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Seth Jahn removed from U.S. Soccer Athlete’s Council after racially-charged rant

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Seth Jahn has been removed from U.S. Soccer’s Athlete’s Council in the wake of a racially-charged rant he delivered in an effort to object to U.S. Soccer’s decision to rescind its policy requiring athletes to stand for the national anthem.

The Athletes’ Council announced on Sunday that it removed Jahn as a member following his racially-charged comments at U.S. Soccer’s annual general meeting.

Jahn’s comments came as the USSF voted on Saturday to repeal Policy 604-1, which required all national team players to stand for the national anthem when representing the country. The repeal received 71.34 percent of the weighted vote.

Jahn, a native of Florida who represented the U.S. Paralympic National Team in 7-a-side soccer, said before the vote that he was sure he would “ruffle some feathers” with his comments.

“Given the evolution of our quote-unquote, progressive culture where everything offends everybody, those willing to take a knee our for anthem don’t care about defending half of our country and when they do so, then I don’t have too much concern in also exercising my First Amendment right,” Jahn said. “We’re here to get a different perspective. I also feel compelled to articulate that I’m of mixed race and representative of undoubtedly the most persecuted people in our country’s history, Native-Americans.”

After spouting off a claim that FBI statistics showed that 95 percent of deaths in black communities were committed by black men, the 38-year-old went on a tirade about slavery that downplayed the horrific period in U.S. history.

“I keep hearing how our country was founded on the backs of slaves, even though approximately only 8 percent of the entire population even owned slaves,” he said.

Jahn went on to comment that various races have experienced slavery, even mentioning his two-and-a-half-year stay in Africa where he “could purchase people, slaves, between the price of $300 and $800 per person, per head depending on their age, health and physicality.”

The former U.S. Army veteran went on to chastise the media and other individuals who he claims turn a blind eye to injustices in other parts of the world while criticizing their home country.

“Where were the social justice warriors and the news journalists there to bring their ruminations to these real atrocities? And yet in all of history, only one country has fought to abolish slavery, the United States of America, where nearly 400,000 men died to fight for the abolishment of slavery underneath the same stars and bars that our athletes take a knee for. Their sacrifice is tainted with every knee that touches the ground.”

The Athletes’ Council was quick to rebuke Jahn’s comments as they released a statement on Sunday saying that he “violated the USSF’s Prohibited Conduct Policy.” It added that it “does not tolerate this kind of language and finds it incompatible with membership on the Council. While the Council understands that each person has a right to his or her own opinion, there are certain opinions that go beyond the realm of what is appropriate or acceptable.”

Current and former players in the men’s and women’s national team programs also reacted to Jahn’s rant.

“To say I was offended by the views expressed today by Seth Jahn would be an understatement,” former U.S. center-back Oguchi Onyewu said in a tweet. As an African-American male I find his words, views, and disinformation extremely divisive and dangerous. There is no room in this world for discrimination of any form, and I will continue to speak for those whose voices continue to be suppressed.”

Becky Sauerbrunn also weighed in on Jahn’s comments saying that while he is entitled to his own opinion, he is neither “entitled to his own set of facts” nor “should use said facts in a way that misinforms and obfuscates the real issues at hand.”

The defender added that “our Black and minority players, fans and staff deserve nothing less than to be represented, heard and included in the decisions that impact the sport they love.”

Despite the criticism and removal from the Athletes’ Council, Jahn doubled down in a tweet later on Sunday saying, “I will never apologize for the statements made, and I will never bow down to the mob mentality of intimidation, bullying, or the social media warrior’s Gestapo tactics.”

 

Comments

  1. It is appropriate to suspend him because the USSF has had a very hard fight to be accepted in the black and latino communities. They are committed to inclusion in our world of soccer. This crap has no place in USSF.

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  2. Sad part is that this guy is just repeating what some dude on Youtube with a couple million followers said at 3am the night before. Don’t give him any special distinction for being an actual racist, he’s just a moron.

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  3. Then either stop playing the anthem of bench any player that kneels. I for one would boo the team if they brought that bull$hit to any game I attended.

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  4. I think that the headline is too soft on jahn. “racially-charged” is a way of softening the impact. Just say that his comments were racist.

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  5. Yikes, this guy sounds like a total wackadoodle with a total misrepresentation of history. To claim we were the only country to have ever fought against slavery is beyond laughable. Many other countries moved to outlaw slavery and the slave trade and hello, Haiti! A successful slave rebellion is the literal genesis of the country (and France and the US and others punished them mightily for it and the country still feels the reverberations of this today). Just wow! He’s weaponizing misinformation. Good for the Athlete’s Council removing this guy!

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    • Isn’t that such a weird phrasing about how slavery was removed from American life in the legal sense? Never mind all the ways it was perpetuated afterwards and maintained in other ways. The idea that America “fought to end slavery” leaves open so many questions. Like, whom did America fight? Once you know that, why did America have to fight to end it? Once you have more information there, you should be able to see just how important slavery was to America as a whole, right? That it was built into the founding of the country, right? It seems weird to me he even took the time to invoke that in his argument. He doesn’t wanna forget about it; there’s something much more sinister than just leaving it out altogether. Because surely it was the conservatives of the time who wanted to maintain slavery anyway…

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  6. As a veteran and someone who has read a fair amount of history (history minor in college and grad school)it seems to me that this man is clearly a racist. He has misrepresented history and /or distorted it in order to fit his narrative. He is a disgrace.

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    • for sure, he seems to have a problem with black people. Its crazy in 2020 we have people who still connect to the 1960s

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      • white supremacy is a sickness, so no matter what decade or century it is, if one race of people feel they are better than another race of people this what you get! The bigger problem is these types of people are running rampant in positions of authority and power such as legislators and law enforcement!

    • Ya know, what gets me so much is how people of his view quote history as if what they say is either representative of the whole picture or, in some cases, not entirely made up. To complain about the statement “the US was founded on the backs of slaves” is to necessarily be dismissing the relevant history. “Only 8% of Americans then owned slaves.” What percent of the people who wrote the constitution was it, Seth? It’s just so weird that they say they want to cite facts. The partial or truly upside down pictures they paint fly in the face of that sentiment so often I just want to be able to shake them and say, “THIS IS CLEARLY COMING FROM YOUR EMOTIONS!” What magical phrase would actually impart that fact upon them?

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      • I know right!!! And I think you hit on exactly what I did regarding his non apology-apology, and by that I mean he has the gall to say he welcomes the opportunity to debate anyone on the substance of his rant but without emotion being involved, when in actuality his ignorant, misguided rant was nothing but emotional LOL

    • So where exactly was he wrong? Seems like if you look up the facts for yourself, YOU would have to be the one distorting and misrepresenting the facts. But, on a blue website such as this, the reaction isn’t surprising

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