The Oakland Athletics need to do more than just apologize for apparent Nazi salute

Words are not as impactful as actions, and so far the A’s nor Christenson have committed to doing anything.

After Thursday’s 6-4 win over the Rangers, the Oakland A’s bench coach Ryan Christenson decided to amend the team’s COVID-related victory elbow bump by throwing what looked like a Nazi salute.

In a widely circulated video on Twitter, Christenson can be seen throwing a crisp arm straight into the air, palm down and fingers pointed forward, that looks very much like a Nazi salute.

As players walk off the field to touch congratulatory elbows, Oakland A’s closer Liam Hendriks’ pushes Christenson’s arm back down, correcting his gesture. A few seconds later, Christenson, turns around, appears to point to Henriks and does the salute again.

Longtime A’s beat writer Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronical reported that Christenson was trying to do his usual ‘karate chop’ gesture.

A few hours after the incident, both the A’s and Christenson issued apologies. Christenson acknowledged what the gesture looked like, and said the Nazi salute wasn’t intentional.

“I made a mistake and will not deny it. Today in the dugout I greeted players with a gesture that was offensive. In the world today of Covid, I adapted our elbow bump, which we do after wins, to create some distance with the players. My gesture unintentionally resulted in a racist and horrible salute that I do not believe in. What I did was unacceptable and I deeply apologize.”

He further told The Chronicle that, “Obviously I wasn’t doing that intentionally. I just blacked out, my mind wasn’t there and I spaced out. I’m sure it looks terrible. I did it, but it was not intentional. I don’t know what more to say.”

The A’s followed up Christenson’s words with contrition as well, but again it misses the mark.

“A’s bench coach Ryan Christenson greeted players with a gesture that looked like a Nazi salute. We do not support or condone this gesture or the racist sentiment behind it. This is incredibly offensive, especially in these times when we as a Club and so many others are working to expose and address racial inequities in our country. We are deeply sorry that this happened on our playing field.”

Missing from the apologies is the acknowledgement that the salute, whether it was intentional or not, is an anti-semitic gesture that is wildly offensive to many people, but especially those of Jewish heritage and faith.

There’s a troubling and dangerous strain of casual anti-semitism that seems to be running through our country and one that many don’t want to acknowledge or appropriately deal with. We’ve seen it in sports with the recent words of DeSean Jackson, and from public figures like Ice Cube. Even thought both parties have addressed and apologized for their words, the ideology that lead to those statements is an uncomfortable reminder of the deep seated prejudices that still exist against Jewish people.

Whether Christenson’s salute is a product of anti-semitism, bad judgement or just unconscionable historical ignorance, the A’s and Christenson need to commit to doing more to atone for it. Words are not as impactful as actions, and so far neither have committed to actually doing anything. At the least, Christenson can learn why the gesture was so abhorrent or donate his game check to organizations that fight anti-semitism.

Again, it doesn’t matter what Christenson’s intentions were. He made a mistake —a very, very bad one —and the response hasn’t been proportional. There are those who think there should be harsher professional consequences for Christenson, but punitive measures aren’t always what is necessary or what works. What would really make a difference, to the Jewish community and many more, is Christenson committing to learning from his mistake. So far, that hasn’t happened.