I’m thankful that my father gave me a love for baseball
Maybe it was listening to him talk about great players from the past that also got me to start appreciating history , but as I started to learn more about baseball’s history , I started to see how much of it he didn’t know
And it wasn’t just my father that was ignorant of much of the history
One question that I ask the goofballs always stumps them
Who was the first black player to play Major League Baseball in Boston
It’s like they trip over themselves trying to expose their ignorance
Pumpsie Green they say , while looking at me like they are shocked that I didn’t know that
It always unsettles them when I say no
They double down on their ignorance by saying Pumpsie Green , only this time with indignation
If it was wrong the first time , why would they think it would be right the second time??
When I tell them that it was Sam Jethroe most seem shocked to hear that
When I first told my father he said to me that Sam Jethroe never played for the Red Sox
Having to explain to him that there was another team that played in Boston is amazing when you consider that he actually went to see the team play
The Boston Braves
The goofballs always say , that’s a trick question
It’s only a trick question if you’re ignorant about the past
All this anti-woke stuff is promoted by white christians, so if ignorance is bliss, then they can have heaven. There’s got to be better places to hang out and better souls to do it with.
Jan 23, 2023·edited Jan 23, 2023Liked by Susan Campbell
There used to be an Indian restaurant called Nirvana on the penthouse floor of a building on Central Park South in New York. When you got on the elevator the top button didn’t have a number, it just said “Nirvana”. I remember thinking, “Wow! If it were only that easy”.
An ancestor on my mother's side was a slaveholder on a South Carolina island back in the 17th century. I don't really feel guilty about that specific part of our family history because a slave rebellion drove him off the plantation and left him penniless and I didn't derive any direct benefit from his shameful activities. But I'm well aware that as a white person I benefitted and still benefit from our ancestors' broad oppression of people of color. We cannot change history, but we can change the future. We can and should do what we ought to to create a socially and economically just society going forward.
When I lived in PA I worked with a wonderful organization, Young Men and Women in Charge. The mission was to get underprivileged kids to and through college, using the same kind of wraparound family support that LeBron James' school preaches in Cleveland. I am here to tell you that it worked. There are now a bunch of young men and women who've graduated from some very fine institutions—Carnegie Mellon and Lehigh among them—who definitely would not have done so without that program.
If such a program were available to all underprivileged kids, educational levels and incomes for people of color would rise to equivalency with those of Caucasians. That would be good for all of us. So many of our problems--problems like poverty, the national debt and crime—would shrivel.
About 30 years ago my ex-wife and I spent one Saturday per month helping people in the poorest sections of inner-city Philadelphia fix up their houses. Seeing where these people lived and how they lived completely reshaped my perspective. It was blatantly obvious that a person has to be exceptional to make it out of an environment like that. And I knew beyond any doubt that had I been born to those circumstances I wouldn't have got it done.
I wish everyone could see what I saw—all the families and the kids in those families who simply do not have a chance. Because surely all of us or almost all of us believe that every kid at least deserves one. And you know what, if we could take the long view and give ourselves a couple of generations, it really wouldn't be that hard to get it done.
Bravo, Susan. Marv is one of my husband’s best friends from their military days, and I’ve followed his work for years. He’s fearless and courageous and deserves all the publicity he gets for bringing truth to light in the most hateful political environment. May the angels surround him and protect his life. Seriously.
No. WAY! You know him? His website is incredible. I kind of got lost in it over the weekend, after I read about his efforts. I even sent him a short fan-girl email. Please tell him he has a fan up in the godless northeast.
Isn't it interesting that the most vocal white people confronted with the history of slavery never identify with the white abolitionists, but with the white enslavers? And they assume their fragile children will also not identify with the abolitionists.
As Dr. Dunn was a Navy officer, I just want to put in a plug for a movie I saw yesterday called "Devotion," about Jesse L. Brown, the first African-American aviator to complete the United States Navy's basic flight training program.
I graduated high school in 1979. Up until recently, I had never heard of Black Wall Street and the massacre. To say I'm livid about that part of our history being "conveniently" left out of the textbooks has me pretty pissed off.
I’m thankful that my father gave me a love for baseball
Maybe it was listening to him talk about great players from the past that also got me to start appreciating history , but as I started to learn more about baseball’s history , I started to see how much of it he didn’t know
And it wasn’t just my father that was ignorant of much of the history
One question that I ask the goofballs always stumps them
Who was the first black player to play Major League Baseball in Boston
It’s like they trip over themselves trying to expose their ignorance
Pumpsie Green they say , while looking at me like they are shocked that I didn’t know that
It always unsettles them when I say no
They double down on their ignorance by saying Pumpsie Green , only this time with indignation
If it was wrong the first time , why would they think it would be right the second time??
