my family at Thanksgiving was very surprised that I hadn't seen the Detroit fight. I heard re-enactments from co-workers, but wasn't that enthusiactic about seeing basketball players beat up on fans.
As for focus groups, I think they can be done well, but (as I alluded to in my post) it's extremely important to pick the right people as respondents. I'm guessing whatever market testing they did took place in the suburbs.