how far is up

The question of the day, for baseball fans is: why is it okay to make fun of athletes for being short? Why are race and religion not okay but stature, apparently is fair game? i.e. Jose Altuve 5' 6'' slugger on the Astros. Nobody says “Who knew a Hispanic guy could hit the ball that far?” Nope. It's his size they hang the humor on. Here's revered sportscaster Bob Costas' hilarious comment while Altuve celebrated after hitting a home run: "It's enough to make a guy feel six feet tall." Further evidence is the popular 70's song “Short People” which lays it out succinctly - “Short people have no reason to live.” Why not black people? Certainly they have no more reasons to live than a short one. Or how about short black people? Who can argue with that? Nary a mention. Perhaps someday "short" will be isolated as a race and then they'll fall under the umbrella of politeness. 

However Indians don't get a pass. They get to be team mascots and suffer the indignity of hilarious caricatures. We don't see the Nashville Negroes out there with a picture of Al Jolson on their caps. Speaking of that, there's no Jewish team either so here we have selective fun poking. Where's the Charleston Chinese with a chink in the armor?

Maybe the Indians have to take it because there just ain't many of 'em left. What's wrong with using the cause of that? Why no Cleveland Cavalry with a picture of Randolph Scott on the cap? If there was the Connecticut Cavalry, then they could play the Indians and we'd see what's what.
Back to Altuve, it all seems like good fun but I'll bet it originates in a dark place. People are accustomed to feeling superior to short people and they don't like it when one of them makes this very difficult. So they just have to bring it all back to the inescapable fact. They won't give him an even footing, so the Sportscasters have to keep reminding us that he's short, something Altuve has probably been fighting his entire life. They'll probably give him an asterix in the record books.