Major League Baseball and the Chicago Cubs moved to distance themselves from one of their own Tuesday, after the news outlet Splinter published a cache of racist emails sent and received by Joe Ricketts, the billionaire whose family owns the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. Many of the published emails, sent between 2009 to 2013, focused on a fear of Muslims and contained conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama. The beliefs that Obama, who identifies as Protestant, is Muslim and was born outside the United States were prevalent in right-wing politics during his presidency. In one email, Ricketts wrote to somebody identified only as “S.V.” that, “Christians and Jews can have a mutual respect for each other to create a civil society,” but “Islam cannot do that.” He went on to write that, “we cannot ever let Islam become a large part of our society,” and that “Muslims are naturally my (our) enemy.”Major League Baseball released a statement condemning the emails but seemingly tried to absolve Ricketts of some responsibility.

Source: New York Times February 05, 2019 23:37 UTC