Reggie Jackson’s Speech Shows Not Much Has Changed in America | MARTIN WEISS & VJ HUSKEY

MARTIN WEISS & VJ HUSKEY talk about the recent speech made by Reggie Jackson on racism in sports. The guys talk about this powerful speech and how unfortunately not much has changed.

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the the Reggie Jackson speech and the Reggie Jackson piece and I’m going to try my hardest right now not to get emotional because it brought tears in my eyes I literally sobbed watching him talk on set with A-Rod Big Poppy and and and the captain I literally sobbed because of the stories that he was telling about what he went through as a player and then it makes your mind Mar at least mine it makes my mind just go through my life go through I’ve seen that’s why I say some of the stuff I do in sports talk you know one of my main things is I don’t believe everything like you can’t just tell me everything you can’t say it’s not this or it’s not that or because there’s just too many examples in life that show me that’s not true and in sports race is always going to be a thing the reason why this is so touching is because you couldn’t even you had to be Reggie Jackson to actually have the clout of Reggie Jackson to sit and say and tell the stories and say the way he said it and use the vernacular and the vocabulary and the words that he said if I sat here and used that and speech whatever I’d get canceled that is the world we live in and I’m just it was just so touching because he’s a legend he’s an icon he’s Mr October I grew up going to my grandma’s house in Englewood New Jersey she used to work in New York at restaurants she used to bring stuff home sign when he used to go to the restaurants and sign stuff for the waiter stuff my mom my grandma would bring me stuff home for from Dwight good in Daryl strawberry Reggie Jackson Ricky Henderson like I I grew up loving this man and to see him actually talk about something that’s real and whenever we try to shy away from it like it’s not there or we’ve come so far that’s when I get into my feelings sometimes about sports all that’s when I’m going to say what I say myself and you’re our guy Rob Parker accused of race baiting all the time but we’re just telling the truth about what it is and this idea that we’ve come so far it’s yeah but you have to remember there are people that are still alive that remember what it was like I don’t remember what it was like Mark when it was colored or whites only drinking fountains and movie interests you know who does though my grandmother sure you know so when like when a President Obama gets elected I’m dude you know me I’m not political like that I’m more happy for my ancestors my older relatives that had to go through certain things that they can see that day it was okay for me but for them so when you see Reggie Jackson give that type of speech bro I literally started just sobbing because I Can Only Imagine leg being told you can’t stay here let’s hear let’s hear what regie had to say thank you thank you coming back here is not easy the racism that I played here when I played here the the difficulty of going through different places where we traveled fortunately I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody people said to me today I spoke and they said you think you’re a better person you think you you you won when you played here in conquered I said you know I would never wanted to do it want to do it again I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and said can’t eat here I would go to a hotel and they said can’t stay here we went to Charlie Finley’s Country Club for a welcome home dinner and they pointed me out with the nword he can’t come in here Finley marched the whole team out finally they let me in there he said we’re going to go to the diner and eat hamburgers we go where we’re wanted so so your point is well taken and I’ll say the I actually did I was down there in Rick when did a radio hit the day of the game right the day of the actual game between the Cardinals and the Giants also sidebar congrats on that cuz I know that’s big for your career and I mean that I mean that manto man heart to heart congrats on that bro cuz that’s a big move for your personal career thank you and it was one that uh it’s funny because the radio host who I did the the hit with I was trying to express to the fact of what you were just saying this obviously before the game before Reggie Jackson had this question asked of him of I believe Alex Rodriguez asked him and he this was before all of this and I said the thing that you realize when you are down here is that while it may have been decades ago it is not so long ago that this was right here and I kind he kind of kind of scoffed at me a little bit I’m not trying to you know yeah I know what you’re doing go ahead he he said to me he was like well it seems like a was a long time ago and I was like I actually said this I was like dude Reggie Jackson played in The Negro Leagues Mr October was a negro leager when you’re down there and you see a the stadium and you see the Negro Southern league museum all of which are in Birmingham less than two miles apart from each other you see just how recent all of this history was was and just because it’s in black and white or just but but to the point of you see the dates on some of this stuff like my father was 17 years old when Reggie Jackson was 17 years old when my when Reggie