SF Giants owner supports far-right group attacking Black history and trans youth
When SF Giants principal owner Charles Johnson isn’t spending his time trying to put clam shacks out of business, he donates to some of the most conservative politicians and causes imaginable. While free agency has reached a standstill, Johnson was sending off checks to political candidates and groups at the end of last year.
Johnson, who is the Giants’ largest shareholder, owning roughly 26% of the team, sent $5,000 to 1776 Project PAC, a political action committee. “dedicated to electing school board members nationwide who want to reform our public education system by promoting patriotism and pride in American history.”
When you visit any page on the PAC’s website, you’re prompted by a pop-up to “Report a School Promoting Critical Race Theory.” That’s the mission of the project: to fight “critical race theory,” which means trying to keep schools from eradicating any mentions of slavery, white supremacy, or racial inequality from school curriculum.
But those are aspects of American history, and they’re factual. The Nation wrote that the new focus on fighting critical race theory “represents long-standing efforts to keep Black history—and the perspectives of Black writers—out of the classroom.” Essentially, the anti-CRT argument is that being truthful about America’s past is somehow divisive, or anti-white propaganda.
The 1776 Project claims that CRT supporters are “incredibly hostile to white people, Western civilization, classical liberalism, the enlightenment, the founding of America, and capitalism.” Not surprisingly, they also blame Marxism.
Johnson donated $3.77 million to right-wing candidates and PACs in the 2021 and 2022 election cycles. He was a big supporter of Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign, maxed out his donations to Ron DeSantis’ abandoned presidential run, and has supported a number of candidates supporting election conspiracy theories, like Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson.
That includes a recent donation to former Congresswoman Yvette Herrell, who objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election, and introduced a bill to offer political asylum to Canadian truckers protesting vaccine mandates. Johnson pledged to stop donating to election deniers after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but that pledge has been as hollow the Giants’ pledge to sign premium free agents.
Not only is the 1776 Project PAC trying to suppress Black history and minority authors, it’s also endangering trans youth. On their donations page, the group claims “we now know that children are being groomed to become transgender by radical activists in the school system.” For an organization that openly boasts about its desire to take over local school boards, it’s troubling.
So SF Giants ownership is hesitant to pay the luxury tax, but there’s plenty of money for candidates and organizations promoting hate. It’s a remarkably tone-deaf approach from the owners of a team in San Francisco, and despite promises, the Johnson family seems committed to supporting far-right causes and election deniers indefinitely.
