Last night I watched the Orioles-Yankees game and got a kick out of listening to Yankee announcer Ken Singleton, who will always be #29 for me, the jersey he wore for the Orioles when I was a kid in Baltimore.
I remember how Singleton surprised me even then: he was a middle-class black guy, extremely cleancut and well-spoken as Joe Biden said in a racist way of Obama earlier this year. He had grown up in Westchester County: he was that rare thing, a suburban black man. And a star. Because it's the last weekend for Yankee Stadium, Singleton is waxing nostalgic. He spoke of attending Giants games at Yankee in the 60s, he spoke of worshiping Maris through the legendary '61 season. Singleton came from a comfortable background. I am saying that Singleton evokes a real color-blind tradition in America, the America of my dreams. Yes I know: this is a myth, and yet some people actually embody the myth. Courtly Singleton is a followon from angry Jackie Robinson and Obama is a followon from Singleton. You know where I'm going with this. Memo to Israel: Become a country of all your citizens. Let the Zionist dream be recast for the next generation: bring democracy to the Middle East.
