Is anybody still watching baseball? After Major League Baseball made Marxist, race-baiting agitprop a permanent part of its website, and moved the All-Star Game away from Atlanta because Georgia legislators had the temerity to act to prevent voter fraud, numerous longtime baseball fans (me included) turned away from the game. But many Americans apparently still love sports more than they hate Leftist propaganda and the politicization of everything. An astonishing 34,000 people were on hand at Denver’s Coors Field Sunday for a largely meaningless game between two teams that are going nowhere, the Miami Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, and thus were on hand to witness America’s latest racist atrocity: a fan repeatedly shouting “N***er” at a black player. Except, as you may already have guessed, no one shouted any such thing.
On Sunday night, the Rockies posted a statement: “The Colorado Rockies are disgusted at the racial slur by a fan directed at the Marlins’ Lewis Brinson during the ninth inning of today’s game. Although the subject was not identified prior to the end of the game, the Rockies are still investigating this incident. The Rockies have zero tolerance for any form of racism or discrimination, and any fan using derogatory language of any kind will be ejected and banned from Coors Field.”
Good. Glad we have that cleared up. In this age of Trumpist white supremacism and all the other fictional Leftist race bogeymen out there, one could easily have gotten the impression that shouting the most toxic racial slur in America today at the top of one’s lungs in a ballpark crowded with tens of thousands of people was just fine with the Colorado Rockies.
Like the Rockies, ESPN went with the claim that the man had shouted what is now known as “the n-word” as if it were established fact: “Colorado Rockies investigating after fan uses racial slur during Miami Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson’s at-bat.” So did the Denver Post: “Fan yells racial slur at Miami Marlins’ Lewis Brinson at Coors Field; Rockies investigating.” And the New York Daily News: “Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson repeatedly called N-word by fan during game against Rockies.” And the Washington Post: “‘Disgusted’ Rockies investigating racial slur shouted while Black Marlins player was batting.” And AP: “Marlins’ Brinson target of fan’s racial slur in Colorado.”
Predictably, the most unhinged Leftist sportscaster in history, Keith Olbermann, was among the many who registered his dismay that the Rockies hadn’t announced “what they did to” the fan. (Would lynching be in order, Keith?) “Shouting the N-word at a game? Where is the @Rockies statement on how they apprehended the racist and what they did to him? Where is @mlb’s investigation? This is a private business and they are responsible for the conduct of their patrons.”
Related: Olympic Athlete Who Disrespected the Flag Turns Out to Be a Flaming Racist
There was just one problem with all this. Video of the incident shows the fan in question not even looking at Brinson or the game at all. He is looking at the Rockies’ mascot, which is named “Dinger,” waving to him and calling out his name. The Rockies acknowledged this Monday by retweeting sportswriter Thomas Harding, who covers the team: “I have talked to the #Rockies, who investigated the incident, tracked the fan, talked to #Markins [sic] Lewis Brinson. And as many of you and #9NEWS has reported, the fan was yelling for mascot ‘Dinger.’ Apologies come from the club, which also thought it hears the insult. And from me for casting aspersions on the fan base and stadium worker. The team also tracked video and audio from both broadcasts, even talked to season ticket holders, the fan and his wife. I am happy for the conclusion.”
As of this writing on Monday afternoon, however, the Rockies had not removed their initial statement from their Twitter feed, or publicly apologized to this fan, despite identifying him as a racist while video of him circulated all over the world.
There is an important lesson in this fiasco, although no one will learn it: If you go looking for racism, you’ll find it. If you see racism everywhere, you’ll see racism everywhere, no matter what the facts are. This incident is reminiscent of numerous blasphemy accusations in Pakistan that come across the transom every few days. Every time I see one, I wonder: Who would be fool enough to burn a Qur’an or curse Muhammad in the Islamic Republic, where such behavior can get you imprisoned, executed by the state, or lynched by an enraged mob? The answer is: hardly anyone. Most of the blasphemy accusations in Pakistan are trumped-up to settle personal scores or gain advantage. Some are based on willful misinterpretations of innocent behavior, such as an illiterate garbage collector picking up a torn page of what turned out to be the Qur’an from a street and putting it in an incinerator.
In Pakistan, if you think blasphemers are everywhere, you’ll see blasphemy on every corner. In an America riven by claims that racism is everywhere, race-baiters will actually believe that someone would be foolish enough to shout a word that can bring one immediate ostracism and personal and professional ruin, as well as violent retaliation, in front of thousands of witnesses. The Colorado Rockies and the establishment media accused this poor man of racism because they really believe the Leftist propaganda about how racist America is, and see confirmation of their worldview everywhere. Watch for Leftists not to apologize and drop this whole thing, but to start pressuring the Rockies to change Dinger’s name so as to remove the mascot’s “racist overtones.”
And then it will be something else. In the racist, fascist police state in which Keith Olbermann lives in his mind, you could discover a racist anywhere, at any time. And you can be sure that Keith and co. will keep looking.
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