Activist and author James Baldwin put America's glacial pace of racial progress in perspective back in the '80s when he said: "I was born here more than 60 years ago. I'm not going to live another 60 years. You always told me that it's going to take time."
"It's taken my father's time, my mother's time, my uncle's time, my brothers' and my sisters' time, my nieces and my nephew's time," he continued. "How much time do you want for your progress?"
Over the past few weeks, America's deeply ingrained social and institutional racism has come to the forefront of our collective consciousness once again.
This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Americans of all colors taking it to the streets to profess that black lives matter in and that things need to change … now.
But will they? Will this time be any different?
James Jones, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Delaware, Newark, who has studied the psychology underlying prejudice and racism for over 50 years, thinks it's a real possibility.
Jones is the author of "Prejudice and Racism" and "The Psychology of Diversity: Beyond prejudice and racism." He was awarded the 2011 Lifetime Contribution to Psychology award from the American Psychological Association.
"In one sense, I'm hopeful this is finally an inflection point, a watershed like the 1960s were, that fundamentally changes how we approach things," Jones told Science. "We've done a lot of research about how to reduce people's adherence to stereotypes and help different groups recognize their commonalities."
Jones believes that this time is different and people's perceptions of race have changed due to a "perfect storm" of events.
"I think this moment is different because of a constellation of recent events: Floyd may be victim zero for this wave of unrest, but Amy Cooper [a white woman who called the police on a black man who had asked her to leash her dog] played the "dangerous black male" card because she knew how it worked," he said.
"In the case of Breonna Taylor, police walked into a black woman's home and killed her. White men murdered Ahmaud Arbery, a black man out for jog. Not to mention the racial disparities made evident by COVID-19," he said.
"That all these things happened literally within days may have created a perfect storm. Now we see," Jones continued. "Now we get it. And as more and more people speak out, there is a growing sense of commonality and recognition that this must change."
Jones says that recent events have forced white people to have a change in racial consciousness.
"Many whites are having this new awareness that I think may spark a degree of guilt—not only about what happened in the past week, but what has been happening over 4 centuries," he said.
"That feeling is powerful and could have profound effects," he added. "It remains to be seen whether it can be sustained and whether the mighty forces of capitalism and politics can be brought into partnership for change."
Let's hope that Jones is right and the collective action we've seen this week can create a revolution in American consciousness. Just image if 233 years after The Constitution stated that "all men are created equal" we finally lived up to the promise.
Ketel Marte was brought to tears during an MLB game after facing a shameful fan taunt.
Baseball manager's poignant support for a player brought to tears after shameful fan taunt
Whether they’re expecting perfection from their favorite players or, worse, behaving callously toward opposing teams, sports fans often forget that athletes are human beings. But athletic competition has the ability to unify and uplift, even amid such painful and unpleasant encounters. Take, for example, a major-league baseball game held June 24, 2025 between the home team Chicago White Sox and visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.
A shameful low point occurred when Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte was at bat in the seventh inning. Per ESPN, a fan reportedly yelled out a comment regarding Marte’s late mother, Elpidia Valdez, who died in a 2017 car accident in the Dominican Republic. Team personnel, including manager Torey Lovullo, then requested the 22-year-old fan be ejected. (Though he was remorseful and admitted his actions were inappropriate, according to an ESPN source, he was nonetheless banned indefinitely from all MLB ballparks.) "We commend the White Sox for taking immediate action in removing the fan," the MLB said in a statement. Marte reportedly declined to comment.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
While the fan’s behavior is inexcusable, it did spark a powerful and inspiring moment. After hearing the comment, Marte was visibly upset, prompting Lovullo to walk on the field, put his arm around him, and offer some words of encouragement. "[I said,] 'I love you, and I’m with you, and we’re all together, and you’re not alone,'" Lovullo said in a post-game interview, as documented by The Rich Eisen Show. "'No matter what happens, no matter what was said or what you’re heard, that guy is an idiot.’"
According to Arizona Republic, Lovullo heard the fan’s comment but didn’t want to repeat it. “I looked right at [Marte] when I heard,” he said. “I looked right at him, and he looked at the person, as well. He put his head down and I could tell it had an immediate impact on him, for sure."
Elsewhere in the post-game interview, the manager called the moment "terrible" and reflected on why he stood up for Marte. "Fans are nasty, and fans go too far sometimes," he said. "I love my players, and I’m gonna protect them…I’ve known Ketel for nine years. He’s had some unbelievably great moments and some hardships as well and some really tough moments in his life. I know those. At the end of the day, we’re human beings, and we have emotions. I saw him hurting, and I wanted to protect him."
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
The following day, the Chicago White Sox X account sent out a message in support of Marte, writing, "We’re with you" and "Baseball is family." On The Rich Eisen Show, the show's host addressed the need to eradicate this kind of toxic athlete-fan interaction: "I was hearing [people saying], 'There’s no place for this in major league baseball.' There isn’t. There’s no place for this in our society. I understand that people are saying the MLB has got to do something about this. Fans have a right to heckle players—this is something that has happened forever…But there is a line."
In another recent, depressing sports moment with a beautiful coda, let’s look to Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the eventual champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. During the first quarter, Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon—a devastating injury that could potentially sideline him for most of the 2025-2026 season. Following the game, in a lovely display of sportsmanship, Thunder point-guard and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went to the Pacers locker room to check on his competitor. In a press conference, he said, "You just hate to see it, in sports in general. But in this moment, my heart dropped for him. I can't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It’s so unfortunate."
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