Jackson was playing in Birmingham in 19 that’s 1967 yeah right my mother was 12 so you go and and you see this stuff and you see it happening and you see not one not two but a plethora of living Negro League players it just shows you that all of this was just a generation ago that’s all it is it’s a generation ago you said your mother she’s a grandmother now yeah it’s a generation removed yeah right you know what I’m saying I’m 34 I could be it’s very reasonable where I could be the age of having children most of my friends do it’s one generation removed and I’m sitting there and I’m talking to Sam Allen who played for the Kansas City monarchs I’m talking to Chico rless who played in for the Birmingham black bar name him and so he’s telling me that yeah you know I asked him like what’s your back being rickwood field you know 45 50 60 years later he’s like we barely even played here because if the white bears were here we were on the road right you know what I’m saying we were going up to play the monarchs or going up to uh uh Memphis and playing those teams and so when you see a guy like Barry Bonds who was all like he’s Willie May’s Grand gots gots right Willie ma who passed away on Tuesday while we were all down there right which had a major impact on how everything was going to go right cuz OB viously I mean he was supposed to be there and then then it came down that he wasn’t going to make it there and then it came down that he died on Tuesday before you know the I mean there was a mon League game going on at Rick Woodfield but the real festivities kind of got rolling Wednesday and Thursday yeah so he passes away so now what what happens is it’s almost the same kind of thing it’s almost the same level of reverence or thoughts that you have like World War II veterans right right cuz when you see those guys it’s like why and then they’re dropping every day because they are old as can be right and then you see the Amic negro leakers who were World War II veterans right like I think they they highlighted bill gleon on on the fox broadcast he’s 99 years old one of the oldest living if not the oldest left right who served at EO gima right so Not only was he like imagine that the stuff we learned in history imag imagine not being able to play Major League Baseball right you’re going in town you think that’s what Reggie Jackson was dealing with in 1967 so just rewind 20 years for for Bill gleon and it was that much worse right and then he goes fights for the same country that won’t let him do a lot of stuff right won’t let him do and then it comes back and it’s the same story you know like comes back and it’s the same story so that’s the thing but I do think this I think that with with the events like what happened there today or happened there last week and I got and it’s not this is not a unique sentiment got it from a whole bunch of different people the different people I interviewed anywhere from Roy Wood Jr to Jackie Robinson’s granddaughter to uh Josh Gibson’s grandson uh Sean to Ru Foster’s grandson Doug you know all of these different people who were yeah again one generation removed from these events from this history in a ballpark that you walk in there and it’s 1915 you know in terms of the everything that’s set up they got only thing is they got a video screen that’s that’s the only you know that’s it and I got lights right so that’s the big difference like but outside of that like trust me there’s not air conditioning for Miles okay there’s not much for Miles so it gets to the point where you realize just how soon this was and or just how recent it was and things like what happened at Rick Woodfield this week the celebration that occurred and the reflection that occurred like that to me is a step in the right direction of DET of redefining history cuz what we what did we learn in school Jackie Robertson integrated baseball and it’s a like that’s one of the things you learn about with like when when the Little Rock N integrated public schools and it’s just like these singular kind of quote unquote events in time and the thing that I like the most about it especially about speaking of Reggie Jackson in general I didn’t speak them but I’m talk with the fox bro well the thing I like the most about it is so many times this is phrased in a way of it’s phrased in such a way of are you a better person from dealing with this struggle did you become stronger from dealing with this struggle when the reality is they talk about like the the the reality is that it’s like there is no such thing like it shouldn’t have been that way yeah the reason that you should ask the people who were doing that the people who are excluding people the people who were saying I will burn this building down if they’re the better people by now yeah exactly that’s and that’s I see where you were going with that but on the first part of are you are you stronger today they were strong as hell to have to deal with that so that’s that’s a that to me is a part of a silly question because do you know how strong you have no you I don’t know if there’s an athlete today that if it started if it if we just rewind time and started treating people like it was the 50s and 60s today I don’t know that there’s an athlete that would be able to take that I don’t know if there’re strong enough to take that type of racism that type of discrimination day after day after day after day like and still want to go through it and still and