J.J. Clarke's Nickname

[Joshchisox08]

Originally Posted by arc2q

I am perplexed / troubled why we in the vintage baseball world still insist on using J.J. Clarke's nickname, "Nig." You see it commonly used in discussions of the player, Baseball Reference, and even on the label of his PSA cards. There is no disputing the origins of that nickname. According to his Wikipedia entry (for what that is worth) even his wife despised the nickname. So, nearly one hundred years later why do we still use that nickname to discuss the player? And certainly why does PSA put it on the flip of his card? There is no reason to as the card actually refers to him as J.J.

No expert but there was quite a few players with that nickname. I would say why not use it though ?

Everyone else is making very good points here about the native American players being referred to as Chief or even deaf players as Dummy. Those are just as "racist" as JJ Clarke's nickname "Nig" historical aspect racial tones, whatever fact is that is what the player was known as to me that solidifies it enough to not matter.

I'm not entirely familiar with JJ Clarke so I'm assuming he must have had some black in him because in those days to be called that was the biggest insult you could get. Via Ty Cobb beating a heckler (after being called a half-nig) in the stands in NY. Despised by fans and even his teammates (paraphrasing) "I don't look for applause from the crowd but I wouldn't take back from the United States Army what that man said to me that day, and for the first time in my life I was happy the fans were on my side."

If it's good enough for the Ken Burns documentary for historical reasons it's good enough for me and purely they did it in my opinion for a historical aspect as well as well that's what the player was known as.

It's almost like changing your name if your name if Fred Parent for example and for whatever reason in the t206 set he is known as Billy Parent, then why ??? It wouldn't make sense to drop out a players nickname.