By: Isaac Graff
Earlier this month, emails were leaked from the inbox of billionaire Joe Ricketts. Ricketts is the owner of the Chicago Cubs, founder of the Omaha based company TD Ameritrade, and father of Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts.
The emails contained many racial and religiously insensitive comments and conspiracies, as reported by Splinter News, from Joe Ricketts and others. Such as, “We must all recognize the Islam is a dangerous element in our society due to its radical aspects,” and “I’m giving some consideration to having a book written with the title “Islam, Religion or Cult”. It would describe many things about Islam but most importantly describe and define where Islam crosses the line from religion to a cult.”
One of the emails was sent to Governor Ricketts from Joe Ricketts. Governor Ricketts responded asking his father to fact check the articles before forwarding them on to others. Joe Ricketts responded “Thanks Peter. However, I think Islam is a cult and not a religion. Christianity and Judaism are based on love whereas Islam is based on “kill the infidel” a thing of evil.”
Many companies and people affiliated with Ricketts have condemned the emails including Chicago Cubs General Manager, Theo Epstein who told reporters “The emails were upsetting to read and especially upsetting that some of our fans were put into a position where they had to consider a connection of their favorite team and some of those views,” according to Chicago Sun Times.
Dr. Paul Landow, Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said on the emails that “[Ricketts] was basically an equal opportunity bigot,” also stating “Mr. Ricketts has lost all credibility with many people and that definitely extends to Major League Baseball especially with players and fans.”
Landow however, does not believe that this story will be news for long, stating, “I think the nation as whole blow passed incidents like this, as Americans a vast majority of us don’t believe that sort of thing…and when we hear someone say it we just shrug and move on but, it may stay around here (Midwest) a for a while since he is related to the Governor and his family owns the Cubs.”
This is not the first-time emails from Ricketts inbox have been leaked out. Late in 2018, different emails were leaked out however, those emails were politically motivated according to another report from Splinter News.
