A series of private messages between three wives of Chicago White Sox players turned vicious, as they began calling each other “racist” during a discussion of last weekend’s mass shootings.
The women, Ariana Dubelko Giolito, wife of pitcher Lucas Giolito, Bria Anderson, the wife of shortstop Tim Anderson, and Elizabeth Swarzak, who is married to reliever Anthony Swarzak, were direct messaging each on Instagram after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, when Giolito began railing about the crimes of white nationalists. This spurred Swarzak to take issue with the term “white nationalists” and to reply that pushing all the world’s ills on white people was a very racist take on the country’s problems.
Giolito was infuriated at the direction the private discussion took, and she jumped to her public Instagram account to go on the attack against Swarzak, the New York Post reported.
“I am so disgusted and disappointed. Bria Anderson is a teacher with a master’s degree working on her doctorate while raising two girls and running a non-profit organization that works with the youth of South Side Chicago,” Giolito wrote on Instagram where she added screenshots of the private chats. “For someone within this baseball family to say such disgraceful and disgusting things, to shamelessly act in a demeaning and hateful way is reprehensible.”
Swarzak, too, was “disgusted,” as she noted in one of her messages to Giolito.
“I’m disgusted at your apparent racism towards white people and your belief that only white people are committing these crimes,” Swarzak writes. “If I highlighted the black on black crime in Chicago and said it’s only the black folks killing each other in Chicago and the north side is fine!! I’d be so racist, so your post is extremely irresponsible considering the actual crime committed by immigrants in this country. And the human and children trafficking.”
Swarzak pointed out that Chicago has a high murder rate despite strict gun laws, and added that the death rate in Chicago is like a mass shooting every single weekend.
But Giolito was undaunted in her personal attack on Swarzak.
“Half of the players in the MLB are IMMIGRANTS from Latin countries. To know someone among you holds hate in their heart or thinks of you as a criminal because of your birthplace is something I cannot even imagine,” Giolito said on the Instagram post. “… I’m angry and hurt for every person of color involved in this sport — the players, wives, front office staff, coaches, trainers, the fans who love this sport. And for the families of those who lost their lives at the hands of mass murderers who, in their own words, wanted to kill people of color.”
Ultimately, Swarzak accused Giolito of editing their conversation to make her look as bad as possible on her Insagram post .
Insisting that she “loves all people and respects all walks of life,” Swarzak exclaimed, “AN EDITED conversation doesn’t define ME!”
“Apparently there’s some confusion about white nationalism,” Swarzak added. “I think there’s nationalism which great to be proud of your country and there’s white supremacy which I completely oppose and believe there’s no superior race. But it’s irresponsible to use the word ‘white nationalism,’ as it spreads a false narrative that it’s negative to be proud OF YOUR COUNTRY. Again, this was an edited POST!”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.