Racism Accusations Aimed At Kennedy Park Little League Team

CHICAGO, IL — A Chicago blogger and Little League baseball parent made public accusations that members of a local team were racist in dealing with a primarily Hispanic team from the West Lawn neighborhood. Ray Salazar, author of the "White Rhino" Chicago Now blog that focuses on education and Latino issues, made the claims in a post made Sunday night.

Salazar says that his son, who is on the West Lawn team, told him that players on the Kennedy Park Cobras team yelled something to the effect of ‘Àndale, taco boys!' when the visitors were making a lap around the field before a game at the Beverly/Morgan Park field on Sunday.

"Today, my son witnessed racism first hand," Salazar wrote in the blog. "Sadly, because of where we were in Chicago, I wasn’t surprised. I prepared him and told him exactly where we were."

The blog writer, who also works with Chicago Public Schools, said he was not surprised and noted in the post that he told his son that the neighborhood has a reputation for being racist even before they arrived at the field for the game.

Tensions continued throughout the game, according to the blog, which West Lawn won by a final score of 10-7. Salazar wrote that a Kennedy Park coach lost his temper after it appeared that players from the West Lawn team were laughing at a Kennedy Park player after he got hit by a pitch.

Since the allegations have surfaced, the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Kennedy Park Little League has moved to discipline several players and one coach involved in the incident. The league did not elaborate on the situation, only stating that while they disagreed with some of the allegations they did find that the league's code of conduct had been violated.

Salazar, in an update to his original blog post, said he believes the punishment is a one-game. And he supports that decision.

"According to their statement, it sounds like the players have an opportunity to return to the field after a one-game suspension. I hope they do," he said. "At the end of the day, they're kids... As adults, we need to help them learn from their mistakes and be athletes with integrity."

Salazar's blog post was shared dozens of times on Twitter, eliciting numerous reactions. Locally, the Southwest Chicago Diversity Collaborative released a statement condemning the alleged racist words used on Sunday and pushed for Kennedy Park League and public leaders to make similar statements.

According to their statement, the SCDC "extends its deepest apologies to the West Lawn Southwest Pride Little League team for the racist behavior and abuse they experienced at Sunday’s game."

"While some may feel compelled to defend our community’s diverse demographics or wait to speak until more facts become available, the facts we do know are undeniable: our community failed to create a welcoming space for people of color and the adults in our community bear the responsibility for speaking out against it. To be welcoming of a neighbor often means to welcome a stranger," it reads, in part.

"Despite our neighborhood’s diversity, too many of our public spaces do not reflect inclusivity for various minority groups. Rather than deny that this happens, which invalidates the experiences of people of color in an effort to protect our own self-image, we should face both the past and present incidents of racism and prejudice in our communities and actively work to dismantle them through direct action."

Statement from the Southwest Chicago Diversity Collaborative about the reported incident of racism at Kennedy Park in the Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/lLSDVngRBW
— Scott Smith (@ourmaninchicago) April 30, 2018

Read more via 'The White Rhino' on Chicago Now

Patch file photo / Tim Moran