Milwaukee Brewers player Josh Hader received a standing ovation from fans on his first game back after racist and homophobic tweets were made public during Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game, CBS News reports.
Hader was seen walking on the mound while fans at Miller Park gave the reliever a standing ovation on Saturday at a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Brewers Josh Hader gets standing ovation from fans in Miller Park #LADvsMIL pic.twitter.com/oz10XWeqjt
— Just1nMKE (13-3) (@Just1nMKE) July 22, 2018
The tweets, which were written in 2011 and 2012 when he was 17-years-old, said things such as, “I don’t give a damn, I’m a triply n*gger, f*ck my lungs, f*ck my liver!,” and “Funny how you never see a Black person getting mauled by a shark…#SHARKWEEK because they scared of the water.”
He also wrote, “white power lol” and “I hate gay people.”
Hader said there was “no excuse” for what he wrote and apologized to fans and his teammates for his past comments.
“There’s no excuse for what was said,” Hader said in a statement last week, according to CBS News. “I’m deeply sorry for what I’ve said and what’s been going on. It doesn’t reflect any of my beliefs going on now.”
Sports fans were quick to point out the double standard that Hader received from fans as opposed to how fans treated NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality.
“Kneel against injustice, get booed. Tweet racial, homophobic slurs, get standing O. Huh,” Undisputed host Shannon Sharpe tweeted on Sunday.
Kneel against injustice, get booed. Tweet racial, homophobic slurs, get standing O. Huh https://t.co/lm0elwv0dN
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) July 22, 2018
“When you give a standing ovation, it can give the impression that you are also giving a validation to the things that he did,” former NBA Jalen Rose said on ESPN’s Get Up! “All of us made dumb decisions growing up…but I want people to have caution when they continue to say he was only 17. When you’re 17, you should be old enough not to be a racist.”
My thoughts on this @mlb standing ovation….@getupespn pic.twitter.com/r4284xK2qw
— Jalen Rose (@JalenRose) July 23, 2018
Some were also quick to point out the difference in how the public treats White people for controversial things said in their past; a benefit that’s not given to Black people.
Black athletes who peacefully protest racially based brutality= "Fire those sons of bitches!"
Baseball player Josh Hader makes dozens of tweets with anti-Black rhetoric and racial slurs= "Well, he was just young at the time"— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) July 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/MicahPaulWhite/status/1019465860174397440