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The inconvenient truth behind the Little League 'racism' scandal that sparked uproar

'This was another race scandal manufactured on iPhones miles away,' said sports writer Kirsten Fleming, accusing adults of ruining youth sports

WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA: An incident happened earlier this week during an MLB game. A clip of the Davenport, Iowa, Little League team went viral accusing White players of racism as they put cotton on a Black teammate. 

Despite Little League International clarification over the matter that said, “We have spoken with the player’s mother and the coaches, who have assured us that there was no ill-intent behind the action shown during the broadcast,” Twitter continued to buzz with vile comments. A user shared, “I need to know if his parents are Black, because I don't see any Black parent being ok with this. This statement is not good enough, and in no way indicates they understand or care about the seriousness of the situation.”

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Another one said: “I feel like we need to get all hands on deck this is unacceptable @playersalliance @MLBDevelops and all these non black parents pretending it was just a joke, kids being kids can kick rocks!” “This is so sad because these are literally the moments that Black Americans look back upon and realize how messed up growing up with white people can be. SN: after realizing how this is racially insensitive there should have been reprimanding there. Like right then,” the third one added.

Carolyn Hinds, a Toronto-based film critic and journalist, even went on to say to The Washington Post: “As a Black person, and a Black woman, just the whole idea of someone putting cotton in any Black person’s hair immediately upset me. For us, the history of cotton in and of itself is tumultuous.”

Kirsten Fleming has now slammed the whole drama while writing for The New York Post as she said: “Like Covington Catholic, this was another race scandal manufactured on iPhones miles away.” The journalist continued that “what should have been one of the happiest times of their lives, I was reminded of something my late father used to say about youth sports, ‘It’s the adults who ruin it all.’”

“Of course, my father was talking about a small percentage of the grown-ups, but when they do it, they do it up big. Poor behavior on the playing field by people who are old enough to know better has become a national epidemic. We’ve seen so many videos of parents brawling at their kids’ games that it should be its own sanctioned sport,” she explained. Fleming then again jumped on to the August 21 episode as she noted, “Many of these shameful incidents occur from the sideline — presumably done by people who have a stake in that child’s life. However, the most recent example of adults ruining youth sports came in the most 2022 way possible: from absolute strangers on Twitter. With little-to-no context, social media erupted, essentially accusing the boys of being baby Grand Wizards and subjecting their Black teammate to racial humiliation, using cotton as their weapon.”

The senior writer for The Post mentioned the Black player, Jeremiah Grise, who was portrayed as the victim by social media. She said, “Did anyone, at any time, consider Grise’s actual feelings in the matter?” She also described what actually happened that day. “Both Black and White teammates used the plush stuffing on their heads to imitate Jaron Lancaster, the dominant pitcher from Honolulu who has a very striking white-dyed mohawk. Lancaster with his bat, arm and hairstyle had emerged as the big man on campus and the Iowa boys had just gotten his autograph,” she shared.

“It felt pretty gross for strangers to tell a 12-year-old boy, that they don’t know, to feel bad about something because of the color of his skin. In doing so, they projected their own cynicism onto him unfairly, making him bear the weight of their personal grievances. While most, who had no skin in the game, had already moved on to the next event in their oppression olympics with little regard for the boys or the innocence they trounced over,” Fleming concluded.

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