While the identity of the person or persons who hurled a racial slur at Orioles’ outfielder Adam Jones is unknown, another fan who was in the crowd at Fenway Park the next night has been banned for life for uttering a racial slur at someone else.
Team president Sam Kennedy said last night that the fan was banned for using a slur to to describe a Kenyan woman who sang the National Anthem before the game:
Calvin Hennick, a Boston resident bringing his son to his first Red Sox game 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 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, who is white, for coming forward. Hennick said that he believed the fan offering the slur assumed Hennick would appreciate his comments, assuming it was safe to say it only to another white person.
Which, based on my own experience, rings true. It’s amazing what people will say to you if you are superficially similar to they are. If you’re white. If you’re a man. If you’re an American citizen. If you’re straight.
Kudos to the Red Sox for acting so swiftly. If you want to be obnoxious, by all means, be obnoxious. You have that right. But do it on your own time in a place where people aren’t simply trying to enjoy some entertainment with their families. There’s no place at all for that at the ballpark.
