Recently, there has been a huge deal made of police killing unarmed black men. The responses by the affected communities have also been under much scrutiny. In response to the murder of Keith Lamont Scott, riots broke out in Charlotte. These riots drew less reaction than Colin Kaepernick and the kneeling saga, but nevertheless, some expressed their opinions.
One of the more vile commentaries came from Seattle Mariners’ backup catcher Steve Clevenger. He released a series of tweets saying:
“Black people beating whites when a thug got shot holding a gun by a black officer haha s— cracks me up! Keep kneeling for the anthem!”
“BLM [Black Lives Matter] is pathetic again! Obama you are pathetic once again! Everyone should be locked behind bars like animals!”
After Mariner executives caught wind of his rant, they immediately suspended him without pay. He was already out for the rest of the season with hand and elbow injuries;, he would’ve literally gotten paid just to be alive and occasionally show up for physical therapy. But Twitter fingers cost him a little under $34,000. His tweets were insensitive, ignorant and very racist. The Mariners could easily cite the moral clause that’s in his contract as the reason they could suspend Clevenger. A large part of me wants to laugh and say he’s getting what he deserves, but the story doesn’t end there.
There’s a small part of me that thinks he should have the right to express his thoughts without this type of repercussion. I don’t approve of racism, but what I do approve of is people having the ability to verbally expose themselves as the terrible people they are. Imagine a world where people are so afraid to say controversial things that they never publicly reveal their true feelings.
As a person who is disgusted by both systemic racism as well as interpersonal prejudice, I argue that we should aim to change racist thought processes. Moments like this don’t change the way people think, it just changes what people are willing to publicly express. Clevenger’s apology is clear proof of that. In his typical “I’m not a racist” pseudo-apology, he shot down the popular opinion.
“I am sickened by the idea that anyone would think of me in racist terms,” Clevenger said in a statement released to Fox Sports. “My tweets were reactionary to the events I saw on the news and were worded beyond poorly at best, and I can see how and why someone could read into my tweets far more deeply than how I actually feel.”
After reading that you should understand that his thoughts haven’t changed. That excerpt and other parts of his “apology” showcase how Clevenger urges that he isn’t racist, and that he’s disappointed that people are judging him in this way. Moments like these do require a certain amount of force, but we should also use them to have the uncomfortable conversations that begin the processes of growth.
The most troubling part of his critics is the fact that one phrase they’re using is eerily similar to a dissimilar but recent situation. Many people have said that as a backup catcher who’s injured, he should shut up and not say anything. Does that sound familiar?
All of my previous arguments would be self-serving and defeat the purpose if I only stood up for the right to express oneself so long as our views align. The Mariners do have the right to cut Clevenger’s pay and release him when he gets healthy. People wouldn’t be wrong in calling him racist and ignorant, but he has a right to be as morally repugnant as he wants.
