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Terry Pluto: Isn't it time to look past skin color?
By Terry Pluto

So Derek Jeter is ``black and white... It's just you ain't all the way black.''

That's how Gary Sheffield characterized his former New York Yankees teammate.

Sheffield, now of the Detroit Tigers, is known for making outrageous statements, and he also has a book out, so drawing attention to himself might be part of the plan.

Sheffield made those comments to Andrea Kremer in an interview that aired Tuesday night on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. During the session, Sheffield accused manager Joe Torre of being tougher on black players. He basically said the Yankees manager is racist.

When it was mentioned that Torre loves Jeter, Sheffield dismissed that by critiquing Jeter's skin color. Jeter comes from a mixed marriage.

``The guy is just not thinking clearly,'' said Wayne Embry, the former Cavaliers general manager who now is a consultant with the Toronto Raptors.

Embry was the NBA's first black general manager.

``You can't have it both ways,'' Embry said. ``You can't say a person is black if they have `one ounce of black blood,' as they say on the street, then turn around and say what Sheffield did about Jeter.''

Then Embry let out a long, sad sigh.

``You'd like to think we're past all that,'' he said. ``It's one of those age-old things... ''

He meant back to the slavery days when the lighter-skinned slaves often worked in the house and those with darker skin picked cotton in the fields. It created a division between the groups.

Embry praised Jeter for ``taking the high road.'' Jeter refused to comment on Sheffield.

A few years ago, the Indians traded a few black players: Coco Crisp, Milton Bradley and Arthur Rhodes. I received e-mails from a few fans insisting the team was racist because C.C. Sabathia was the only black player left.

I replied that less than 10 percent of the players in Major League Baseball are African-Americans. That there's a major influx of Latinos and Asians, and that dressing rooms are now more racially diverse than ever.

I also mentioned that Grady Sizemore was from a mixed marriage.

Some replied that ``Sizemore didn't count.''

Not count as what? Black? White? As a human being?

Since then, the Indians have traded hot prospect in Kevin Kouzmanoff, white player, for promising black second baseman Josh Barfield. They called up Ben Francisco from the minors. Some might think he's ``mixed'' because of his name -- sounds a little Latino -- but he's an African-American from California.

Is that the best we can do? Look at a person's skin color and name, then throw him into a racial box, nailing the lid closed?

When I helped Lenny Wilkens write his autobiography, Unguarded, the former Cavs coach talked about being the product of a mixed marriage, about having one foot in two worlds.

There were times when he wasn't sure where belonged -- sort of stuck in a racial No Man's Land. He embraced his black heritage, and after a while, his racial identity was not an issue.

Embry mentioned a relative in his family, a little girl whose mother is black, whose father is Haitian and whose grandfather is Irish. In fact, Embry had trouble connecting all the racial dots. The girl came home one day from school upset because kids attacked her light skin.

Kids usually don't think about skin color until someone else makes it an issue. When I attended Benedictine High in Cleveland, about 35 percent of the enrollment was black. Many of those students were called ``Oreos'' by kids from their neighborhoods -- black on the outside, white on the inside. All because they attended a mostly white school.

That was more than 30 years ago, but I know it still happens today to some students. So in some eyes, it's not just your color, but do you ``act'' black enough? Are your friends black enough? Or Latino enough? Or whatever enough?

Isn't it time we all just said: Enough!

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