Mariners Player Steve Clevenger Suspended for Racist Tweets

Seattle Mariners catcher Steve Clevenger has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the season after a series of racist tweets about the Black Lives Matter movement was unearthed. On Thursday evening, the athlete tweeted “Black people beating whites when a thug got shot holding a gun by a black officer,” referring to the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte. “Haha shit cracks me up! Keep kneeling for the anthem!” he continued, jabbing at athletes publicly protesting police violence. The same night, he added another set of indenciary remarks, calling President Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement “pathetic,” before saying they all “should be locked behind bars like animals!” The Mariners issued a statement Friday morning, saying that while Clevenger is “certainly free to express himself,” team officials “strongly disagree with the language and tone of his comments.” The catcher himself issued a non-apologetic apology: “I am sickened by the idea that anyone would think of me in racist terms. My tweets were reactionary to the events I saw on the news and were worded beyond poorly at best and I can see how and why someone could read into my tweets far more deeply than how I actually feel.”