Baltimore Orioles Manager Buck Showalter said on Wednesday night he’d “never been black” and so couldn’t possibly begin to understand what the black residents of Baltimore were feeling, television station WFXT reported.
Showalter’s comments came after the Orioles hosted the Chicago White Sox in front of an empty stadium. The stadium, Camden Yards, was closed to the public as protests turned violent over the case of Freddie Gray, who died after sustaining injuries while in police custody.
“You know, I’ve never been black, okay?” Showalter responded to a reporter. “So I don’t know, you know I can’t put myself there, I’ve never been, you know, faced the challenges that they face, okay? So I understand the emotion, but I don’t, you know, I can’t — it’s a pet peeve of mine when somebody says, ‘Well, you know, I know what they’re feeling. Why don’t they do this? Why doesn’t somebody do that?’ You have never been black, okay? So just slow down a little bit.”
“I understand, you know, we’ve made quite a statement as a city, some good, some bad,” Showalter continued. “But, now let’s get on with taking the statements we’ve made and creating a positive. You know, I want to be a — we talk to players, I want to be a rallying force for our city.”
Watch the video below, courtesy of WFXT:
h/t Mediaite
Never been an Orioles fan, before this:then tweeted Angelos, and thus speaks Showalter. Now: gimme a B …
(groan)
Brilliant, Buck, just brilliant. Got any other pearls of wisdom?
Y’know, it seems like such an obvious point, and yet it’s lost on a lot of people. I applaud him for saying it.
Not the kind of stuff you generally hear from a white athlete. Good on him!
Exactly - I really think it is THE response that most white people need to give.