This weekend, Major League Baseball has been celebrating the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the majors (which, it must be noted, was the first time a black player played in the majors in the MODERN era, but let's save the history lessons for another day). Along with the celebration of Robinson's debut is the protest of the declining numbers of African American players, a protest that itself brings out the hypocrisy of many in the activist community.

Before proceeding further, please let me note that Jackie Robinson is a hero of mine because he was a tough as nails player who served as an incredible ambassador and probably was a major catalyst in bringing about the Civil Rights movement. I mean absolutely no disrespect to Robinson in anything I am about to write.

But those who crunch the numbers (as, let's face it, baseball fans are wont to do) have seemingly disregarded the fact that baseball has become probably the most integrated sport on a professional level, a sport where Asian, Latin, African American, and Caucasian players are treated with pretty much the same regard. They ignore that the decline has parallelled an increase of Asian and Latin players in the majors. There's also a hypocrisy in their numbers, as when counting African American players, it is not uncommon for them to exclude Latin American players of color. Sammy Sosa, for instance, doesn't count because he is from the DR. In fact, the exclusive group, "the Black Aces" that celebrates African American pitchers who've topped the 20 win mark, has specifically denied requests from Latin players of color to be included.

Now, I may be young, but I know a fair amount about the Civil Rights movement for someone who never had the chance to live it. I know about the struggles, and I appreciate and respect them. But a common goal of the Civil Rights movement was a colorblind society, where race was not the primary consideration, but rather one's abilities.

There's a pretty sound reason why African American players have dropped off. Because to really learn to play, you need to learn on a well groomed field, and a well groomed field in the middle of inner city neighborhoods where African Americans are a majority is a bad idea. Not just for the cost of maintenance, but because open areas in those neighborhoods become magnets for gang activity. Add to that equipment cost, and it's just not a game that's marketable to the inner city. Not when you can play basketball or football with a $10 ball, and an improvised version of the latter on a city side street.

I believe that the Jackie Robinson controversy is, to a large extent, a symptom of what is wrong in this country. As long as we continue calculating equity by the amount of players of a certain color, the race issue will never be resolved. Have these same people protesting the equality of African Americans in the major stood up to protest the lack of WHITES in the NBA? If the protests are there, I haven't seen it.