Sebastien De La Cruz Stands Up To Racists

There are few things in the world that piss me off, but racism, unbridled, in-your-face, I-don’t-have-two-active-brain-cells-to-rub-together racism just makes my blood boil. I cannot grasp the notion at looking at someone of a different color and hating them on sight; I cannot fathom the idea of hearing someone with a strange accent, and then deciding they are un-American. I don’t get seeing a young boy, dressed in a costume that represents his heritage, and then taking to the internet and telling him to leave the country.

But that’s what happened……

The story begins with Darius Rucker, the country singer who was once a member of Hootie and the Blowfish. Ricker was scheduled to sing the Star Spangled Banner before last Tuesday’s NBA Finals game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, but due to travel problems he was unable to make the game, so eleven year old Sebastien De La Cruz, who had appeared on “America’s Got Talent,” was asked by the Heat to be a last minute replacement.

And he was amazing. Listen:

Pretty damn good, especially considering he was given very little notice that he’d be singing in front of millions of people on live TV, but you know, Sebastien had to go and wear that damned Mariachi costume; you know, like a Mexican, and so not American. He’d scarcely finished his last note before the bigots set down their Pabst Blue Ribbons and took to Twitter using hashtags like #gohome, and #yournotamerican:

This just sickens me. Go home? GO HOME?

Now, Sebastian has his supporters, of course, and they too took the internet, defending him on Twitter and Facebook, causing some of the racist bigoted illiterate uneducated asshats to close their Twitter accounts to  which I say, Good, and keep ‘em closed.

But, after all that, it was Sebastian who was his own best defender, taking to YouTube to talk to those bigots who hide behind their computers. He never called anyone a name—proving he’s a better man than I—and he never used a swear word—proving he’s a better man than I … again—and never made a threat. He never even raised his voice:

But he made those bigots on Twitter seem like the un-American ones, and while this is the ‘land of the free’ and those people have a right to their hate speech, Sebastien focused on the ‘home of the brave’ and stood up, for himself, and for every other person who has ever been targeted that way.

And, for the record, not that it makes a difference, Sebastien de la Cruz was born in Texas; his father served in the Navy.

He’s an American, asshats. An American who got the last word when, last night, at the request of the San Antonio Spurs, he was introduced by the Mayor of San Antonio, he performed the National Anthem again.

Snap.

via The New Civil Rights Movement