WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH SAMMY?

In the United States, a large number of professional baseball players are from Latin America, especially the Caribbean. They usually come from very poor backgrounds, and many of them are black or mixed race. Sammy Sosa, one of the best players in baseball, is Dominican, and comes from a part of the DR with a large population of African descendants.

Sammy, despite his success, is no stranger to controversy: he was accused of (and found to be) using steroids, and was often made fun of for his poor English. I felt bad for him in both circumstances, considering how many baseball players use performance-enhancing drugs, and considering how difficult it is to master a second language as an adult.

But his most recent controversy is really upsetting.

Last week, Sammy made several public appearances in which his skin appeared visibly lighter, as well as using colored contacts. He was accused of using Michael Jackson-like techniques to change his skin color, and of being a racist rejecting his African heritage. He denied suffering from vitiligo, and claims that he chose to lighten his skin for aesthetic reasons using a special cream.

The magical cream, he says, is to help repair his skin from decades of sun damage while playing baseball. He also refused to say the brand or name of the cream, claiming the company had offered him an endorsement deal still in the works.

Before I lived in Latin America, I had no idea about the depth of racism or how it affects people's daily lives, which is especially true in the Dominican Republic. It was there where I learned how people are classified by the exact shade of their skin (there are literally dozens if not hundreds of names), where people make excuses for being dark (claiming they are outside a lot in the summer, or that they play sports), where no one dares call anyone negro (black) unless they're Haitian. Being called black is the ultimate insult.

So this entire story was just horrifying to me, because I can imagine the repercussions in the DR and in the rest of Latin America, even in the US. The idea that a rich black man can lighten his skin because he feels it makes him "look better" has really heart-breaking implications. Given Brazil's obsession with cosmetic surgery and procedures, large black population and historic racism that persists but that few dare acknowledge, this product could potentially become a hot item in the Brazilian market.

Sammy agreed to speak to Univision about the change, claiming he wasn't a racist and chuckling through most of the interview. When asked if he's proud to be black, he says he has been since he was born, but "I want to look my best." O sea, being black is not looking his best. The interviewer, also black, who was trying to be a hard-hitting reporter for most of the interview, half-jokingly asked Sammy to give him the cream to try.

From: http://riogringa.typepad.com/my_weblog