On the heels of the news that former World Series Most Valuable Player and Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Dave Stewart will lead a Diverse Equity Ownership Initiative for the Music City Stars baseball organization, Stewart told The Tennessee Star that George Floyd’s murder is one of the reasons why the new initiative exists.
“Baseball has been – for as long as the sport has been played – it’s been owned, it’s been run by people other than minorities,” Stewart told The Star. “Unfortunately, the George Floyd murder brought attention to a topic that really needed to be addressed by mostly white people in America – and that is what are we practicing in our daily lives, and are we really recognizing the fact that we don’t open ourselves to people other than ourselves?”
“And that actually could be – it can be open to both sides – both blacks and whites,” he said. “Are we really opening ourselves up to people other than ourselves?”
Stewart noted that the reaction from white MLB executives in the wake of Floyd’s murder was visceral.
“[Former Red Sox and Cubs executive] Theo Epstein was public in what he had to say and how he felt – he wasn’t consciously doing it – but the people he was hiring and the people he put around himself were people who looked like him,” Stewart said. “And [Yankees General Manager] Brian Cashman said it, and [Mets General Manager] Billy Eppler said it, and three general managers started to question their practices in hirings.”
Stewart said that if the Nashville Stars are allowed to become a part of Major League Baseball, the team’s plan is to “be black-owned, but also to be diverse.”
He said the MLB is currently working to figure out situations for two franchises that are struggling with their locations (the Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays) before potentially expanding to Nashville. The organization’s website says its goal is to be an MLB team by 2025.
Long before hiring Stewart, the team’s stated goal was to bring diversity and equity to America’s premier baseball league.
“Upon approval from Major League Baseball, together we will make history by becoming the first franchise to honor a team name from the Negro Leagues-Nashville Stars. Music City Baseball is excited to announce our collaboration through a revenue sharing partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum,” the Stars’ website says. “Diversity without equity is not enough and honoring the traditions and history of the Negro Leagues is a way we can connect to our history and our future. Baseball is a bridge to a better, more equitable society.”
The Star reported many large corporations are working to implement Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scoring systems, which are remarkably similar to social credit scoring systems.
Experts fear that such systems could exclude those who do not adequately participate in social justice initiatives, as determined by large corporations, or even the government.
BlackRock, America’s largest hedge fund, is at the forefront of this power play by large companies.
BlackRock has done just that, and some worry that the practice could lead to a Communist Chinese-style “social credit scoring system,” where people or corporations are punished if they do not meet ESG requirements.
“Stakeholder capitalism is all about delivering long-term, durable returns for shareholders. And transparency around your company’s planning for a net zero world is an important element of that. But it’s just one of many disclosures we and other investors ask companies to make,” a recent letter from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said. “As stewards of our clients’ capital, we ask businesses to demonstrate how they’re going to deliver on their responsibility to shareholders, including through sound environmental, social, and governance practices and policies.”
Many states have preemptively banned the practice of ESG scoring.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dave Stewart” by John-Morgan. CC BY 2.0.
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