Derek Jeter's Racist Death Threat

[Moose]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-hatemail-jeter&prov=ap&type=lgns

 

 

AP - Sep 26, 6:44 pm EDT

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Yankees star Derek Jeter received a threatening letter that reportedly warned he'd be ``shot or set on fire'' if he didn't stop dating white women.

 

The FBI is investigating ``racially threatening letters to Jeter and others across the country,'' special agent Scott Wilson said Monday by phone from Cleveland. He declined to comment further.

 

Jeter downplayed what he called the ``stupid letter,'' saying he did not perceive it as a specific threat.

 

The Daily News reported that the hate mail to the Yankees' 31-year-old captain called him a ``traitor to his race'' for dating white women. It warned him ``to stop or he'll be shot or set on fire,'' the paper said in Monday editions, quoting an unidentified law enforcement source.

 

Similar threatening letters denouncing interracial relationships have been sent to other public figures in recent months, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Jason Taylor, and the parents of tennis star James Blake. The threats have been traced to the Cleveland area.

 

Jeter, who was in Baltimore on Monday for a game against the Orioles, said he heard about the letter two or three months ago and did not feel threatened by it.

 

``It wasn't like, 'I'm going to do this to you. I'm going to do that to you','' Jeter said. ``It was just a stupid letter. I've gotten stupid letters before. That's basically it. Now, for some reason, it's on the front page and it's some big, huge story.''

 

 

Jeter, picked by People magazine as one of the world's most eligible bachelors, has been linked with models, singers, actresses and athletes of various racial and ethnic backgrounds in New York's gossip columns. His mother is white, his father is black.

 

In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS' ``60 Minutes,'' Jeter said that he and his sister were taunted for being bi-racial while growing up in Michigan. But he said he has never heard any racial epithets from the fans at Yankee Stadium in his 11 seasons playing there.

 

The NYPD's hate crimes unit recently completed a four-month investigation into the Jeter letter, which police said was mailed to Yankee Stadium earlier this season. The probe's findings haven't been made public.

[See Red]

People like this make me sick.

 

How is he a 'traitor to his race' for dating white women? He's half white!!

[RedSoxRooter]

Ahh. But he's also half woman.

[Cityofchampions33]

LOL, isn't this guy notorious for doin this stuff? Like hasnt he done it to other people too? If so he really needs to get a life and leave respectable people such as Jeter alone.

[riverside sluggers]

this is just disgusting to hear, its the frigging 2000's. racism should be long gone by now. sure i laugh and make fun at jeter, but thats about it really, still have respect for the guy. and this "KKK" guy is complaining about him dating white women. what the hell is he supposed to do then, find and meet only girls that are half black/half white haha whatever dude

[ORS]

If the threat is saying he is being a "traitor to his race", then I doubt it is a bigotted white guy. Sounds like a disgruntled female to me.

[yankthis]

Though there are still enough bigots and racists around to spoil things for just about everybody, I realyl think the world is getting a lot better in this regard.

 

I grew up in a neighborhood where the racial mix of the population was about 50% white, 30% black, and 20% hispanic, in the late 60's/early 70's.

 

At that place and time, even with the fairly even racial mix in the neighborhood, mulatto kids were viewed as 'exotic' (for lack of a better word), and had to deal with all sorts of taunts and unpleasantries from all sides.

 

My kids are half black/half white (you can tell by looking at them) and are at school age now, in a neighborhood with about the same mix as above, but nobody has ever so much as batted an eye at them about their racial background.

 

It takes a long time for things to change, and the problem operates at so many social, economic, and pyschological levels, but it is very obvious to me that positive changes are taking place quite a bit faster than some are willing to ackknowledge.

[Soxfan1]

Yeah this is really sick. And how the hell would he put him on fire?

[Youk Of The Nation]

People like this need to be locked in a Porta-Potty with a swarm of angry bees and shoved down a mountainside.

[kyahbean]

I hate Jeter. A lot. But this is just wrong. And racist, and stupid. :thumbdown

 

And I hate the dude threatening him even more, because now I actually feel bad for Jeter...something I do not want to feel.

[yankthis]

"People like this need to be locked in a Porta-Potty with a swarm of angry bees and shoved down a mountainside."

 

But that wouldn't accomplish anything now, would it?

 

Put them to use. Give 'em the old leg shackles and let them spend the rest of their days breaking rocks for the highway. Them and the child abusers. Get them out of circulation and put them to productive use.

[kyahbean]

Put them to use. Give 'em the old leg shackles and let them spend the rest of their days breaking rocks for the highway. Them and the child abusers. Get them out of circulation and put them to productive use.

 

:thumbsup:

[CrespoBlows]

Yeah this is really sick. And how the hell would he put him on fire?

 

Ask Joan of Arc how that works.