This past April 8^th marked the 40^th anniversary of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer, and current Atlanta Braves’ senior vice president Hank Aaron becoming baseball’s all-time home run champion. It was on that day in 1974 that Mr. Aaron passed Babe Ruth by hitting his 715^th career home run.  Baseball is supposedly America’s favorite pastime, so you can imagine the anger from a segment of prejudiced white Americans, who were forced to accept that a black man has overtaken the beloved Ruth to own baseball’s most cherished individual record.

You can imagine the hate mail Mr.

Aaron received for this accomplishment in 1974. Cowardly white people called Mr.

Aaron nigger, as well as wished him death, for hitting his record breaking homer. Currently, baseball’s home run champion is former major leaguer Barry Bonds, another black man who wasn’t exactly revered for his accomplishment for different reasons. But that’s another topic for another day.

During a recent interview with USA Today, Mr.  Aaron took the opportunity to share his opinion regarding America’s direction. He stated that while America has made progress with the election of President Obama, we still have a way to go. Mr. Aaron also maintained that the difference between now and the past is that racists wore hoods in the past, and now they wear starched shirts and ties.

That started a firestorm so brutal that you would have thought Mr. Aaron murdered someone, like George Zimmerman. The Braves’ front office received hateful mail criticizing Mr. Aaron, calling him everything from a racist, to a scumbag, to……once again, a nigger worthy of death. Of course, these hateful words come from a group of people who, while entitled to their opinions, have never accomplished anything of merit in their lives. In addition, these people call Mr. Aaron these names in relative anonymity, as they would never say these things to his face. Simply put, Mr. Aaron is being insulted by a group of nobodies whose greatest accomplishment was flushed down the toilet.

Meanwhile, Mr. Aaron cultivated a twenty year Hall of Fame career despite having to deal with blatant racism and hatred from an America that still hasn’t learned to accept and love her African American denizens.  Mr. Aaron is definitely qualified to speak candidly about America.

He is currently 80 years of age, and persevered through the days of segregation, when a black man of his stature (in fact, a black person of any stature) couldn’t even eat at the same restaurants as his white teammates. Add this to the hate mail Mr. Aaron received in 1974 and in 2014, and you can see where his disenfranchisement with America’s treatment of black people comes from.

Those who think we’re living in a post racial America because a half black man is President of the United States are sadly mistaken. The hate mail the Braves received regarding Mr. Aaron’s comments regarding race relations in 2014 reflect that fact. I applaud Mr. Aaron for speaking his mind while refuting the delusional people who think that all is well in the land of Stars and Stripes when it comes to race relations. Instead of those hateful people criticizing Mr. Aaron for his comments with racial slurs, maybe they should consider hearing him out in an effort to really improve race relations. But that’ll never happen, because racism doesn’t just seep from America’s pores, racism make up America’s pores. Only time will tell if a real race relations conversation will ever take place.