The AJA baseball league originated around 1906 form the plantation days of baseball leagues. Each ethnicity had their own teams and played against one another regularly. In 1996, former University of Hawaii All- American baseball player Billy Blanchette expressed interest to play in the AJA league. The league however, consists solely of players of Japanese ancestry, a tradition kept for ninety years.
             Blanchette, a Franco-American, was obviously not of this background while putting the league in a tough predicament. Representatives from each of the ten teams took a vote on the issue and unanimously decided against the acceptance of Blanchette. Through the research that I have found as well as the class information in Ethnic Studies 330: Japanese in Hawaii. I will present both sides of the argument and situation and then analyze it the best that I can.
             One side of the argument says there is nothing wrong with an organized group gathering together and hang out. Even if they all share the same ethnic background and refuse to let people not of this background in, it displays their way of preserving their cultural tradition. The term AJA stands for Americans of Japanese Ancestry so an AJA baseball league composed of nothing but Japanese players is and was expected. Wouldn't it seem strange to you if an AJA team was composed of non-Japanese: Whites or Haoles, Filipinos, Hawaiians, Koreans, Chinese and or even black players. The AJA has kept this tradition for about 94 years and view it as a way to preserve ethnic pride, culture, tradition, values, friendships, and shared hobby. They are not trying to rub the league into the face of other ethnic groups. The AJA knows how far they have come from the plantation days and are proud to say that the league is still ethnically strong.
             The other side of the argument is the obvious accusation that refusing Blanchette the right to play is blatant racial discrimination. In this...