When Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish had to bow out of singing the National Anthem for game 3 of the NBA finals, the San Antonio Spurs asked Sebastien De La Cruz to fill in. Sebastien, best known for appearing on America’s Got Talent last year, agreed to open the game for his beloved Spurs and the Twitterverse exploded. It’s not because he didn’t sing the song well or messed up the words (like many others before him). It’s because of his race.
According to some in the Twitterverse, Sebastien could not be a real American so he should not be singing our National Anthem.
Tweets with the words ‘wetback’ and ‘beaner’ and assumptions about his immigration status started flying through the interwebs until the tumblr page, Public Shaming, pulled them together into a post. Here is an excerpt:
People responded and started calling out those responsible for their racist tweets, and then tweeted to Sebastien in support:
Sebastien was poised and professional when he addressed these horrible comments:
This young man handled these attacks with poise and grace, qualities severely lacking in his attackers. I hope that we continue to support those who rise above this vitriolic hate speech and shame those who use it. Congratulations Sebastien on a wonderful performance!
Edited and published by WP.
