What's up with MLB fans and Latinos? Not only did hell break loose when Pedro Gómez interviewed Home Run Derby 2013 winner, Cuban Yoenis Céspedes in Spanish and was translating to English simultaneously, but now, fans felt "offended" that an "un-American" sang "God Bless America" at the All-Star Game on Tuesday.
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Singer, songwriter and multiple Grammy winner Marc Anthony was chosen to sing "America's song" in the seventh inning of the game with the American League in the lead. And although he shined and executed a flawless performance, hitting every note to perfection, the comments about his participation in the baseball event were not about how great he was, but something more like "what the hell is he doing there?"
Comments like "Why the f**k is a sp*c singing God Bless America?" and "Nothing like having a Mexican sing God Bless America for the #ASG what the f**k..." were some of the viewer's reactions to Anthony's performance.
Not only did people use racial slur to refer to the singer, but they catalogued his performance as "un-American" and even questioned his citizenship status. Other focused on his pronunciation, saying he rolled his r's during the performance for the word "American."
The fact is, Marc Anthony was born and raised in New York City and yes, he's from Puerto Rican descent (not Mexican) but still, he's 100 percent American.
It was also no surprise the league chose him to perform, as Anthony is a known Mets fan and has sung many other times for the team. He has also sung the Star-Spangled Banner at many other sports events.
The singer addressed the racial controversy saying: "Let's get this straight. I was born and raised in New York. You can't get more New York than me." He later added, "I'm more Puerto Rican than ever. I'm more New York than ever."
Unfortunately, Anthony hasn't been the only person of Latino descent who was attacked for singing songs considered to be American. Just last month, Sebastien de la Cruz, the 11-year-old Texas-born Mariachi kid, was heavily criticized for performing the National Anthem at the NBA Finals.
However, the young man addressed his haters in a very polite and mature manner: "I'm a proud American and I live in a free country ... It's not hurting me. It's just your opinion. With the racism remarks, to be honest, it's just the people how they were raised. My father and my mother told me that you should never judge people by how they look. You should judge them on the inside. And the saying that I go by is never judge a book by its cover."
Guess now we're all waiting for all the hate tweets against Mariano Rivera, the Panamanian who led the American team to a 3-0 victory and was named MVP of the All-Stars Game.
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