No kidding, you weren't the first to hear this news, incidentally, BTW Why do you think Africans were chosen for slavery in the heat of the American South, as opposed to the native inhabbitants who were dying off because they couldn't handle the intense labor???
I posted the info from webmd and emedicine in case there was a question as to the facts concerning sun burning that a couple of posters questioned.
Since you used the quote feature it starts off "quoted by bobrek". Since you edited the post, one of Baker's quotes appears directly below that line. No big deal unless someone is simply scanning through the posts. Thanks for clarifying it.
It is possible, though people with fairer skin are more at risk. The fairer the skin the higher the risk for skin cancer.
They were picked not because the Native Americans were dying off from the labor. They were either running away or dying from disease brought from Europe, not dying from labor. It was much more difficult to control the Indians as a slave population because they knew how to escape and when they escaped they knew where to find refuge to avoid recapture. It's much harder for Africans who are in a completely unfamiliar land with no friends, no weapons, and among complete strangers. I know the Americans eventually gave up on using Indians as slaves because of their inability to control them. Africans were also picked for slavery because it was debated whether or not they were human in the eyes of Christianity. If they were human then it would be morally wrong to enslave them, but if they weren't then there wasn't as many moral hang ups. Great examples of that are shown in South America where the Catholic Jesuits educated the Guarani and tried to save the Indians while enslaving the Africans. Also Africa was a stable supply of slaves for the Americas. I don't think there was any other place in the world where Europe and the Americas could get a stable supply of humans that could be enslaved with little moral hangups and that could be controlled relatively easily.
Hey, I have light eyes that are more sensitive to light than my wife's. She makes fun of me all the time (as well as the dark skin vs light skin in the sun ammo). Public Enemy line went something like this "...skin protects me against the ozone layer/breakdown 2001/might be best to be black or just brown/countdown." Sorry, off of memory so I don't know how accurate that is. pg, And that was especially true for those slaves being moved to the Southeast - the only ones kept together with like tribes (all from West Africa) in order to work in the heat and humidity, as opposed to having been broken up to reduce the potential for banding together and revolting.
robbie380 All that is true, as well as blacks being able to handle the climate and work at the same time. You are right about native americans and disease, but I don't think native americans were Christians and considered civilized, not all native americans died from disease, a lot had to be killed off purposely, so there must have been some other reason why the ones who survived disease weren't forced into slavery. Its only natural that someone has a better chance of surviving in their natural climate, especially in those days when people were hardly ever exposed to something different from their homes.
Exactly, I don't see a rash of a bunch white players passing out from the conditions. The comments were just stupid like Jimmy the Greek's. I thought Jimmy the Greek caught to much flack for what he said, as in there is some truth in both what he and Dusty Baker said, IMO, not completely true, but some truth. However, in both cases, neither guys are qualified to speak on the the subjects, and that is to me what's most disturbing.
Dusty has been in and around pro baseball for 40 years or so and he is not qualified to speak on this subject? Granted he's not an exercise physiologist but the guy has eyes. Granted these are generalizations but that only makes them generally true-- not without exception.
Yes but that is a general statement and there are specific cases where blacks have higher IQ's than whites. However darker skin provides better sun protection than white skin in almost all circumstances.
I read a WSJ article long ago about guys who had disagreeable jobs, like trash collectors, sewage maintenance guys, or subway maintenance guys. The article was talking about how they had developed a culture of being proud of their work precisely because the work was hygeinically objectionable. The attitude was that not just anyone could do the work and you had to be a tough guy to do it and be successful at it. Dusty seems to be appealing to the same sort of pride in his race, saying his ancestors may have had some crappy lives living as Southern plantation slaves, but they did it because they are tough and come from tough genetic stock and not just anyone (like those white boys, or the Native Americans) could handle it. I think there is definitely an air of supiority buried in there and it seems to reflect an attitude he has that the white boys aren't as tough as minorities. I don't know if I'd call it demeaning; but it is arrogant. Incidentally, speaking of planatation slaves, there were plenty of white sharecroppers in the antebellum south that suffered through the same climate, work-load and poverty as the slaves, the only major difference being that he was more free. Work is work and you do what you have to. The southern sun isn't really as big an obstacle as all that; it is just unpleasant.
