Again and again excitement about Donald Trump: the former US President attended a baseball game - and did not miss a controversial cheering gesture.
Atlanta - The agonizing death of African American George Floyd in May 2020 rocked the United States. Worldwide "Black Lives Matter" protests against violence against the black population followed. Floyd's murder - one of a long line of black killings in the United States - highlighted the deeply ingrained societal problem of racism. The debate put pressure on American baseball teams to position themselves.
The names of the teams, some of which had a racist connotation, also came into focus.
It all started with the Cleveland Indians - and renamed themselves the Cleveland Guardians.
A decision that, among others, the former US President Donald Trump no longer liked.
After the decision not to allow the NBA All-Star Game to take place in Atlanta due to the restrictions on voting rights in the state of Georgia, he even threatened to boycott future Major League Baseball (MLB) games.
He repeated that threat again as more and more baseball players knelt at the start of a game as a mark against racism.
Trump: Ex-US President causes excitement with racist gesture - "foreign shame"
The name of the Atlanta Braves baseball team is also considered controversial as it derives from an indigenous term. So far there have been no efforts to change this. Another controversial issue is the so-called “Tomahawk chop”, a gesture of encouragement that imitates the beat of a tomahawk. As US media unanimously report, this gesture is perceived as racist by large parts of the indigenous population.
"In our conversations with the Atlanta Braves, we have repeatedly and unequivocally made our position clear - indigenous people are not mascots, and humiliating rituals such as 'tomahawk chop', which dehumanize and harm us, have no place in American society," he said according to
Slate
the president of the National Congress of American Indians in a statement.
President Donald Trump does the Tomahawk Chop while at the World Series in Atlanta.
pic.twitter.com/CNmZcLYO8x
- David Hookstead (@dhookstead) October 31, 2021
Donald Trump and his wife Melania did not let that stop them.
During the Atlanta Braves game in Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros, the two could be seen cheering - including the "Tomahawk Chop".
Video recordings quickly circulated on Twitter.
"I didn't think that the chop could be more ashamed of others, but let's go," commented one person.
(aka)