* AA & Jackie Robinson
Topics: AA
21 Sep 1994
From: ervan
One of my claims in my long piece on Affirmative Action is that capitalism
does not discriminate, or at least it does so much less than government.
Just tonight I heard an interesting example on the PBS history of baseball:
The Dodgers hired Jackie Robinson in 1947, long before there was any AA or
before blacks were tolerated in most employment positions. All of the right
elements were in place:
1) The Dodgers wanted good players at a good price.
2) Robinson was drastically underpaid outside of the major leagues.
3) The racism of the times created a boycott effect in the major leagues.
But just as cartels never survive, neither did this.
With a lesser boycott effect because of the structure of the sport, Joe
Louis broke into pro boxing in 1934.
In both cases greed for money produced a more moral result than all of
the good intentions.
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