Ten days after the initial shock – heard around the world – about the theft of a statue of legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson from northeast Wichita’s McAdams Park, I’m dreadfully awaiting news on the “why” of the statue’s demise.
Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock in America, or almost anywhere in the world, you know the story. On January 25, three bumbling thieves cut down the Robinson statue from its perch near 17th and the Canal Route. The statute had adorned the entrance to League 42 children’s baseball park for just over two years. The league, formed to increase the number of inner-city boys and girls who play baseball, selected the “42” as an homage to the number Robinson wore.
Just by some wild chance if you don’t know the history of Robinson, in 1947, he became the first African-American to play Major League Baseball.
Holding Our Breath
In the day or two following the theft, the incident spread nationally. In Wichita, what someone might do with a mammoth bronze statue, became the brunt of online jokes. While the conversation centered around an assumption that the “idiots” cut down the statue for money or that it was just stupid vandalism, silently, I and many in the Black community warily thought about a more ominous cause.
Racial Hate
We all hoped racism wasn’t behind the incident. However, in today’s divisive times, Black people in northeast Wichita couldn’t help but seriously consider racism as a motivation for the theft.
It was a statue of a Black hero, stolen from a park in a predominantly Black Wichita area. Considering our country’s past and present, it didn’t take much of a stretch to reach that conclusion
It’s not hard to see how racists can look negatively at the role Robinson played in America. Robinson was pivotal not just in changing the sports landscape, he also used his position to play a major role in the advancement of the civil rights movement.
Dr. King said that Robinson “made my success possible,” according to the Baseball Hall of Fame. “Without him, I would never have been able to do what I did.”
But today, even more so than in the 60s, a growing and emboldened White racist movement has us believing this is what America has come to. We hold our breath and hope otherwise.
Even though we know racism is alive and well within our midst, we’re hoping that the chopping down of an iconic statute isn’t a scary and blatant display of the racism we’ve somewhat quietly endured.
If it is in fact a bold and racially motivated act.. we can’t help but fearfully wonder, what’s next.
