Rain, Risk Takers, Racists, and Rancor: Demonstrating Against the D-Backs
By Dave Zirin The Notion August 16, 2010
http://www.thenation.com/blog/154049/%E2%80%9Ctoday-we-did-some-good-diamondbacks-demonstration-dc
On Sunday in DC, I attended the 17th ballpark protest
of the
season. Like the other actions - in cities from
to
and clear message to Major League Baseball commissioner
Bud Selig: move the 2011 All-Star Game out of
and make the state pay a price for enacting legislation
that sacrifices immigrant families at the altar of
election year politics. But this demonstration was
also deeply different from the 16 others. It was a day
of rain, risk-takers, racists, and rancor. And it
couldn't have been more terrific.
First, the protest was publicly threatened by a
pugnacious anti-immigrant organization called Help Save
from people claiming to be connected to the group where
they threatened to "swamp" the Move the Game
demonstration and drive immigrant rights supporters
from the park. They also taunted that my writing on the
subject had led to them being "overwhelmed with phone
calls and volunteers." For the record, we had 100
people march during the two-hour protest. They had
seven. The group was so irrelevant that they went
unmentioned - from ESPN to politico.com- in the flurry
of subsequent media coverage.
Second, the demonstration outside was combined with
actions inside the park where four daring activists
stormed the field with one out in the fifth inning,
unfurling a banner calling for Selig to move the game.
In what could morph into a youtube sensation,
[http://tinyurl.com/24oe79u] an overzealous security
guard attempting to accost them, did a less-than-
graceful belly flop across the outfield. It might have
been the most exciting moment at a Nats game this
season. Rosa Lozano, who spent the evening in custody
for taking the movement to the outfield grass, said to
me after her release, "I did it because when history
reflects this egregious time of civil and human rights
violations I want to be able to have pride in saying
that I didn't stand idly by and allow human beings to
be treated like animals because of their immigration
status." Also, as the four were being arrested, two
separate banners with similar messages were draped over
the outfield walls. These banner bandits daring to
display a message that didn't say "Drink Budweiser" or
"Buy Season Tickets" were banned from the ballpark for a year
One of them, Brian Ward, said to me afterward, "I find
it funny how I am being banned from a stadium that I
helped pay for with my tax dollars. I say if that is
what it takes to get the All-star game moved, let's all
do actions like we saw today and show that we are
willing to do whatever it takes to move this game and
overturn SB 1070."
Another banner bandit, Navid Nasr, described to me a
scene in the crowd where "Two fans to our left
immediately became extremely hostile and attempted to
rip the banner away from us. Then something kind of
inspiring happened, two or three other fans leapt to
our defense, physically put themselves between us and
the belligerents and berated them, calling them
###holes and telling them to leave us alone and that we
weren't harming anyone and that we have the right to
free speech."
Free speech at a publicly funded billion-dollar park!
What a concept! That description of political
polarization mirrored what picketers saw outside the
park. Some fans were very supportive, even joining in
with the chants and doing a couple of turns marching
around in a circle, in full Nationals gear. Others
yelled, and heckled with all the zeal of Sarah Palin at
a book-burning. Two demanded to see the papers of a 17-
year-old picketer, Nate Taitano, who happened by sheer
and utter coincidence, to have brown skin. After the
demonstration, the young man said to a gathered crowd,
"I was born and raised right here in DC. I should be
asking them where the hell they're from."
But most critically, thousands of flyers, detailing how
people could contact Bud Selig and insist that he move
the game, were passed out to open fans. By day's end,
protesters were soaked, hoarse, and happy. As
Nelson, a firefighter from Baltimore who drove an hour
to be at the demonstration said, "Evil flourishes when
good people do nothing. Today we did some good."
Dave Zirin is the author of "Bad Sports: How Owners
are Ruining the Games we Love" (Scribner) Receive his
column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com.
Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
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