Recognition delayed but deserved

HIt’s 100 years since the Negro Leagues’ founding! As a youngster, having descended from Cubans and being overzealous about playing baseball, I was always silently proud of any Black baseball player with Cuban roots. Let’s make note of their presence in and contribution to the Negro League, as it is now finally being recognized as a sibling to Major League Baseball. Some players from the Caribbean, particularly from the Spanish-speaking countries, avoided being associated with being Black or as an “American Negro,” and chose to be identified only as Latino or Hispanic. Some were picked to play in the white major leagues.

Others were of dark brown hue or Black and faced the ugly sting of racism and the discriminatory practices of baseball’s white Anglo-Saxon team owners. Let’s make mention of Minnie Minoso and many others from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. And lastly, let’s not be negligent of the first Black team, the Cuban Giants. The players (not one actual Cuban among them) were servers and other employees working in the famous Argyle Hotel out of Babylon, Long Island.

The Negro League was not just for the American Black man — it was for all who were of African descent and faced racism and discrimination that held them back from demonstrating their prowess! All I can say is: You are my heroes, may Allah bless you in paradise!

The Just Cause legislation (“Fast-food workers get new job protection,” Dec. 16) not only protects the job security of New York’s fast-food workers but also the health of these workers and their families. As health researchers, we know that evidence shows that irregular hours and arbitrary firings contribute to the high burden of psychological problems that low wage workers experience, burdens that also affect their children and families. In New York City, workers should no longer have to choose between protecting their own and their family’s health and keeping their jobs. The Just Cause measures provide a way for New York City to say thank you to the essential and frontline workers who have helped us to survive the pandemic.

Another three people dead from a fire in what appears to be an illegally converted house (“Queens death trap,” Dec. 20). Illegal conversions have been a totally ignored black-market industry that puts both tenants and firefighters in danger, generating vast amounts of income that goes untaxed at a time when there is talk about raising taxes here in NYC. The time has come for the city and the Department of Buildings to deal with this problem of unsafe housing as well as the prosecution for tax evasion of the unscrupulous owners of these properties. T.C. Henry

Illinois, Barack Obama. He had 140 days’ experience in the Senate. Had they let Clinton be their nominee, she would have easily beaten John McCain and become the first female president. Eight years later, Obama would have defeated Mitt Romney, and he would have had eight more years of Senate experience and been a better president. Had they stayed in their lane, they would have had the presidency for 16 straight years. Had they stayed in their lane, there would have been no President Donald Trump. Ponder that. That’s the liberal burden of brilliance.