Fans of the Little League World Series know that this year Japan beat Hawaii to end the U.S.’ five-year winning streak. But any way you look at it, with the teams from Japan and Hawaii (and Taiwan who played Japan before the Hawaii game) in contention, that’s a lot of Asian faces. So maybe it was inevitable that a mini-controversy would erupt when Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.” prominently blared from the speakers between innings during the championship game.
So why is this such a big deal? Well, if you actually listen carefully to the Boss’ lyrics, this is what you’ll hear:
Born down in a dead man’s town,
the first kick I took was when I hit the ground,
you end up like a dog that’s been beat too much,
till you spend half your life just covering up.
I got in a little hometown jam,
so they put a rifle in my hands,
sent me off to a foreign land,
to go and kill the yellow man.
