Why You Think Ty Cobb Was a Racist (When He Wasn't)

 https://www.newsweek.com/2024/07/26/why-you-think-ty-cobb-was-racist-when-he-wasnt-1907257.html

After that Cobb's reputation was in the hands of the masses—who retold and freely embroidered on his legend. Over the decades, repetition became truth. Instead of being seen as a specific human being, he became a kind of blank canvas on which people could paint a portrait of a miscreant, being as inventive as they pleased. It was fascinating to imagine a racist psycho at large in the major leagues. The bad Cobb—reiterated and further fictionalized by Stump in a 1985 book called Cobb—was someone they could shake their head at, denounce, and feel superior to. Spinning stories in a way that made Cobb look immoral was an artful way of saying, "I am not a racist because I reject this man who is." Cultures change as values change, wars are waged and the harvest waxes and wanes, but a villain who inspires self-congratulation makes for one hell of a tenacious myth.