Los Intolerantes

Last night our own local Bush's Boondoggle, the Texas Rangers, lost a home game to the New York Yankees. No news there. Since it was May 5, they decided to celebrate a widely-observed Mexican holiday, Cinco De Mayo, by wearing special uniforms for the night that said "Los Rangers".

This was jumped upon by the hate fanners of the far right. Their biggest blogging star of the moment (you know her, Filipino-American, defends WWII concentration camps for the Japanese, bashes Muslims and Hispanics for disloyalty, that one) portrayed this gesture as, somehow, in some parallel unexplored universe, "racist".

Now you'd think that the Emperor's Tailors would love a holiday celebrating a defeat of those horrid French forces (at the Battle of Puebla in 1862), but no -- someone translated the word "the" into a different language!! Any stick to beat "The Other" with. In fact, this was a well-planned promotion long in advance, with plenty of support from the community and local business.

On Friday, May 5, the Texas Rangers will celebrate Cinco de Mayo by wearing unique, commemorative jerseys. Following the game, each member of the team will autograph their game-worn Los Rangers jersey, and fans will have the opportunity to win the jerseys through a special raffle from the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation. Proceeds from the raffle will benefit Dallas/Fort Worth non-profit organizations that support the Hispanic community. The raffle tickets will be sold for $5 each at Rangers Promotions kiosks and by volunteers during home games through May 5. ...

The Los Rangers jerseys are made by Majestic and are styled after the Rangers home uniform. Los Rangers will be stitched across the front of the jersey and a commemorative Cinco de Mayo patch will be worn on the right sleeve along with the Texas flag patch on the left sleeve. ...

That night Texas Chevy Dealers will be sponsoring a Los Rangers T-Shirt giveaway to the first 10,000 fans 14 & over. Additional activities on May 5 will consist of musical performances from Mariachi Michoacan and the Latin Music Ensemble from Booker T Washington High School, and Ballet Folklorico de Fort Worth will be performing on the concourse prior to the start of the game.

Token Michelle needs to take her ill-fitting boot out of her mouth once again, and try peddling white sheets somewhere else.

UPDATE: For an incredible example of conservative-friendly jersey alterations, see the very next story.

UPDATE 2: Jack Cluth gets even more pointed with The Blogger from the Black Lagoon over this at "For the ignorant and small-minded shall always be among us".