Always a champion for human rights, musician Carlos Santana called out the blatant racism in Arizona and Georgia during the Major League Baseball’s 2011 Civil Rights Game held in Atlanta – a state where Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed a bill last Friday that cracks down on undocumented individuals in the state.
Santana received the Beacon of Change Award before the Braves-Phillies game on Sunday and used the opportunity to draw attention to the irony of the celebration. “The people of Arizona, and the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves,” stated Santana.
In a news conference after the ceremony, Santana said, “This law is not correct. It's a cruel law, actually – it’s about fear. People are afraid we're going to steal your job. No we aren't. You're not going to change sheets and clean toilets.”
The singer said he needed to “give a voice to the invisible” referencing the silence suffered my immigrants.
“This is the United States, the land of the free. If people want the immigration laws to keep passing, then everybody should get out and leave the American Indians here," challenged Santana.
Sunday’s Civil Rights Game celebrated its role in the civil rights movement. MLB does indeed have a rich history of demonstrating leadership in civil rights issues—the league integrated by drafting Jackie Robinson in 1947, years before several branches of the U.S. military allowed African-American service members.
But our country’s civil rights struggles did not end in the 1960s or 70s, and MLB’s current Commissioner, Bud Selig, remains silent regarding current civil rights issues that also deserve leadership from the League. Specifically, Selig has refused to move the 2011 All-Star Game from Arizona or even comment on the implications that the state’s “Papers Please” law, SB 1070, would ...