Back in June, the Mets issued this statement.
At the time, I wrote about the faces I saw on the Mets Front Office page. That page is being updated so there’s no reason for me to send you there this morning, but back in June it didn’t seem to me to the most diverse crowd.
Under the new regime the Mets have hired a President of Baseball or whatever Sandy’s title is, brought back a former exec to work in Communications, and now hired a GM. I’m not here to take shots at any of those hires, and I wish those three hires tremendous success.
But it doesn’t seem to make the senior ranks more diverse.
It’s one thing to put out a statement back in June when it was the thing to do and most every sports team was putting out statements.
From my June piece:
So I have been trying to figure out how to address something that has been bugging me all week. Something feels not aligned to me.
I struggled to express the feeling that keeps going through my brain. Then I saw this from Conan O’Brien speaking with W. Kamau Bell, and I think Bell’s words here are what I had been struggling to address.
O’Brien shared that he is concerned that in weeks, or even a year, from now, current actions won’t be followed up on. Bell responded by suggesting that O’Brien connect his life to the actual movement by telling black Americans that he will “do a complete internal audit” of his show and “ask TBS to do the same thing.”
“Of where the black folks work at TBS. Where the people of color work. And not give me the percentage of the total but what level they are at. How many people at the top level. How many people are at the lowest levels of TBS and my show,” Bell told O’Brien. Bell then suggested that the late night host vow that in one year it will look different.
Bell told O’Brien, “Right now, we need white people to show their work.”
A lot of white people, it’s easy to change your Twitter avi to a black background, or to Black Lives Matter, but eventually you’re going to turn it back to that wacky picture. We need white people to not only do the work, but show their work, because we can’t trust that the work will get done,” said Bell. (via Yahoo)
So Mets, yes, let’s be part of that positive change. Let’s come back in a year and take a look at this page and see if anything changed.
So far I am not aware of any changes.
Just something to think about on a Monday morning.
The new GM will be addressing the media today. I doubt any of the people on the call will choose to ask about this topic, but hey at least the Cleveland Baseball Team has seen the light and will change their name.
