an observation on racism and sports fans

Ok, unless you are living in a box or more off the grid then me you know that Arizona passed a law allowing police to demand that any person prove citizenship if there is a suspicion they are in this country illegally. One day soon I'm going write my response to this law, but not today. Today I want to contrast two articles about the response to this law that I have read.

Both of these article were posted on espn.com. The first one had to do with Ozzie Guillen's statements that unless the Arizona law was changed he would boycott the all star game next year which is to be held in Phoenix. Guillen is a retired major league player and current manager of the Chicago White Soxs. He also urged MLB to move the game out of Arizona in respect to the latino major league players. The second article featured the Phoenix Suns decision to wear uniforms that say "los sun" instead of "the suns" as a tribute to their latino fans on Cinco de Mayo. Steve Nash, perennial all star for the Suns, said that he supports the idea of wearing "los suns" jerseys and he personally believes that the Arizona law is a travesty.

There were a substantial number of comments about the immigration law written buy sports fans after these articles. Predictably, some writers supported the law while others argued that it was unconstitutional. This was true about both articles. However, there were also a substantial number of comments personally attacking Ozzie Guillen of his statements. Many of these writers basically told Guillen that he should keep his opinions to himself, and, if he doesn't like the state law he should leave this country. Nobody commented that Nash didn't have the right to talk about the Arizona law or that he should leave this country if he doesn't like the laws passed here. These commenters the still defended law but did not attack the speaker. The writers chose to insult Guillen personally but not Nash for having the same political opinions.

Ozzie Guillen is latino. Steve Nash is caucasian. I believe that this color difference is the reason for the difference in tenor for the commenters.

Oh yea, also, just so you know Ozzie Guillen has become a legal American citizen. Steve Nash is a Canadian (not American) citizen. Who do you think the Arizona police are more likely to target for identification?