Friday, June 14, 2013

Sebastien De La Cruz Stands Up To Racists

There are few things in the world that piss me off, but racism, unbridled, in-your-face, I-don’t-have-two-active-brain-cells-to-rub-together racism just makes my blood boil. I cannot grasp the notion at looking at someone of a different color and hating them on sight; I cannot fathom the idea of hearing someone with a strange accent, and then deciding they are un-American. I don’t get seeing a young boy, dressed in a costume that represents his heritage, and then taking to the internet and telling him to leave the country.

But that’s what happened……

The story begins with Darius Rucker, the country singer who was once a member of Hootie and the Blowfish. Ricker was scheduled to sing the Star Spangled Banner before last Tuesday’s NBA Finals game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, but due to travel problems he was unable to make the game, so eleven year old Sebastien De La Cruz, who had appeared on “America’s Got Talent,” was asked by the Heat to be a last minute replacement.

And he was amazing. Listen:



Pretty damn good, especially considering he was given very little notice that he’d be singing in front of millions of people on live TV, but you know, Sebastien had to go and wear that damned Mariachi costume; you know, like a Mexican, and so not American. He’d scarcely finished his last note before the bigots set down their Pabst Blue Ribbons and took to Twitter using hashtags like #gohome, and #yournotamerican:


This just sickens me. Go home? GO HOME?

Now, Sebastian has his supporters, of course, and they too took the internet, defending him on Twitter and Facebook, causing some of the racist bigoted illiterate uneducated asshats to close their Twitter accounts to  which I say, Good, and keep ‘em closed.

But, after all that, it was Sebastian who was his own best defender, taking to YouTube to talk to those bigots who hide behind their computers. He never called anyone a name—proving he’s a better man than I—and he never used a swear word—proving he’s a better man than I … again—and never made a threat. He never even raised his voice:




But he made those bigots on Twitter seem like the un-American ones, and while this is the ‘land of the free’ and those people have a right to their hate speech, Sebastien focused on the ‘home of the brave’ and stood up, for himself, and for every other person who has ever been targeted that way.

And, for the record, not that it makes a difference, Sebastien de la Cruz was born in Texas; his father served in the Navy.

He’s an American, asshats. An American who got the last word when, last night, at the request of the San Antonio Spurs, he was introduced by the Mayor of San Antonio, he performed the National Anthem again.

Snap.

via The New Civil Rights Movement

11 comments:

  1. You should have heard Daughter and I yelling at the TV when that story came on.

    Taking a deeeeep breath. There are a certain percentage of our fellow human beings who are just plain idiots, stupid and plain evil. Unfortunately they crawl out from under their rocks for a while.

    Sebastien De La Cruz is a hero in my book and wise beyond his years.

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  2. Too true.

    We could learn a lot from him.

    It's funny because Carlos and I were talking about this story this morning and he said something about people getting all racist if a Scotsman in a kilt sang the anthem, or a Middle Eastern man/woman in a turban.

    I said the Scotsman wouldn't have a problem because he's probably white, and this young Mexican boy, or a man or woman in a turban would more likely have darker skin and therefore, obviously, not be from this country.

    It's a brown skin thing for some of these wingnuts.

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  3. My Dad would politely ignore people who tried to find our ethnicity because of our odd surname and dark coloring. Drove them nuts and it was always noted - bad for them as he eventually became the boss of all of them.

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  4. Anonymous3:47 PM

    Being a Spurs fan, I totally missed this because I skipped the pregame to "watch" the local news. But then again I was working and had to rely on closed captioning to know what was going on.

    I hope he performs again on Sunday.

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  5. While I am trying to be level headed about this, there is a part of me that wants to hunt these motherfuckers down and clean their clocks. That said, I feel so much better.

    In reality, its is a small, small person who picks on a child, and when you add in the race issue, that person gets smaller. And everyone who hopped on the Twitter band wagon? Cowards, every single one of them. I really hope and pray that some them will learn their lesson on their own and in due time. Not holding my breath mind you, but its better o have them learn it than to have someone teach them.

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  6. Really pathetic with the twitter rants on the kid.
    Not surprising though, is it?
    GO SPURS!

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  7. I completely agree with you. The kid is a class act with a huge voice.

    Still, I sure do wish he'd worn jeans and a Spurs t-shirt. Perhaps the asshats were really attacking his costume.

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  8. voice of gold indeed! and the small-minded bigots crawl back under their rocks until the next time...

    I agree with cool cookie's first paragraph, but that would bring us down to their level (which is lower than a snake's belly).

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  9. Anonymous5:57 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Anonymous5:58 AM

    Bob, a boy in a kilt would have received 0 racist remarks was my first thought mostly because it was the first image I thought of when thinking of people who perform in national costumes. Maybe a german kid in lederhosen - nah.

    RJ - as a Spurs fan you probably know which playe(s)r shouldn't be on the team because they aren't American born. I imagine that these same twitter racist used to have a problem with black players but then they wouldn't be in the playoffs without them.

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  11. He performs with a mariachi band and he was representing his band with his clothing. He's a mariachi singer and a great one. I love this prodigy and was very happy to see him perform on America's Got Talent, representing a part of America that used to be Mexico, before the U.S. government took it over by force.

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