TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese Major League Baseball (MLB) player Yu Chang (張育成) has become the latest victim of anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S., having received several racist comments from netizens after making a game-deciding error on Monday (April 12).
Chang, who plays for the Cleveland Indians, made an error in Monday's loss against the Chicago White Sox. While trying to turn an inning-ending double play in the bottom of the ninth inning, his throw hit the helmet of the runner and bounced into shallow left field, allowing the White Sox to score the winning run and walk away with a 4-3 victory.
Following the game, Chang's social media accounts were flooded with encouragement as well as criticism from disappointed fans. However, some netizens appear to have crossed the line by mocking his Asian descent.
In a tweet on Tuesday morning (April 13), Chang shared a screenshot of racist messages he had received from three different users. One had told him to "fix those slanty eyes," while the other two had referred to him as an "Asian f---ing retard" and "coronavirus."
Chang said that although he accepts both positive and negative comments, he will not tolerate racist remarks. He urged people to exercise their freedom of speech "in a right way" and included the hashtag #StopAsianHate.
(Twitter, Yu Chang photo)
Chang was soon met with an outpouring of positive responses from fans across social media after his posting, which was extensively covered by U.S. news agencies, including New York Times, NBC News, Yahoo Sports, Chicago Tribune, and ESPN. Indians manager Terry Francona also voiced his support for Chang during a press conference on Tuesday, denouncing the racist comments as "an excuse for some people to be stupid and ignorant."
Francona said he has spoken to Chang to make sure he was OK. He described the Taiwanese player as "extremely mature" and said he was handling the situation well.
As of press time, two of the social media accounts used to send racial messages to Chang have been deleted. The other one has been set to private.
In recent months, a number of Asian athletes have spoken out about abuses they have experienced personally. After Taiwanese-American basketball star Jeremy Lin said he was called "coronavirus" by an opponent in February, Korean-American Olympic snowboarding gold medalist Chloe Kim revealed that she had been receiving hundreds of racist direct messages on her Instagram every day.