Big League Stew - MLB

Big League Stew

Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:48 am EDT

Racial stereotypes alive and not so well in Wrigleyville

By 'Duk

For as funny as I thought Marty Brennaman's rant against Cubs fans was, I thought it was probably a little overreaction to what was supposed to be a fun stunt. No one got hurt, everyone except Marty had a laugh and the game moved on .

But not even Brennaman hath enough fury for the knuckle-dragging morons that have been wearing this image to the right around Wrigleyville. I've always known that my fellow Chicagoans could be a little close-minded, but this sets a new low.

From the Sun-Times:

For all the innocently mistranslated signs, bows and zealous cheering from right-field bleacher regulars for the franchise's first Japanese major-leaguer, the mere creation of this shirt -- but especially its popularity — sends a raw, vulgar message about Fukudome's new hometown.

''I don't know what the creator of the shirt meant this to be, but they should make it right,'' Fukudome said through his interpreter after being shown one of the shirts Thursday. ''Maybe the creator created it because he thought it was funny, or maybe he made it to condescend the race. I don't know."

I'm headed to Wrigley both today and Sunday and if I see anyone wearing this, I think a public mocking, followed by a public shaming is perfectly in order. If neither of those work, I'm thinking a well-placed throat punching is next on tap. These people? They make me ashamed to call myself a Cubs fan. 

