Last night on Outside the Lines Felipe Alou referred to Krueger as "Satan". When Bob Ley asked Alou if Krueger should be fired, Alou said "No, I don't want anyone to lose his job."
Not even Satan?
I understand why Alou and the hispanic players are upset, but Alou has said he is "shocked" that the attitude expressed by Krueger is still alive. Is he really? Does he live under a rock? Is there anyone else here who believes that racism is dead and buried, even in team sports?
Generally, blurting out a comment like this indicates an underlying attitude. It does not mean Krueger walks around overtly hating other races, but it indicates that somewhere inside he sees Latin players as not having the same "baseball intelligence" as other races. His internal conflict slipped out to see the light of day.
Nearly every white person can think of an instance where he or she has had a racist thought, even if not intentional. Some of it is conditioning, because it takes a long, long time to get racism out of the system. Until all parents are free from racism (which is not even remotely close to being true), kids will pick up on those attitudes, whether explicitly taught them or not. In each generation, more and more kids (hopefully) will reject the outdated attitudes of their parents, but inevitably, many will carry them along. It's similar to attitudes we inherit from our parents about religion, politics, the environment, etc., except that racism is clearly an incorrect attitude to hold.
Some will carry the inherited attitudes along accidentally, absentmindedly reaching for the car door lock when a black person crosses the street in front of their car, for example. Then thinking, why the hell did I just do that?
Fortunately, many are wise enough not to blurt out something stupid on the radio...but then, most don't have a radio show.
