Gerald Early Can't See Latinos
by Dan Vera

He can't see Latinos.
He can't see Sammy Sosa.
And he can't see Pedro Martinez.

I don't even like baseball
But I can see them.

When Gerald Early writes 800 words in Time magazine
About how Jackie Robinson's legacy has withered away
And asks why there so few "black ball players today?"
But can't bring himself to mention all the dark-skinned Dominicans,
Cubans, Panamanians and Columbians,
I figure Gerald Early can't see Latinos.

But this is Gerald Early!
Esteemed professor of jazz, boxing and modern letters,
Biographer of Miles and Jack Johnson,
Writer on Race, Identity, and the Ambivalence of Assimilation.

If Gerald Early can't see Latinos,
You know something must be going on,
Like some perpetuation of a rule,
Perhaps we'll call it the rule of "Unforgivable Latinoness"
(To riff on Gerald Early's take on Jack Johnson),
The rule that reads that if you speak with an accent,
Especially a Spanish accent, you're invisible in the African-American imagination.

Tell that to Julio Franco, Edgar Renteria, or José Contreras.
Tell that to Orlando Cabrera, Orlando Hernández, or his brother Livan.

But someone else better tell them.
Because Gerald Early can't see Latinos.