dualstatehusky
New Member
As most of you know Jackie Robinson was an amazing baseball player who could hit,steal bases, and field every ball. Notonly that but he was also the first African-American in Major League baseball. When this event was current it was closer to your generation than it was to mine, so you know that African-Americans were still not treated as equals. A very famous photo that might be stored in the back of your minds is between Jackie and the Philadelphia Phillies Manager Ben Chapman in 1947. In the photo both Jackie and Chapman are holding the same bat, while Jackie shows a nice smile on his face, Chapman struggles to keep a slight grin. Chapman and the rest of the Phillies team were known for their racial taunting and brutality towards Jackie throughout his first year. Why do you think Chapman or on the other hand Jackie agreed to take this picture? When you were a child and saw this in the newspaper, or your parents saw it, what was their reaction? Did this change racism in America? Did it change your view on people? Photography can be a very powerful tool.
I don’t know if this is new news to you but according to Ray Robinson from the New York Times these two men posed for this picture because “So much negative publicity was generated by Chapman’s behavior that baseball coaxed Robinson into posing with him for a photograph”. So the photo was a setup but I believe it was still for a good cause and that it made a lot of white Americans realize thatit is okay to have African-Americans in the league. What is your opinion of it though; does it take back all the racial slurs Chapman said to humiliate Jackie? Does it make all the wrongs the Philly ball players did right? In my opinion no; it was justa a cover up to make them seem like genuine people. Photos like this can act like a mask over a much larger problem.
Sometimes photos like these are meant to be shocking, and it could have been very shocking to you when you first saw it. A quote from Susan Sontag says, “Shock can wear off. Even if it doesn’t, one can not look”,which means that people could have gotten use to the fact that African-Americans were going to be in the league. Or if they could not handle it they could decide just not to watch the games. No matter what this was a great thing for the MLB because it made a statement and showed that they could control what happened in the league and not the rest of society. A racist society would try to stop Jackie from playing. But maybe baseball was trying to change society?When you saw that picture in 1947, or around that time period, and then saw it five years later I have a feeling that you would have a totally different perspective of that picture because society changed, and your recollection ofthe event also changed. The truth is that maybe it has no meaning to you and it is just something in the past, a memory.
Major League Baseball took a huge step by letting Jackie Robinson into the league, and with the media putting pictures out like this one; did this show a turning point in racism throughout America? Not only was he getting more accepted throughout the year by players, but also getting accepted by the fans. Did you accept him right away? Year after year more African-Americans joined the MLB and it’s all because this photo showed it was okay. Just like how Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in 1955. That was a photo that turned out to be more than a headline; it was remembered as a black woman going against segregation. It’s a photo that is in the history textbooksI grew up with and is what helped me learn about the war against racism inAmerica. The Robinson photo makes us think about baseball and how it became interracial, while the Rosa Park photo makes us think about segregation, and that is the point of them. All photos have a specific point to be portrayed and in the future that photo will make you remember it. These photos seem likea foreshadowing of what was to be. Itwas a new face for baseball and a new face of society and in my opinion made people believe in interracial sports and believe in desegregation.
Say we were placed into Chapman’s shoes and the commissioner of baseball came up to us and said take this picture for the media to show that we respected Jackie Robinson. Would we say no and lose our jobs? Or wouldwe accept it to make him happy even though we were extremely racist? We would probably accept it to keep our job. Nowlet’s step into the shoes of other sports commissioners around the league; did they feel obligated now to let African-Americans into their league or did they do it because it was the right thing? Itis hard to overlook the huge step baseball took, and that in turn motivated other sport associations to do the same. For example just three years later, in1950, Earl Lloyd was the first African-American to player in the National Basketball League. The question here though is, maybe this was just a matter of time before other leagues followed in their footsteps, or was it the direct influence of Jackie Robinson.
You could probably agree with mewhen I say the point of the Major Leagues is to have the best player, no matter their race.People will remember theMLB as the league with the best baseball players in the world, not the league that banned African Americans from playing in it. Memory plays a huge part in all of photography. When I first saw this photo I thought of it as a white man respecting a black man on the baseball diamond.Not as a racist man making up for his racial slurs and taunting towards Jackie,and before I did research on Chapman and the story behind the photo that is exactly how I would remember it.. The point is to remember this in a certain way, and pictures have that capability.
