[WASHINGTONPOST] Next year, our nation will celebrate 75 years since Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. But three-quarters of a century after Robinson helped sports transcend racism, a new group of activists wants to ensure that future generations of ballplayers remain fixated on race.

As a Virginia resident and parent of two young children, I find attempts to indoctrinate Little League coaches on critical race theory not only troubling but also extremely harmful.

The news that the Alexandria Little League instructed coaches to cancel practice May 24 for a seminar on “equity” and “inclusion” held by the Positive Coaching Alliance raised questions on several levels. For starters, many children have spent much of the past year confined to their houses, given many park closures during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Canceling outdoor sports practice can only compound the physical, social and mental damage already imposed by the coronavirus lockdowns.

Moreover, these training sessions cost substantial sums — from $1,000 to $10,000,although the Alexandria Little League did not disclose how much it paid the Positive Coaching Alliance to conduct the training. For an “anti-racism” movement whose leaders have explicitly called capitalism racist, people sure do make some tidy sums engaging in this kind of training.

But more important than the cost of the training is its content, which raises the most questions of all. One document on the Positive Coaching Alliance website talks of “microaggressions,” suggesting that practically everything has racial or racist implications. Another glossary linked to by the site states that gender “transcends biology” and “can be very complex since people can identify in diverse ways.” That same glossary discusses “equality” and “meritocracy” in a skeptical light, asking “whether equality is enough and whether equity is a more important principle.”

But sports exist as perhaps the purest form of meritocracy, one that determines results based on one’s talents and preparation, rather than one’s race, class or background. Youth sports teach children many things — the value of teamwork, and good sportsmanship even in defeat — including the notion of fair play, where all competitors get treated equally regardless of who they are or where they come from. This type of “diversity” training would undo all that, replacing it with an unhealthy fixation on race as the source of society’s problems.