Attacking Tim Anderson for calling out workplace racism doesn't honour Jackie Robinson

This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

There have been a couple of moments when I've felt sort of like the modern Jackie Robinson of sports journalism.

Once, which I've discussed in public before, a big-shot columnist dismissed me to his nationwide audience as a "minority reporter," pressing Anson Carter to answer questions about racism in hockey. I don't know if he's a racist person, but that cheap shot was a racist act, one my colleagues at the Toronto Star interpreted, reasonably, as an invitation to punch the guy out.

But, like Robinson, who knew he couldn't retaliate against every white guy who hurled an n-bomb, or slid into second base with spikes high, I found the courage not to knock the taste out of this man's mouth. Robinson knew a fistfight would end MLB's integration experiment, and kept his cool for the sake of the Black players who would follow him. Similarly, I couldn't risk getting fired, and I didn't want future Black Canadian sports writers to face limited job options because I had throttled some smug old columnist.

My next kind-of parallel to Robinson came when I won the National Newspaper Award for Sports Writing, and became the first Black member of a previously all-white club. I had overcome obstacles past winners hadn't (see previous anecdote), and hoped my win could help inspire younger folks who grew up like I did — Black and talented, but unsure about creating space for themselves in stiflingly white Canadian institutions.

Now, I can hear some of you warming up your vocal chords to boo me for taking Robinson's name in vain.

Save it.

And before you berate me about comparing my 21st-century