A group of black clergymen has come out to support a lawsuit against Major League Baseball demanding that the league return its All-Star Game to Atlanta to return the nearly $100 million in resulting revenue back to the area still struggling to recover from the coronavirus lockdowns.
A letter submitted Tuesday by the non-profit group Conservative Clergy of Color (CCC) asked federal court Judge Valerie Caproni to consider the massive loss of income that Atlanta’s minority businesses will suffer after losing the big game.
Judge Caproni is currently overseeing a lawsuit filed on May 31 by the Job Creators Network seeking the return of the All-Star Game to Georgia. JCN maintains that city businesses face a loss of up to $100 million due to the MLB decision to move the game.
In the Tuesday filing, CCC Chairman and founding member Bishop Aubrey Shines blasted MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s decision to pull the game from Atlanta’s Truist Park. Shines added that “in a move of reckless political retribution, the MLB took the All-Star game from Atlanta and in doing so deprived local small businesses of more than $100 million worth of much-needed economic activity.”
“Many of these affected businesses are black-owned and located in black neighborhoods,” Shines wrote. “The MLB’s decision to punish these minority small businesses and residents who bear no responsibility for their state’s political decisions is un-Christian and a violation of their civil rights.”
“The MLB must be held accountable for their egregious action that has significantly hurt Atlanta’s black community,” Bishop Shines said in his letter to Judge Caproni. “Therefore, please consider ruling in favor of the Job Creators Network and return the All-Star game to Atlanta and its black business owners and residents who deserve it,” Shine added.
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