EDITORIAL: Irate Crew Fan and Protector of Columbus Racist Accuses Greg Lalas and MLSR of "White Guilt"

We have been willing to let the whole Columbus racist Crew hooligan thing go. It seemed obvious that the Crew and their fans were powerless to find out who fans who yelled racist slurs and threw objects including smoke bombs and full water bottles at New England players in a video first posted here, were.

That was until today.

Today we received a letter that thoroughly shocked us. It comes from a Columbus Crew fan who in his words "knows who the offender is." And who didn't report it because the guy "has a history of racial slurs without any repercussions following."

However the most shocking aspect of this is that he goes on to accuse writer and TV commentator Greg Lalas and us of suffering from "White Guilt" a reductionist term that is slightly racist itself.

To be honest perhaps we should probably be less shocked about all of this considering the source. No doubt we will once again be subject to angry emails, threats of lawsuits, or even death from Columbus "fans" who have little else to do with their time for publishing an excerpt from his long rambling letter. However we feel that in the interest of completeness and of justice (if in fact the guy who was identified by the writer truly was the man on the video) that this must be done.

Since the author did not request anonymity we feel OK in publishing his email address should you wish to share your thoughts on racism and "white guilt".

Excerpts with our comments in Green:

from Darrin L. Samson <darrin.samson@samson-carpetone.com>
to MLSRumors@gmail.com
date Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 9:59 AM
subject Crew racial slurs

The act of one idiot does not mean the entire Crew fan base and organization should be penalized. I took serious offense to your article that attempted to paint the entire organization as involved or protecting someone. As a successful business owner I learned long ago that alienating my customers is not a good idea. I wonder how many Crew fans there are that will never use your website again. I know I certainly will not.

Please don't then. We really would rather you didn't. As a business owner you should understand that your frequent use of our website constitutes interest in what we post. It does not however mean that you must agree with everything we post. The fact that you took time to write us speaks volumes. We for the record did not attempt to paint the entire Crew fan base and organization as racist, as some blogs allege. Rather, we did raise serious questions about certain hardcore elements amongst the crew fans and questioned why it was taking so long for any real action to ban the person(s) involved from Crew Stadium. Something we might add that we learned recently, after contacting Crew representatives, still has not happened.

Greg Lalas and you need to grow up and realize that there are morons in every crowd, at every game, and I could find evidence at nearly any sporting event. Where were you when Fire fans or Toronto fans came to town?

Please refrain from pointing the finger at others and insulting the fan bases of Chicago and Toronto. While they are loud, rowdy and fairly hostile to opposing teams, never once has either crossed the line into the bad behaviour, racism and hooliganism of *SOME* Columbus fans at the game vs New England which was the whole point. You can not blame your city's, club's, or fan base's behavioral and/or cultural nadir on the actions of others. That is immature and shows a lack of grasp on the gravity of the actions which took place that night in Columbus.

I was insulted every bit as much by things they were saying to Crew fans and me.

And yet by your own admission below you stood by and did nothing as it all went on behind you.

Nor will I sit back and let my rights be violated by your Nazi approach to handle or root out the offender

Classic. We report a story about inaction in having a racist fan banned and he blames the messengers and labels us Nazis.

I believe you and Greg Lalas must have a little bit too much white guilt. Must have been something you did in your past.

Unbelievable.

Besides I know who the offender was. He was sitting right behind me. I didn’t report it because the guy has a history of racial slurs without any repercussions following.

So then why didn't you turn him in THIS time? Let us get this straight. The guy has a history of repeatedly spouting off racist slurs at Crew stadium yet you sit idly by? That's actually worse than what we had suspected was going on.

As far as penalizing the Crew a point, they already were. Replays clearly show Dube was at least a yard and a half over the 18 before Joseph struck the ball.

And clearly your understanding of the game is as cloudy as your understanding of racism or common decency. Adios.