Related: Around the Ballyard, Fashion Ump

digg delicious
more

28 Comments

Post a Comment
  1. tonylarussa
    1. Posted by tonylarussa Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:20 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    "lighten up francis!" i think everyone should be more concerned about the drunken hooliganism that is a part of every game in wrigley. your comments about "throat punching" prove the point that people don't go to baseball game for baseball, they go to get pissing drunk and embarass the city more than a stupid t shirt ever could.
    i hate taking my small children to a game where i spend half the time explaining why people get wasted instead of explaining the game.
  2. Mike L
    2. Posted by Mike L Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:00 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    no it's not "politically correct" but what a hilarious sign!!!!!
  3. MarqPTM
    3. Posted by MarqPTM Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:54 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Everyone's looking to make a buck in Wrigleyville
  4. Eamonn Brennan
    4. Posted by Eamonn Brennan Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:50 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Agreed, Duk. It's utterly embarrassing to share a fandom with these idiots. The shirts are beyond the pale, but those headbands border on racist, too, even if they don't have anything nearly this caricatured on them.
    I shall join the throat-punching Sunday.
  5. Eddie M
    5. Posted by Eddie M Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:38 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    can someone buy me this shirt and send it to me?
  6. Steven Andrew Miller
    6. Posted by Steven Andrew Miller Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:43 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Everyone knows that Northsiders are a bunch of classless frat boys, who don't go to Wrigley to watch baseball, but to get drunk.
    You stay classy, Cubs fans!
  7. Ben H
    7. Posted by Ben H Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:05 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    It's too bad stupidity isn't painful.
    These are the same kind of people who freak out when the National Anthem isn't properly venerated.
  8. antoniozb
    8. Posted by antoniozb Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:57 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    It transcend beyond bigotry and it's a shame to be an American. As to you, Poster #8 Que Rico, I can tell, by your monicker ID, that you yourself belong to a different ethnic descent like Fukodome and myself. I can tell you have an IQ of a "Burro". Asians are more intelligent than whatever race you belong to "cabron." I bet you are driiving a Japanese car, "futo maricon" "Regrese a tu pais que donde veniste y chopa algunas nargas prietas y coma mierdas, sin verguenza." Yeah I am a Pilipino/Spanish/Italian descent who hates racist a$$holes like you.
  9. Sos G
    9. Posted by Sos G Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:33 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    This backlash is a classic case of American hypersensitivity. Anyone who finds this sign offensive has obviously not spent any time in Asia, because if they did, they'd understand that north Asians, in particular the Japanese, are the most ethnocentric people on the planet who unabashedly mock foreigners attempts at their language and who are all together not content with a foreign presence in their country in the first place. Poor Fukudome just got a taste of his country's own medicine.
  10. antoniozb
    10. Posted by antoniozb Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:57 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    There was once a joke about our fascist Pilipino President and his first lady. where the Prince Akihito of Japan visited the Philippines and before a big audience and a television audience nationwide, the Prince commented "You are very "rucky" (lucky) you have a president that "robs" (loves) you, and you are "ruckier" (luckier) because your first "Rady" (lady) "robs" (loves) you more. It was a very funny joke but somewhat detested by a lot of Japanese for the unjustified mockery and I concurred. Sos G #17, I disagree with your comment especially on the word "hypersensivity." That is the feeling that we should emote to dispel the notion perceived of Americans being "ugly" worldwide. I agree about ethnocentricity/chauvinism practice by some Japanese elitist, but nowadays, mix marriages are prevalent in that country.
  11. Mark R
    11. Posted by Mark R Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:18 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Yeah, this shirt is a bit classless, but if you think the Japanese are wonderful, egalitarian, enlightened people who would never look down on foreigners, "think again!" would be putting it mildly. Just have a laugh and then let the shirt slide into the obscurity that it deserves.
  12. richie rich
    12. Posted by richie rich Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:04 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Can't take a joke????
  13. sadsicklittleman
    13. Posted by sadsicklittleman Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:59 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    I have a simple solution for this issue: Cubs fans in the right field bleachers need to wear t-shirts that say "Sonno Joi" in Kanji. This solves two problems. First, it will be more comforting for Fukudome to take hjis postion and see racism he can understand. And second, since few americans can read and write in their native language, let alone kanji, all of those hyper-sensitive PC idiots will never be the wiser. Though they never are anyway...
  14. websoulsurfer
    14. Posted by websoulsurfer Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:42 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    To hell with all the PC pissing and moaning, that sign is funny!
    Harry would have loved it and then drank another beer,
  15. Ummagumma
    15. Posted by Ummagumma Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:46 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    The simple fact we're discussing this shows the superiority of our society.
  16. Cubs/Bears Fan
    16. Posted by Cubs/Bears Fan Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:30 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    I just ordered a Fukudome jersey, & I'll proudly wear it to the Metrodome where I live in MN I hate the Twins btw. the T-shirt isnt so much a degradation of Japanese players and their language, but more of a degradation towards Harry Caray
  17. Winston C
    17. Posted by Winston C Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:47 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    As someone who was raised in Chicago and Wrigley Field, I was on the interstate 80 West driving a 100mph to get to San Francisco after graduation because Chicago and the midwest are close-minded and insiduously racist. Regardless of what Japanese have done, Asian-Americans in Chicago are and have been subject to this close-minded, eurocentric racism. Up until the 2000, college sociology classes around the country used the example of Cicero and Berwyn and continued bastions of segregation. People from Chicago like to think that they are cosmopolitan because they live in a city, but bigotry is still alive and well. I cannot relinquish my love for the Cubs, however and this is our year.
  18. GForce
    18. Posted by GForce Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:08 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Japanese think they are the pinnacle of human creation. The see westerners as primitive, uncultured, Neaderthals. People would rather stand on the subway than sit next to a foreigner. Im sure he's a huge star in Japan and making plenty of money. A T-shirt shouldnt be taken so seriously when comparing to how hes viewed in Japan: "A shoopa tellific base-u ball-a prayer"
  19. dougblitz210
    19. Posted by dougblitz210 Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:10 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    Lighten up people... It's meant as a joke, take it as one.
  20. reason
    20. Posted by reason Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:11 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    The thing I don't get is why so many of you think it is okay to mock someone because you percieve their culture as one that would mock us. We don not judge ourselves or others on their standards, but our own. I feel like I'm talking to five-year-olds saying, "you don't like it when they call you names..." It is not permissable to commit an offense because you believe someone else will do it to you if they get a chance.
  21. P-Lo
    21. Posted by P-Lo Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:15 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    This is an an embarassment to not only Cubs fans and Chicagoans, but to basic humanity in general. The idiots who find this funny are the same kind of people who can't understand why people get upset over jokes about blacks or jews or gays or women or any other group they are not a part of. It's the lowest kind of humor, which would mean that those with the lowest IQs would find it funny. It doesn't matter if other people are allegedly racist or nationalistitic or xenophobic or whatever rationalization is used to justify it. the truth is that this is racism, which is, simply put, among the lowest forms of self-esteem building people have come up. You think this is funny, fine, whatever, the truth is that it makes you a bigot at best and a racist at worst. Now go laugh by yourself.
  22. boots43
    22. Posted by boots43 Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:11 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    The sign is not funny. It is insulting to an entire group of people and it shows Kosuke Fukudome what he can expect from the so-called fans at Wrigley. Originally, fans was short for fanatics -and in Chicago I guess it still is.
  23. boots43
    23. Posted by boots43 Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:11 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    The sign is not funny. It is insulting to an entire group of people and it shows Kosuke Fukudome what he can expect from the so-called fans at Wrigley. Originally, fans was short for fanatics -and in Chicago I guess it still is.
  24. DNY
    24. Posted by DNY Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:04 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    I get so sick and tired of people who like to throw around the term "politically correct" against people who feel that there is no humor in these idiotic, racially-tinged statements. And we wonder why people around the world hate us. We have no respect for others. And by the way, QueRico -- he's Japanese, not Chinese and if a Chinese person heard you confuse the two, that would be yet another insult. But since you're probably historically challenged, you wouldn't know that.
    Maybe the Japanese do make fun of us but I think that most are polite and respectful enough not to put their stupidity on public display. And just because someone else does it doesn't mean it's right.
  25. Larry Stevenson
    25. Posted by Larry Stevenson Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:25 pm EDT

    Report Abuse

    If you don't believe in free speech for views you despise then you don't believe in freedom of speech at all.

Big League Stew

Add to My Yahoo! RSS

'Duk

Big League Stew is an MLB blog edited by Kevin Kaduk. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.

Contributors:
David Brown, Alex Remington,

Teams

Customize to follow news and rumors on your favorite teams. [ Sign in ]

Related Photo Gallery

More MLB Photos »

Y! Sports Blogs

Big League Stew Recent Readers

(provided by MyBlogLog)