The Atlanta Braves have been deluged with hate mail after baseball great Hank Aaron’s recent comments about racism in America and President Obama’s critics.
According to USA Today, the Braves organization has received hundreds of letters, emails and phone calls since Aaron made his comments a week ago.
“Hank Aaron is a scumbag piece of (expletive) (racial slur)” read an email from a man named Edward, according to USA Today.
Edward evidently used the racist epithet five times.
“My old man instilled in my mind from a young age, the only good (racial slur) is a dead (racial slur),” he wrote in closing.
One man called Aaron a “racist scumbag,” while another vowed to never attend another Braves game until Aaron is fired from the team’s front office. A man named David said he plans to burn Aaron’s autobiography.
The outrage stems from an interview Aaron gave to USA Today last week, 40 years after he broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record.
Aaron said he still has the racist, threatening letters he received as he closed in on Ruth’s milestone to serve as a “reminder” that things aren’t too different from when he pursued the record.
“If you think that, you are fooling yourself,” Aaron said last week. “A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There’s not a whole lot that has changed.”
When he shifted his attention to Obama, Aaron seemed to compare Republicans to the KKK.
“We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated,” Aaron said.
He added, “We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country. The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”
