DeShields won’t ‘stay quiet’ after hearing n-word in Bronx
What Delino DeShields Jr. heard was viler than anything the Bleacher Creatures could invent on their own.
According to the Indians outfielder, DeShields heard two Yankees fans call him the n-word while he was roaming the outfield grass in 2017 while with the Texas Rangers.
“They were wearing me out, talking about my sister, how I would never be as good as my dad, normal stuff,” DeShields told ESPN’s Joon Lee during a wideranging conversation about race in baseball. But then, when the Yankees fans started using the slur, he fired back.
“I turned around and I told them to f—k off. I’ll beat your ass,” said DeShields about when he heard the racist taunts. “I was mad as f—k at that point. That’s f—ked up. In that sense, you feel very alone. Even if you do say something, how many people are going to do something about it? That’s just a situation where you feel alone.”
DeShields is one of many African American baseball players speaking out about racism inside the sport since May 25, when the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, provoked demonstrations in his city of Minneapolis, around the country and the world.
The son of 13-year majorleaguer Delino DeShields told ESPN his father warned him against speaking out, based on his own experiences in the league.
“I was always taught to not make the white man mad,” DeShields said. “That was how I was raised with whatever I was doing, just respect white people ’cause white people have the power in America.
“If I felt like I was disrespecting somebody who was giving me an opportunity to play, who was writing my checks and I disrespected them, well all right, if you disrespect me and how I feel, then I don’t want you on my team. That’s scary to think of, that people have so much control over your life and way of living.”
DeShields isn’t as scared of white people retaliating, whether it’s racist Yankees fans or baseball’s bigoted power brokers. He told ESPN he feels like a “sellout” for not joining former Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell, who knelt during the anthem as a rookie in 2017 in solidarity with then-49ers QB Colin Kaepernick.
“I always felt like I should’ve been out there with him, and now he’s not even in the league no more,” DeShields said.
If there’s a season in 2020, DeShields will compete for significant playing time in Cleveland’s outfield, but Maxwell joined Acereros de Monclova in the Mexican League.
“It just sucks that happened to him,” said DeShields.