There used to be a time when I thought America would get beyond its race obsession for no other reason than exhaustion. We would get tired of talking about it. The Baby Boom generation would die off and the following generations, exhausted from hearing the Boomer preen over race, would drop the subject entirely. As I crest the hill of my life, I no longer believe we will outgrow or move past our racial problems. Stories like this one are the reason.

Hank Aaron was a sports hero of mine when I was a boy. He was not the first black athlete to cross over, but he was one of the first to do it in a major way. In the 1970’s, Aaron was a superstar. There’s no doubt he suffered from racism and was treated poorly at times. He has also lived a fairy tale life that few people on earth have ever experienced. America, for all its faults, was really good to Hank Aaron. Yet, all that matters to him is the bitterness.

Hank Aaron has the letters tucked away in his attic, preserved these last 40 years. He’s not ready to let them go.

He almost has them memorized by now, but still he carefully opens them up and reads every word, as if he wants to feel the pain.

“You are (not) going to break this record established by the great Babe Ruth if I can help it,” one of them reads. “Whites are far more superior than jungle bunnies. My gun is watching your every black move.”

Yes, Aaron even saved the death threats, the ones that vowed to end his life if he dared break Ruth’s cherished all-time home run record.

“I wouldn’t have saved those damn things,” says Hall of Famer Willie McCovey, who grew up in Aaron’s hometown of Mobile, Ala. “I would have burned them. I had a few of them myself over the years. I don’t save stuff like that.

“Why would you?”

The answer to McCovey’s question is this. What defines Hank Aaron, as far as Aaron is concerned, is race. It is not his place in American culture, the fact that he overcame so much or the fact he has lived a wonderful life. None of that matters. He is man consumed with race, because he is defined by it. To be authentically black in America is to define oneself in relation to white America, real or imagined. For Aaron or most blacks to “move past that” is to abandon who they are.

Aaron’s march to history ended 40 years ago today, when his 715th home run vaulted him past Ruth as baseball’s all-time home run leader. Yet it was an often joyless and lonely pursuit, and Aaron says he has good reason to hang onto the cruel correspondence.

“To remind myself,” Aaron tells USA TODAY Sports, “that we are not that far removed from when I was chasing the record. If you think that, you are fooling yourself. A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There’s not a whole lot that has changed.

“We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated.

“We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country.

“The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”

Aaron is 80 and I suppose some allowance should be given him for that fact. Men grow bitter as they grow old. Often, men who were great athletes will get very bitter. I doubt Aaron passed on a career in physics to play baseball. All he had was his physical ability as a ball player. Once that faded, he was just another guy. That seems to be a very tough adjustment for many athletes and many get quite bitter.

On the other hand, Aaron is 80 and has seen a lot. When he was 15 and showing promise as a ballplayer, his future was bleak compared to white players. The best he could hope for was scratching out a living in the Negro Leagues for a few years and then heading off to the farm or the factory. Today he sees young black guys with promise getting doted on by coaches, agents and promoters. If you are a 15 year old black kid with anything on the ball, the world is your oyster.

How can Hank Aaron be so blind to that truth?

That’s the sad state of things. Fifty years of trying to fix race and the people see little progress? That’s what the polling shows. When more than half of blacks and close to half of whites think things are the same or worse as in the past, you have to wonder if it is worth all the effort. I’m as skeptical as any man, but I thought Obama would remove a lot of racial tensions. Obviously, that has not happened. That presents the obvious question. If all of these efforts have failed, what can be done?