title:  Baseball Players Who Called Obama ‘F*cking Watermelon Eatin Baboon’ Won’t Be Punished (IMAGES/VIDEO)
text: A group of Saint Louis University baseball players won t be punished after an insanely racist conversation they had amongst themselves became public. While it might seem that a group of students in a position to represent the school might face some form of discipline if they were to, say. call the President a  baboon,  reference multiple awful stereotypes about black people, and complain that a  colored  is running the country. Unfortunately, the school is continuing a proud American tradition almost as ancient as the sentiments these students were busted expressing: protecting sports teams from facing the music for their actions.Last May, the team traveled to Washington, D.C., where the conversation in a pitchers-only GroupMe chat swiftly went from  where do we eat  to  Donald Trump s Inner Thoughts. One player suggested the  KFC in the White House    you know, because all black people eat fried chicken (har har). Another helpfully added that  They got rivers of the grape kind there,  another reference to a popular African-American stereotype among stupid people. I heard they got a colored running the country,  someone else said.  This Tru?  Another player replied,  Unfortunately.. It is.  The asker responded,  F*cking watermelon eating baboon. and Luke Sommerfeld needed a MacBook charger.via DeadspinIt s unclear if Luke ever found his charger, but one thing is for certain   the pitchers on the Saint Louis University baseball team are a bunch of racist f*cks.One of the players texted a screenshot of the message to his roommate, former team manager Brendan Twomey, who held on to it for almost a year until his girlfriend saw it on her phone. Together, the two filed a complaint to the university. Deadspin gives a brief rundown of the events that transpired: The report was filed on April 4On April 5, Twomey and his girlfriend spoke to a university investigator.On April 11, after not having heard anything about the status of the investigation, Twomey and his girlfriend sent the image to the Black Student Alliance, who posted it to their Facebook page. Dr. Mona Hicks, SLU s Dean of Students, said there had been a miscommunication and a meeting to discuss the case was supposed to be held the next day.But, according to SLU s bias-related incident report log, the investigation had been closed on April 7 and labeled not applicable for discipline. When I received that screenshot, obviously I knew it was wrong, but I was in a tough situation because I didn t want to necessarily hurt anybody,  Twomey said as he explained his reasoning for holding onto the screenshot for so long. You become close [to the players] because you do spend so much time with them, so you overlook [that]. At the same time, I felt extremely disrespected. I knew there should be some sort of punishment, but I didn t know how to go about that,  he added.Asked about her decision to fail to punish her racist baseball players, Hicks was full of excuses. If I were to directly state to you,  You suck because of all of your social identities that God gave you.  That would be wrong. That would require some adjudication,  Hicks said in defense of giving her school s pitching rotation a pass on the horrible things they said.  We also need to respect laws. This was a private conversation, or at least the perception of private between in-group parties. Hicks did not explain what privacy laws were broken, though the answer to that is  none.  One of the players sent the screenshot to someone who showed it to someone else. No one hacked anyone, no one took someone s phone without permission. All of the information was given willingly. But, hey   she was trying to protect these students  right to privacy rather than avoiding a disruption of the season that might lead to the team failing to make it to the playoffs two years in a row (ultimately, they did not), right?Instead, the players  chose  to participate in a  facilitated dialogue  about what they did and the team s four captains wrote a letter to the school newspaper apologizing for that racist thing their teammates did: The leaders and captains of the team would like to extend an apology to anyone offended by the bias messages. We, too, are frustrated and feel that the comments do not accurately reflect the values that we hold. So far, the only person to face any real punishment is Twomey, who has been harassed since he blew the whistle on the players  racist conduct. The Riverfront Times reports:Two days later, Twomey says he awoke to discover his roommate had sloshed chewing tobacco spit on the floor outside his bedroom door, as well as the kitchen sink. Fingernail clippings had been prominently placed on the towel Twomey uses to clean his glasses.(In a Wednesday Facebook post from Pulphus, Twomey s roommate was identified as SLU pitcher Brett Shimanovsky   in fact, Shimanovsky appears to be the very same player/roommate who earlier provided Twomey with a screenshot of the racist chat thread. Twomey himself declined to answer questions about his roommate s identity, but says the roommate has since voluntarily moved out. Shimanovsky did not respond to a message seeking comment.) I consider this retaliation for filing a bias incident report,  Twomey says in a video documenting Shimanovsky s actions:Twomey says he is disappointed that the university has not in any way punished the players, whom he says should have been forced to miss a conference tournament (but that clearly was not an option in the eyes of the school, of course). He calls the captains   letter an  insult,  though he notes that the team s coach, Darin Hendrickson, did take the time to discuss the issue with him. He said he was aware there was a culture problem on the baseball team, a culture problem of entitlement, privilege and immaturity. He also said it was one of his biggest regrets that he hadn t recruited more diverse players,  Twomey recalled. He adds that there are  racial issues  that need to be confronted.It started a dialogue and frankly it needs to be continued,  the student says.  Hopefully, this issue will light a fire under the university and get them to really dedicate themselves to the SLU mission of diversity and inclusion. Featured image via screengrab