In February 2012, Richard Cebull, a U.S. District judge in Montana, sent an email on his official address to a group of people that racially insulted President Barack Obama.
It included a joke that implies Obama’s mother Ann Dunham was impregnated at a party at which she was drunk. Of course a white woman would have to be drunk to have sex with a black man, right? Ha ha, really funny.
What was really whacky was Judge Cebull’s apology and explanation. He said he knew the joke was racist, but don’t dare call him racist.
“The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan. I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama,” he said.
That nonsense came from the mouth of a federal judge, folks. He apologized to the president, and resigned in May 2013.
Which brings us to a text conversation between two unnamed (as of Tuesday) members of the SLU baseball team during a road trip to Washington, D.C. in May 2015.
A conversation about dinner took an odd twist.
“I heard they got a colored running the country.. This Tru?”
“Unfortunately, it is,” responds another player.
“(Expletive) watermelon eatin baboon,” reads the following text.
Brenden Twomey, a team manager who is black, was made aware of the texts, but took no action. He still had a captured image of the conversation on his phone and a friend saw it. Twomey was convinced to finally report the incident.
What took so long?
“When I received that screen shot, obviously I knew it was wrong, but I was in a tough situation because I didn’t want to necessarily hurt anybody,” Twomey told the SLU campus newspaper.
“You become close (to the players) because you do spend so much time with them, so you overlook (that),” Twomey said. “At the same time, I felt extremely disrespected. I knew there should be some sort of punishment, but I didn’t know how to go about that.”
Dozens of comments appear after the Post-Dispatch story about this sordid episode. The majority either find a way to say the culprits should not be punished through some type of twisted interpretation of First Amendment, that it is just “boys being boys” or further insult the president.
It has been verbal open-season on Obama and his wife, Michelle, since he was elected. It’s disgusting and it’s racially driven. What is most troubling, though, are the many intelligent people that look me in the eye and say, just as Judge Cebull said, “It’s not racist.”
Adam Serwer, BuzzFeed national editor and a former MSNBC reporter, wrote in Mother Jones in 2012 that “Cebull doesn’t seem to understand there’s no way to deploy racism exclusively against President Obama. Racist animus cannot be focused on a single person. It is, by definition, a collective judgment on an entire people.”
He added that this is “why some conservatives don’t seem to understand why so many black people react to such language as though they’re being personally targeted. They are, even if those doing the targeting don’t seem to realize it.”
Mona Hicks, dean of students, said the players would not be disciplined because it was a private conversation.
It doesn’t matter. The players showed their true color, pun intended.
Since the story came to light, Twomey said tobacco spit was splattered outside his door and nail clippings left on the cloth he uses to clean his glasses.
Heyward stays classy
Jason Heyward returned to St. Louis for the first time since signing a big-bucks free-agent contract with the Chicago Cubs last winter. The All-Star right fielder was a Cardinal for a season before turning down a reportedly larger offer to be a Cub.
Carrie Muskat, a MLB.com reporter, wrote that Jayson Heyward “was greeted with a mix of boos and cheers when he stepped to the plate in the first inning.”
I must have seen another game. Cubs starting pitcher John Lackey, who also chose the Cubs over the Cards in free-agency, got a mixed reaction from the crowd. Heyward was booed vociferously, a fact that was illuminated by video on ESPN SportsCenter and MLB Network.
Heyward took it all in stride and certainly appreciated the Cubs’ 5-0 win and Lackey’s masterful pitching.
“People just don’t boo anybody. If they boo you it means you must be doing something,” he said following the game.
Before the game, he told Muskat “St. Louis was a special experience. It allowed me to go step out and be myself again. Free agency is free agency. I had to make a decision.”
Philly says “sorry” to Jackie Robinson
When Jackie Robinson took the field against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1947, Phillies manager Ben Chapman told him “go back to the cotton fields.” He was refused service at a hotel and taunted by players with racial slurs when he came to bat. Some Phillies acted as would-be snipers, pointing their bats at Robinson as if they were rifles.
On April 15 the Philadelphia’s city council did what St. Louis and other cities should do – apologize.
”He faced tremendous racism in our city,” Councilwoman Helen Gym said. ”It was something he never forgot, but neither should we.”
Members of the Cardinals, including segregationist Enos Slaughter, reportedly were going to boycott games against the Brooklyn Dodgers, and it was reported in many newspapers.
The late Joe Garagiola was among those that said it was not true. Something was up, though. National League president Ford Frick announced that any player who refused to play against Robinson would receive a lifetime ban – and that’s a fact.
Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook and appears on ABC’s The Allman Report and several sports radio shows. His Twitter handle is @aareid1.
