Why Was Santana Booed for Talking About Civil Rights?

Why Was Santana Booed for Talking About Civil Rights?

Why Was Santana Booed for Talking About Civil Rights?

Musician Carlos Santana spoke out at Major League Baseball’s Civil Rights Game in Atlanta against a new law that shreds the civil rights of Georgia’s latino population. The crowd booed him.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

Last month, the Major League Baseball’s annual Civil Rights Game in Atlanta took an inspiring twist when special guest Carlos Santana took a stand for the rights of immigrants in Georgia and across the country. How did the crowd react? By booing the legendary musician.

Just before the game, the governor of Georgia had signed HR 87, a law modeled after Arizona’s SB 1070, that authorizes state and local police the powers to demand immigration papers from people they suspect to be undocumented. When given the microphone, Santana stated, "The people of Arizona, and the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves." The cheers turned to boos. The Nation’s Dave Zirin reacts on PBS’s Need To Know to the irony of the crowd booing Santana on Civil Rights Day for talking about Civil Rights.

For Zirin’s piece on the Atlanta game, click here.

—Sara Jerving

Support independent journalism that does not fall in line

Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more. 

But this journalism is possible only with your support.

This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?

Ad Policy
x