Time for All-Star to explain himself
Josh Hader needs to expound on old tweets
Brewers pitcher Josh Hader is going to end up doing a round of sensitivity training, apologizing again and eventually moving on from the racist and homophobic tweets he sent as a teenager that were unearthed while he was playing in the All-Star Game, blowing up into a story bigger than the game itself.
That’s how this goes for talented people, right? Apology, contrition, a few hours with some HR people and, poof !, all the bad stuff is out of your system like a flu you treated with antibiotics.
But Hader, whose Twitter history includes gems such as “I hate gay people,” repeated uses of the N-word and simply, “KKK,” needs to go beyond the apologies, rationalizations and platitudes he employed after the game in an attempt to defuse the controversy. This time, “I was immature” isn’t enough.
If Hader, a 24-year-old professional athlete, doesn’t now believe the things he tweeted when he was 16 and 17, he needs to explain it. He needs to pour out his heart and detail his personal, sevenyear transformation from teenage bigot to tolerant adult.
Because without understanding what has changed about Hader’s perspective, what inspired him to stop being the hateful person that came through loud and clear in those tweets, an anodyne apology and a few sensitivity training sessions seem like little more than an excuse to move on.
It’s not outside of the realm of possibility that Hader has made that journey as an adult. Others certainly have, including retired NBA star Tim Hardaway Sr., who went from admitted homophobe to LGBT rights advocate.
But it’s not as simple as saying you disavow your former views and locking your Twitter account. It takes work. It takes introspection. It takes time.
Wade Davis, a former college and pro football player who is a public speaker and advocate focusing on racial, gender and LGBT issues, said his work with individuals in Hader’s situation has focused on taking a “journey” together to understand where the original beliefs came from. “We all need space to grow, and it’s true he was a kid then,” Davis said. “What’s missing, and what’s always missing, is an ability to clearly articulate what about him is different now and, more importantly, articulate the journey that he’s gone on that causes one to believe he’s different now.
“The work is a never-ending journey to understand yourself and those who are different from you.”
Sadly, plenty of people will automat- ically excuse what Hader did because he wasn’t an adult.
Admittedly, it can be problematic to go into someone’s social media history. It’s easy for kids to grow up now without the self-awareness that something they post could be found and publicized years later when they become prominent in whatever it is they do.
But this wasn’t an insensitive, racially charged joke or a teenager posting rap lyrics, things that are easy to write off as a dumb kid being immature. Though there are social media landmines everywhere, the truth is that most people don’t have to worry about racist and homophobic tweets from their youth coming back to haunt them because they aren’t racist or homophobic and thus wouldn’t even think about posting the things Hader did.
Rather, what he tweeted reflects vile and bigoted views that were clearly part of his consciousness at some point in his life. We should be open-minded enough as a society to believe Hader no longer holds that views, but only if he is willing to tell us exactly when, how and why he changed.