Jackie Robinson Statue Vandalized, And Don’t Blame The South


The Jackie Robinson statue paying tribute to Major League Baseball’s first African-American player and friend and fellow Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese has been desecrated, according to a report from CBSSports.com.

The statue depicts Reese with his arm on Robinson’s shoulder during the 1947 season and is located in MCU Park at Coney Island. On Wednesday morning, team officials from the Brooklyn Cyclones made the discovery, noting that someone had spray-painted it with swastikas and racist slurs.

Billy Harner, the team’s director of communications, said they immediately “went into action to try to clean it and remove the graffiti.”

“We have video surveillance of the area, we’re looking at the tapes to investigate exactly what took place,” Harner said.

The Cyclones had a scheduled game today at 11 am EST. As patrons were allowed in, crews began covering the statue in duct tape and said they would be using a solution to try and remove the paint.

The Jackie Robinson statue vandals used a plethora of disgusting phrases to deface the “symbol of tolerance,” officials said, including “die n***ers,” “f**k Jackie Robinson and all n***ers,” and “Heil Hitler.”

Robinson has been in the news in a more positive light than Wednesday’s defacement thanks to the 42 film released in April of this year.

Critics responded favorably to the portrayal of Chadwick Boseman in the lead role and gave the movie positive marks, though some fans were a little turned off by filmmakers ignoring Robinson and Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey’s devout Christian faith.

The film still scored big at the box office in spite of the minor controversy, landing the record of most money generated by a baseball movie with an impressive $27.2 million in its first two days.

Here’s the trailer:

The 42 film closed its overall theatrical run with $95 million, more than doubling its budget, and didn’t play in foreign markets, so those numbers are all domestic US. Thankfully, the vandals don’t represent everyone.

What do you think of today’s display of racism in Brooklyn, and what should happen to the vandals should they be caught?

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]

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