Note to African-American Athletes: the 1960s are Over

This is the most controversial article I've ever written for Bleacher Report and probably will stand as that. Nevertheless, I was excited to get an email titled "Open Mic" and was eager to see the subject. That subject was titled "The Role of Race in Sports".

I'm not even going to pretend for a moment that black athletes do not have a tougher time, because they do. All I'm going to say is that it is not the 1960s anymore. The Civil Rights era is long gone, and now more than ever, African-American athletes are being accepted by the culture we live in today.

The best home run hitters of all time are black. The best basketball player of all-time was black. The best running back in football of all-time was black. And finally, one of the grittiest goal-scoring centers in hockey today is black. I'm not going to name those aforementioned players, if you know your sports, you know what I'm talking about.

Now let's move on. As I said earlier, this is the age when political correctness is at a high, and an era when athletes of all races are being accepted in all sports. I certainly do not have a problem with any player in sports (that is unless they were a former Al-Qaeda-turned-left winger), and no one I know in the sports world has a problem either. That is why when I hear a player say, "[insert event] only happened to me because I was black," I want to either cringe or totally ignore the statement.

To me, when athletes bring up their backgrounds as a way to make people feel sorry for them, it only makes things worse, and in fact, stirs up more hatred. On most occasions the old saying "you can do no wrong by speaking up" is better substituted with the saying "you can do no wrong by keeping your mouth shut."

Rather than saying "My team is having a tough time, but we'll pull through and the only reason you're [the press]  hard on me is because I'm a manager in New York, the hardest market to please." Mets manager Willie Randolph said that one of the reasons the press had been extra hard on him was because he is a black manager.

To me, this is the worst thing he could have possibly said because now people who never even thought of the fact he was black are thinking that way. The statement even caused New York radio shows to discuss it for almost an entire week with angry callers (of all nationalities) voicing their displeasure with the skipper's poor choice of words.

While I'm still on the subject of baseball, I'll get to the all-time home-run leader in baseball history, Barry Bonds. When I think of him, I think of one of my favorite players and a great hitter, not a black athlete.

Why? Because I don't care if your black, white, pink, or green; just hit the baseball. That's all real fans care about. But, after Bonds and the press alluded to the fact that Bonds was getting treated extra-harshly because he was black, that only fed the Bonds-hating fire.

Let me say something: people do not like Bonds because of his personality. Bonds is well known for his bashing of reporters and how he treats them. People want their athletes, their role models, to be kind, gentle, and honest people. Bonds comes across as cold, angry, and bitter. That, my friends is the reason people do not like him.

Whether you love or hate this article, I hope it accomplished one thing...it made you think a little bit. That is all any writer can ever hope to achieve.