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Zeke Astacio, Willy Taveras, & Jose Vizcaino are all black.

They are latinos who happen to be black. Their ethnicity may be latino but their race is black. Saying they aren't black would be akin to saying Mike Piazza isn't white, he's "italian".

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I work with a Dominican kid who is black as night but insists he hates 'niggers.' There is a perceived difference for some people.

I was thinking about mentioning this issue a few days ago when I read that Bud Selig had said MLB was going to work on getting more black players, that it was a serious problem or something to that effect. My response was, why? It's not as if it's an important public service or civil sector where blacks are underrepresented and it causes them to be screwed at city hall. It's not as if people go around saying we need more Japanese truck drivers, or Mexican hockey players.

I can comfortably say that my racial politics would be accurately described as radical-left, but I think some people have got the idea that diversity for its own sake is what's of the utmost importance. On the one hand, there is a legitimate argument that diversity does foster a number of valuable cultural and personal traits among those who experience it; however, I don't think that's any part of Bud Selig's thought process here.

NT