As a minor barrier breaker myself, I honor Jackie Robinson.
Today is the 66th anniversary of the breakthrough in our nation’s pastime.
I didn’t play shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers. My barrier was in broadcast journalism. In 1989, I was the host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” for two years. I was the first Asian-American male and first-Filipino-American to host a national news program.
Since then, let me know if you’ve seen or heard all the Asian-American males in similar roles.
In that sense, as important as a breakthrough can be, sustaining the momentum is equally as important. That’s called progress, and it’s harder to come by than you think.
Just look at baseball today. Nearly three generations after Robinson, the number of Black players in the major leagues is just around 8.5 percent. By MLB’s own estimate, that’s half of what it was from the mid-70s through the mid-90s.
According to the Player Diversity Report (released on 11/13/12), the diversity of the player profile on 40-man Major League rosters was 62 percent Caucasian, 28 percent Hispanic, 8 percent African-American, 1 percent Asian and 0.2 percent American Indian.