still want to go perform but the part that irks me the most in the negative comments I saw about it or the it was this long ago or the the great proverbial just get over it is the simple fact that exactly what you just said that shows me that the people that were alive on either side remember cuz if the Negro Leaguers are still alive then some of the people that didn’t want them there are still alive you would have to really try to sell me real estate on the ocean front in New Mexico if you want me to believe that they’ve changed so much over the masses of the people not one or two are little pockets he was in Birmingham Birmingham is still a very edgy segregated town there are still Sundown towns in this country in the South ladies and gentlemen you can look this stuff up and if you don’t know what a sun downtown is Google it look it up there we we’ve moved en time and we’ve moved as far as image goes but to the core and the Heart A lot of times in this country things things have not changed as much and this is a reminder of what the some people that are still alive lived with I didn’t live through this Martin didn’t live through this we’re not of that age but there are a lot of people who did and that was just it was just touching that it was Reggie Jackson it couldn’t have been a more perfect baseball player in my opinion to to say what he said and that’s why it was so emotional and touching to me well especially too you look at Red Jack doesn’t look old no he 83 or something like that but he doesn’t look oldy in his face he doesn’t look old right when he’s speaking he doesn’t sound like your grandfather who’s taking forever to get his words out you know he does he does well you know hey young man back in my day whipper snapper that’s not the vibe no he’s clearly locid he’s clearly on top of things and I bet you if he you asked him his batting average in 1983 he’d spit it out just like that right you know but cuz that’s the way that’s but it’s just when you’re down there it’s impossible not to feel the impact of the history it’s impossible not to feel just how recent it all was just how it feels like yesterday to somebody who never experienced it right cuz I obviously never experienced racism in that way but everybody has their own story of when this happened to them that was like was that RCI was was that you know and so like for me for me that was my biggest takeway but also the thing that we have to like we can’t let this go terms of like we talk about the color barrier like Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier as if it was something that actually existed like it was not the Berlin Wall yeah like where they actually had to tear down the wall to bring back to to bring back East and West Germany together the color barrier was nothing more than a decision that was made collectively among all these different owners of Major League Baseball teams to say we’re not doing that and all that happened was franch Ricky said you know what let’s be honest he saw a competitive Advantage saying yo these guys are pretty damn these guys can play these guys can really play I bet if I signed one it would help the Dodgers and that’s what it was and if you go back and look at the way that the contracts that Branch rcky signed and I know we’re over and we’ll take this in a second because honestly I don’t give you know I care much less about Luca and the and the criticisms he’s getting out of the finals abut we can talk about that at just a moment so just bear with me but when you see when you see damn I lost what was I saying you’re talking about the color barrier color y you’re going to color when you see the contracts that Branch Ricky signed Jackie Robinson to what it essentially did was it engineered the first professional sports merger except it wasn’t it was a hostile takeover yeah of what used to be the Negro Leagues and as a result the day that Jackie Robertson integrated baseball black baseball died which meant all the businesses around black baseball died which meant all the fields black baseball fell in disrepair which meant this whole entire professional League infrastructure the same one that still exists right here with the freaking Braves and the Yankees playing right now that there was a that League was running concurrent right so don’t tell me it would have just fell off but the day and the reason why because look when you see and here’s Here’s the final point you see the ABA and the NBA merged but the San Antonio Spurs the Indiana Pacers and the New Jersey now Brooklyn Net still exist y the NFL merged with the AF but the San Diego Charger still exists and if you didn’t and if you didn’t come into the league you know what you got you got the Spirit of St Louis where you’re writing a contract well they still getting paid right none of that happened with black baseball and it’s one of the reasons why what happened this week was so important and that’s why it’s great that major league baseball and the major league baseball players Association Youth Development Fund is donating 500,000 to both the family the Negro League family Alliance which is made up of of of descendants of negro Leaguers and some hell some who still are here and then also uh $500,000 to the Negro League Southern Museum because that is a good step in the right direction because I mean honestly these guys should be getting Major League pensions because a half of them would have been in the major leagues