‘Racism Is As American As Baseball’ Sign Hung At Fenway Park Over Green Monster

There was a surprising sign that showed up at Fenway Park in Boston on Wednesday, September 13, when a banner was draped over the left field wall that read, “Racism is as American as baseball.” As seen in the photo above, the banner was black with white ink that passed along a message about racism during the fourth inning of the baseball game. The Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics were playing at Fenway Park but the sign draped over the “Green Monster” captured the attention of the crowd, photographers, and now plenty of people on social media.

As seen on the Twitter account below of Jen McCaffrey, a Red Sox writer for MassLive, the message is bringing questions. That could be because the tweet writes the message as “Racism is American as baseball,” instead of what it actually reads, which is “Racism is as American as baseball.” Leaving out the first “as” has seemed to cause confusion in the reply section, which has folks pontificating the real message of the banner. As reported by Boston.com, the banner about racism appeared at Fenway Park for several minutes prior to security pulling the banner up and away. The fans who hung the sign about racism were escorted out of Fenway Park.

A sign that read 'Racism is American as baseball' was just dropped from the Green Monster by a fan at Fenway. pic.twitter.com/OYCbQYpjoh

— Jen McCaffrey (@jcmccaffrey) September 14, 2017

Meanwhile, social media is reacting to the sign about racism in a myriad of ways. Some interpret the sign to mean that things like baseball and apple pie are known as all-American types of actions and items; therefore, the protesters were stating that racism joins those pursuits as an all-American malady. With NFL football games being a big stage for players to protest police brutality by taking a knee or sitting during the National Anthem, it appears that baseball games may also become a platform to protest racism.

When one Twitter user replied that the protesters needed to unfurl another banner to explain the initial banner on racism, another Twitter user noted that the message was plain and clear to those who can clearly view racism in society. Another joked that the sign was not an endorsement for racism, even though it called racism a truly American thing.

[Featured Image by Charles Krupa/AP Images]