Thread by @MarieRaybern

Hi @MLS!

You’ve found yourself in a real situation, haven’t you? It must be difficult. You have supporters’ group with Anti-facist/Anti-racist “Antifa” flags, and you don’t want to upset the supporters of your teams that might find that offensive.
#AUnitedFront

@MLS I don’t blame you, entirely. Our current president and his administration have normalized racism, facism, and white supremacy. He said that at a Nazi rally in Charlottesville there were fine people on both sides. This is just one small example.

@MLS People of color are being attacked and killed, locked up in cages, made to feel afraid, etc. And there are many of us that find this rhetoric and his and his followers actions unacceptable, so we’ve decided to show that we will not stand for it.

@MLS This affects us as soccer fans in a very particular way. An example: We have many players in our league from South America. Our President has some not so nice things to say about these people.

@MLS So much so that one of his followers decided to shoot up a Walmart in El Paso specifically to kill people who have South American ancestry.

@MLS It is for this reason and many others that you might find different supporter groups wanting to speak out and display some political signage to reflect our feelings on this rhetoric and to offer our support to the people our president and his followers target.

@MLS Now, I get it. Our two party system often means democrat and republican get pitted against each other. And as you have fans who are both, you mean not to alienate one political group or show bias toward one group over the other. Both are paying customers, right?

@MLS So you’ve made a “No politics” rule and hope to appease “both sides.”

@MLS And so, when someone complained about the Iron Front symbol being flown by various supporter groups, you felt like you had to maintain the “both side”-edness of it all and kick out those flags and the people that wave them. Boy, what a headache this must have been for you!

@MLS See, the problem is, it seems fair to try to appease both sides. But, when one side is a worst white supremacist/Nazis and at best willing to ignore that they support a white supremacist, if you try to appease that side you are siding with white supremacists and Nazis.

@MLS Secondly, the idea that you can keep politics out of sports is almost laughable at this point. And usually the people who argue to keep politics out of sport are people with the privilege that don’t have to worry about politics negatively affecting them.

@MLS Here’s a great article: espn.com/espnw/voices/a…

@MLS Now, I know what you’re thinking. You want to maintain the look of being unbiased towards people’s political affiliations. Unfortunately, this is the wrong time to do it. Our country is an absolute shit show right now.

@MLS Four years ago it was different, and if I have anything to say about it in one year and some change it WILL be different. But for now, you’re going to have to choose sides.

@MLS You can choose to side with the supporter groups who fight against racism and facism, or you can choose to be against them.

@MLS I know, I know, “both sides”“Paying customers.” You’re just going to have to trust me when I say the sooner you make the right choice here, the better you will look in the history books. As they stand now, history thankfully tends to come out on the side of the anti-facist.

@MLS I believe in you, @MLS. You can make the right choice here. You can be on the right side of history. #AUnitedFront

@MLS I'm going to go ahead and CC @SoundersFC. I know these guys support us. I know they're in a tough spot with the league. I continue to love and support you, Sounders. Continue to love and support us, in return.