JMU Athletics did the right thing with the dumb Democrat who was caught on video heckling Winsome Earle-Sears at a football game a couple of weeks back.
Seriously, if you’re going to yell a racist insult, at least get the country right.
The school announced that it has suspended a fan – turns out, the father of a grad student football player – who shouted “go back to Haiti, traitor” at Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee for governor, who isn’t even from Haiti, but rather, Jamaica.
Earle-Sears was among a group of elected pols – Jason Miyares, the MAGA attorney general, running for re-election, and Mark Warner, the Democrat U.S. senator who faces a re-election campaign next year – recognized on the field during the JMU-ODU game on Oct. 18.
The offender: Scott Pogorelc, whose son, James Pogorelc, is a grad student offensive lineman, who spent four years at Stanford and one at Duke.
The younger Pogorelc, who played his high-school ball at Chantilly High School in Northern Virginia, isn’t getting much run with the Dukes this season – 21 snaps on the O line, 14 on special teams.
Pogorelc the Elder is now banned from Bridgeforth Stadium, and also out of work – he was fired from his job as an engineer with Zeta Associates, a subsidiary of aerospace and defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
“We hold all of our employees and subsidiaries to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct,” a Lockheed Martin representative told Fox 5 News in Washington. “Any behavior that violates our Code of Ethics will be thoroughly investigated, and employees found in violation will be held accountable. Zeta Associates investigated the matter, and the individual is no longer employed.”
JMU Athletics also issued a statement on its ban for the dad:
“James Madison University Athletics holds high expectations of fan behavior, as outlined in our fan code of conduct, to which fans agree when they attend a JMU athletics event. This includes an expectation that all fans act with respect for one another and display civility.
“The actions observed in the video posted on social media do not reflect this standard, nor our university’s values; we condemn and do not tolerate this type of behavior. This person has been suspended from attending athletics events at JMU. There has been a rise of incivility across the country, and James Madison University aspires to be a model of good sportsmanship and civil discourse.”
Earle-Sears was quick to use the incident to play victim – she’s desperate for any momentum that she can generate, seeing how she’s down double-digits in her race with the Democrat, Abigail Spanberger.
“I thought Democrats were supposed to love everyone … and just to be clear, I’m Jamaican. But I have nowhere to go back to – because America is my home,” Earle-Sears wrote on Twitter.
Now do ICE actually rounding up and disappearing other people for whom America is their home, amirite?
In a separate post, Earle-Sears wrote that she has “been called names no one should ever hear, and I’ve watched people hold racist signs meant to shame me. And because I have an R next to my name, few care. But I am no victim. Words won’t break me, and they won’t stop this campaign. We are going to win.”
She’s not going to win, but the part about being subjected to a “go back to where you come from” insult is indeed unacceptable.
Same as when Donald Trump says, as he did earlier this month, of Ilhan Omar, a Democratic congresswoman who emigrated to the U.S. from Somalia with her family at the age of 13, that he had asked Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, during a state dinner at the White House, to “take her back.”
As best we can tell, Trump is still welcome at JMU Athletics events, and he hasn’t been fired from his job.
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Chris Graham
