Red Sox Give Fan Permanent Boot For Using Racial Slur
You don’t have to be a player for someone to toss the term nigger at you at Fenway Park in Boston. Fans using racial slurs to insult and intimidate black players at Fenway is well known throughout the MLB among black players and even Latino/Hispanic players with darker skin tones. While we do have free speech in this country, there are consequences for using hateful speech, such as being banned for life from MLB stadiums.
BOSTON — The Red Sox on Wednesday permanently banned from Fenway Park a man they said used a racial slur toward another fan at Tuesday’s game, a separate confrontation from the insults directed at Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones a night earlier but one the team said it is taking just as seriously.
“I’m here to send a message loud and clear that the treatment of others that you’ve been reading about here lately is unacceptable,” Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said during an impromptu update for reporters in the back of the press box during Wednesday night’s game.
“We have to recognize that this exists in our culture,” Kennedy said. “It’s not indicative of Boston.
“It’s a handful of ignorant and intolerant people.”
The Red Sox took action on Wednesday in the wake of Jones’ being racially taunted during Monday night’s series-opening game in Boston.
The Red Sox have apologized after the Orioles’ Adam Jones said he was subjected to a slew of N-words and other racist taunts by fans at Fenway Park.
Jones said he was called the N-word by someone in the stands on Monday night. The Red Sox apologized to Jones, as did the mayor of Boston and the governor of Massachusetts.
Calvin Hennick, a Boston resident who brought his son to his first Red Sox game on Tuesday as a present for his sixth birthday, wrote on Facebook and confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday night that a neighboring fan used a variant of the N-word when referring to the national anthem singer. Surprised, Hennick asked him to repeat it, and the other fan did.
Hennick summoned security personnel, and they ejected the other fan, whose name has not been released. Hennick said the man denied to security using a racial slur.
Kennedy thanked Hennick, calling him courageous for speaking out. Asked if he felt inspired or emboldened by Jones’ comments a day earlier, Hennick told the AP: “I think I would have said something anyway. I’m kind of a squeaky wheel.”
Steve
Steve is an affordable multifamily housing professional that is also the co-founder of Whiskey Congress. Steve has written for national publications such as The National Marijuana News and other outlets as a guest blogger on topics covering sports, politics, and cannabis. Steve loves whiskey, cigars, and uses powerlifting as an outlet to deal with the fact that no one listens to his brilliant ideas.
