White Sox Respond to Controversial Scoreboard Image of Emmett Till
By Sean Facey
In the midst of displaying a list of famous people from Chicago on the scoreboard during Monday's game, the White Sox made a tasteless error.
Sandwiched in between Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak and Orson Welles was Emmett Till, an African-American man who was the tragic victim of a group lynching back in 1955.
Now the White Sox are responding to the outcry over the controversial image.
A White Sox spokesperson said it was “poor form” and an “honest mistake” to include Emmett Till on a graphic of well-known Chicagoans. https://t.co/pT9gBngEY8
— Sun-Times Sports (@suntimes_sports) June 30, 2019
Team executive Scott Reifert said that the choice to include the photo of Till was "poor form" and that it wasn't meant to be included as an insult to anybody.
Reifert also said that he spoke to the staffer who put the graphic up there in the first place, saying that it "minimalizes (that this) is a young man who lost his life." The staffer responsible is not expected to face any disciplinary action.
Till's death at the age of 14 in 1955 became a flash point for the civil rights movement.
The White Sox addressed a scoreboard segment during Saturday’s game that featured a picture of Emmett Till, whose 1955 murder in Mississippi was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement.
— Chicago Sports (@ChicagoSports) June 30, 2019
"It's poor form."https://t.co/8YmElNZCru via @lamondpope pic.twitter.com/dmDpwie9Hs
Though it's commendable that the White Sox have owned up to their terrible mistake, it doesn't excuse the fact that the photo of Till made it to the board in the first place.
Mistakes like these serve as a reminder of just how important it is to understand the history of racism in the United Sates.