By Perry Green, AFRO Sports Editor
It’s hard not to acknowledge just how divided our country is these days, especially after watching the Milwaukee Brewers take on the L.A. Dodgers in Milwaulkee on June 21.
According to TMZ Sports, Brewers star pitcher Josh Hader received “a hero’s welcome” when he took the pitching mound Saturday, despite the 24-year-old Maryland native recently being exposed for saying several racially offensive and homophobic comments on Twitter when he was a teenager.
Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Josh Hader throws during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday, July 21, 2018, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Hader had just shared a statement with the media last week, apologizing for tweets that he had made seven years ago, when he was 17-year-old. The tweets included hateful language such as, “I hate gay people,” and “White power.” He also tweeted “n*gger” in multiple tweets.
The MLB All-Star pitcher said last week that the tweets were inexcusable, but also tried to explain that he was just young at the time and simply made poor decisions.
“I was in high school,” Hader told reporters. “We’re still learning who we are in high school. You live and you learn. This mistake won’t happen again.”
MLB officials ultimately decided not to punish Hader for his old tweets, and his teammates rallied around the young pitcher as he held his presser to apologize. But popular media personality and Black activist Tariq Nasheed argued on Twitter that the standing ovation that Brewer fans’ gave Hader just proves anti-Black hatred has become completely normalized in the U.S.
“Baseball player Josh Hader was exposed for making a series of racist, anti-Black tweets, and when he stepped on the field today, he received a standing ovation from thousands of suspected White supremacists in the audience,” Nasheed tweeted. “Anti-Black hatred is a completely normalized culture.”
