I was going to say “racist” but Ortiz doesn’t actually say that. I think the phrase “culturally insensitive” is stupid. I dunno. Here are his words, translated from Spanish, over at ESPN Boston. You decide what he thinks:
Know what? The part where Shaughnessy noted that a reason for his suspicion was because Ortiz was Dominican wasn’t the part that agitated me the most. Maybe Shaughnessy was ham-handed in saying it, but if forced to explain himself I think there’s a non-racist/insensitive explanation having to do with the undeniable fact that PEDs are more freely-available in the Dominican Republic and that many high-profile PED cases of recent years involved Dominican players.
“Yesterday, the guy came to see me and asked some questions about steroids, and when you see the writing, it basically focuses on the fact that I’m Dominican and that many Dominicans have been caught using steroids. And what about the Americans?” Ortiz said.
“If you’re from the Middle East, because there are some people there who put bombs and terrorize civilians, I have to see you like that, as well? If you are a white American, I have to call you a racist because white Americans were in the Ku Klux Klan?
Know what? The part where Shaughnessy noted that a reason for his suspicion was because Ortiz was Dominican wasn’t the part that agitated me the most. Maybe Shaughnessy was ham-handed in saying it, but if forced to explain himself I think there’s a non-racist/insensitive explanation having to do with the undeniable fact that PEDs are more freely-available in the Dominican Republic and that many high-profile PED cases of recent years involved Dominican players.
But I am with Ortiz generally in that Shaughnessy’s overall suspicion is baseless and unfair, and I think his points made later in the article about how he’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t are good ones.
