New York Yankees baseman Josh Donaldson was suspended for calling Tim Anderson "Jackie," in reference to the legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson. Dr. Yohuru Williams, founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, spoke with USA TODAY about the comment, saying he believes it was an insult.
“In a lot of ways when we think of this situation, it’s both in ways an affirmation of the mythology of Jackie Robinson and the challenge for us to kind of view Jack in a very different context. So I do think Donaldson meant it as an epithet.
It’s a way of putting the other player down and saying he represents this more submissive view of Jackie Robinson that people have, the Jackie Robinson that didn’t fight back, the Jackie Robinson who was Branch Rickey’s boy, so on and so forth."