When I tell them that it was Sam Jethroe most seem shocked to hear that
When I first told my father he said to me that Sam Jethroe never played for the Red Sox
Having to explain to him that there was another team that played in Boston is amazing when you consider that he actually went to see the team play
The Boston Braves
The goofballs always say , that’s a trick question
It’s only a trick question if you’re ignorant about the past
Well done, sir.
All this anti-woke stuff is promoted by white christians, so if ignorance is bliss, then they can have heaven. There’s got to be better places to hang out and better souls to do it with.
Speaking as a white Christian, this is horrifying, and I mean that.
There used to be an Indian restaurant called Nirvana on the penthouse floor of a building on Central Park South in New York. When you got on the elevator the top button didn’t have a number, it just said “Nirvana”. I remember thinking, “Wow! If it were only that easy”.
Just climb on in there and enjoy the ride? Yeah. I'd like a life like that.
For a lot of the goofballs that I know , that isn’t really what fuels their ignorance
My father is a lifelong democrat who doesn’t watch Fox News and he really isn’t religious
He just doesn’t seem to retain certain things
I’ve asked him the same question since the 70s and I could ask him the same question today
He’ll still get it wrong
Ignorance invigorates despots, remember 45 commenting about liking stupid people!?
An ancestor on my mother's side was a slaveholder on a South Carolina island back in the 17th century. I don't really feel guilty about that specific part of our family history because a slave rebellion drove him off the plantation and left him penniless and I didn't derive any direct benefit from his shameful activities. But I'm well aware that as a white person I benefitted and still benefit from our ancestors' broad oppression of people of color. We cannot change history, but we can change the future. We can and should do what we ought to to create a socially and economically just society going forward.
When I lived in PA I worked with a wonderful organization, Young Men and Women in Charge. The mission was to get underprivileged kids to and through college, using the same kind of wraparound family support that LeBron James' school preaches in Cleveland. I am here to tell you that it worked. There are now a bunch of young men and women who've graduated from some very fine institutions—Carnegie Mellon and Lehigh among them—who definitely would not have done so without that program.
If such a program were available to all underprivileged kids, educational levels and incomes for people of color would rise to equivalency with those of Caucasians. That would be good for all of us. So many of our problems--problems like poverty, the national debt and crime—would shrivel.
About 30 years ago my ex-wife and I spent one Saturday per month helping people in the poorest sections of inner-city Philadelphia fix up their houses. Seeing where these people lived and how they lived completely reshaped my perspective. It was blatantly obvious that a person has to be exceptional to make it out of an environment like that. And I knew beyond any doubt that had I been born to those circumstances I wouldn't have got it done.
I wish everyone could see what I saw—all the families and the kids in those families who simply do not have a chance. Because surely all of us or almost all of us believe that every kid at least deserves one. And you know what, if we could take the long view and give ourselves a couple of generations, it really wouldn't be that hard to get it done.
Amen, Bro. Stan. If we could all see…
Thank you.
Bravo, Susan. Marv is one of my husband’s best friends from their military days, and I’ve followed his work for years. He’s fearless and courageous and deserves all the publicity he gets for bringing truth to light in the most hateful political environment. May the angels surround him and protect his life. Seriously.
No. WAY! You know him? His website is incredible. I kind of got lost in it over the weekend, after I read about his efforts. I even sent him a short fan-girl email. Please tell him he has a fan up in the godless northeast.
Isn't it interesting that the most vocal white people confronted with the history of slavery never identify with the white abolitionists, but with the white enslavers? And they assume their fragile children will also not identify with the abolitionists.
That's an interesting point, that they would want to protect -- at all costs -- the legacy of people who owned people.
God bless Professor Dunn.
Indeed. I posted this on Twitter and HE FOLLOWED ME AND I'M SO EXCITED!!!
I salute Professor Dunn!
The crazy thing about these “Anti Woke” folks is that they claim to be Christians but are anything but. WWJD, we know from his teachings.
I love history, the good, the bad and the ugly. That’s how we learn.
They're Christian like I'm a chess piece.
As Dr. Dunn was a Navy officer, I just want to put in a plug for a movie I saw yesterday called "Devotion," about Jesse L. Brown, the first African-American aviator to complete the United States Navy's basic flight training program.
Ooooh, thank you!
Thanks for this super article about a brave history professor AND who is in Florida! He makes me not feel so bad about living in this state.
He is my new hero.
A person of integrity, for true.
Woe-begotten? A conflation of woebegone and misbegotten?
My grandmother used that, “woe-begotten.” Always loved that word. It’s kind of end of the line awful.
I graduated high school in 1979. Up until recently, I had never heard of Black Wall Street and the massacre. To say I'm livid about that part of our history being "conveniently" left out of the textbooks has me pretty pissed off.
Professor Dunn should be nominated for the JFK Profile in Courage award!
Stealing.
Thank you!
May I steal also (with credit of course)??