I believe Jackie Robinson was a hugepart in the transformation of American Society. Many white Americans started to respect African Americans a lot more afterhe was in the league for a little bit. I’m here to figure out what yourexperience was like when either this photo came out, or when you learned aboutJackie Robinson. Did you believe hechanged society? Did you agree with baseballs decision to let him in theleague? Has your feeling on this changed over time? Was this photo more than a Manager trying tosave his job? Tell me what you think.
I don’t know if this is new news to you but according to Ray Robinson from the New York Times these two men posed for this picture because “So much negative publicity was generated by Chapman’s behavior that baseball coaxed Robinson into posing with him for a photograph”. So the photo was a setup but I believe it was still for a good cause and that it made a lot of white Americans realize thatit is okay to have African-Americans in the league. What is your opinion of it though; does it take back all the racial slurs Chapman said to humiliate Jackie? Does it make all the wrongs the Philly ball players did right? In my opinion no; it was justa a cover up to make them seem like genuine people. Photos like this can act like a mask over a much larger problem.
Sometimes photos like these are meant to be shocking, and it could have been very shocking to you when you first saw it. A quote from Susan Sontag says, “Shock can wear off. Even if it doesn’t, one can not look”,which means that people could have gotten use to the fact that African-Americans were going to be in the league. Or if they could not handle it they could decide just not to watch the games. No matter what this was a great thing for the MLB because it made a statement and showed that they could control what happened in the league and not the rest of society. A racist society would try to stop Jackie from playing. But maybe baseball was trying to change society?When you saw that picture in 1947, or around that time period, and then saw it five years later I have a feeling that you would have a totally different perspective of that picture because society changed, and your recollection ofthe event also changed. The truth is that maybe it has no meaning to you and it is just something in the past, a memory.
Major League Baseball took a huge step by letting Jackie Robinson into the league, and with the media putting pictures out like this one; did this show a turning point in racism throughout America? Not only was he getting more accepted throughout the year by players, but also getting accepted by the fans. Did you accept him right away? Year after year more African-Americans joined the MLB and it’s all because this photo showed it was okay. Just like how Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in 1955. That was a photo that turned out to be more than a headline; it was remembered as a black woman going against segregation. It’s a photo that is in the history textbooksI grew up with and is what helped me learn about the war against racism inAmerica. The Robinson photo makes us think about baseball and how it became interracial, while the Rosa Park photo makes us think about segregation, and that is the point of them. All photos have a specific point to be portrayed and in the future that photo will make you remember it. These photos seem likea foreshadowing of what was to be. Itwas a new face for baseball and a new face of society and in my opinion made people believe in interracial sports and believe in desegregation.
Say we were placed into Chapman’s shoes and the commissioner of baseball came up to us and said take this picture for the media to show that we respected Jackie Robinson. Would we say no and lose our jobs? Or wouldwe accept it to make him happy even though we were extremely racist? We would probably accept it to keep our job. Nowlet’s step into the shoes of other sports commissioners around the league; did they feel obligated now to let African-Americans into their league or did they do it because it was the right thing? Itis hard to overlook the huge step baseball took, and that in turn motivated other sport associations to do the same. For example just three years later, in1950, Earl Lloyd was the first African-American to player in the National Basketball League. The question here though is, maybe this was just a matter of time before other leagues followed in their footsteps, or was it the direct influence of Jackie Robinson.
You could probably agree with mewhen I say the point of the Major Leagues is to have the best player, no matter their race.People will remember theMLB as the league with the best baseball players in the world, not the league that banned African Americans from playing in it. Memory plays a huge part in all of photography. When I first saw this photo I thought of it as a white man respecting a black man on the baseball diamond.Not as a racist man making up for his racial slurs and taunting towards Jackie,and before I did research on Chapman and the story behind the photo that is exactly how I would remember it.. The point is to remember this in a certain way, and pictures have that capability.
I believe Jackie Robinson was a hugepart in the transformation of American Society. Many white Americans started to respect African Americans a lot more afterhe was in the league for a little bit. I’m here to figure out what yourexperience was like when either this photo came out, or when you learned aboutJackie Robinson. Did you believe hechanged society? Did you agree with baseballs decision to let him in theleague? Has your feeling on this changed over time? Was this photo more than a Manager trying tosave his job? Tell me what you think.