OPINION | This article contains opinion. This site is licensed to publish this content.
Pelosi accidentally used a picture of the wrong man to honor Willie Mays 90th birthday, according to The Western Journal.
“Happy 90th Birthday to an all-American icon, Willie Mays,” Pelosi tweeted.
“A trailblazing, record-breaking baseball player, civil rights leader, and champion for youth sports and well-being, Willie Mays is a civic legend and national treasure. #SayHey90.”
Pelosi accidentally used a picture of Hall Of Famer Willie McCovey When trying to Honor Willie Mays.
Both Mays and McCovey have their numbers retired by the giants and both are in The Baseball Hall Of Fame.
“2 Republican Senators Post Photos of Elijah Cummings in JOHN [FREAKING] LEWIS Tributes.”
“Did we mention John Lewis was a black civil rights icon? Because, yeah, he was — and these are Republicans. Hint hint.”
“Rubio’s honest mistake was one that John and Elijah were completely used to forgiving since they were considered doppelgangers: biologically unrelated but, to the unpracticed eye, looking so much alike that they were often mistaken for the other.”
“[h]er office fobbed the issue off to a staffer error.”
From The Western Journal:
There was plenty of love for Mays, particularly in San Francisco. On Friday, the Giants celebrated Mays’ life and career, giving him a “victory lap” around Oracle Park during a 5-4 home win against the San Diego Padres, according to ESPN. Recorded birthday wishes that played on the big screen included baseball stars like Barry Bonds and Derek Jeter; non-baseball talent, ranging from rapper Lil’ Wayne to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, also wished him a happy 90th. #SayHey90, referencing Mays’ nickname (“The Say Hey Kid”) and his birthday, also trended on Twitter.
San Francisco’s most powerful politician, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fired off one of those tweets on Thursday.
According to the Daily Mail, the picture is from McCovey’s 2018 wedding; he died several months later.
While both are Hall of Famers and both have their numbers retired by the Giants, that tweet is a pretty big whiff. After a few minutes, according to data from ProPublica, it was deleted and replaced with an actual picture of Pelosi and Mays.
Now, the question shouldn’t be how much blame we ought to ascribe to Pelosi for tweeting out a picture of the wrong black Giants star.
So what, then, is the importance of this swing-and-miss? I direct your attention to this New York Times story last summer after the death of Democrat Rep. John Lewis:
Mays’ birthday may not carry the same category as John Lewis’ death, but if there’s some whiff of racism lurking behind confusing one black man for another, it applies evenly.
There have been no stories on Pelosi’s gaffe by The New York Times thus far and the Twitter-shaming seems to mostly be conservatives laughing at the stupid mistake Pelosi’s staff made. There’s none of the blue-checkmarked hate, none of the accusations of racism — nothing like that.
It’s almost like it’s not really racism when a Democrat does it. Imagine that.
