Earlier today, National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis shared some thoughts about D.C.-area fans of the World Series-bound Washington Nationals:

I’m sorry, but I just do not have respect for baseball fans who move to DC from other parts of the country and become Nationals fans. — Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) October 16, 2019

For what it’s worth, the Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy took DeSanctis’ take a little further:

This is the correct take. D.C. is not a real city — stay loyal to your hometown team. https://t.co/7qzVTVXktL — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

The addendum to this is that it is okay to have the Nationals be your ***secondary*** team if your primary team doesn’t make the playoffs etc. — but D.C. is a made-up city so you can not abandon your hometown team upon moving here. — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

Little did Dunleavy know that he’d kicked a massive hornet’s nest:

Lots of people angry that I called D.C. a made-up city — some even calling me racist for doing so! — so, just to be clear, every city except for Cleveland is a made up city. Stop being fans of teams from made up cities. — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

Guys, this is not a drill:

It is racist to dunk on D.C. send tweet https://t.co/5EmvXfqF60 — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

It’s quite clearly a joke. Calm down. https://t.co/XwaUcDAgv7 — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

This Washington Post writer just tweeted then deleted a “send him back!” tweet at me in response to my joke. My veins can not handle this. pic.twitter.com/KiEyNfIssT — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

And Chris Richards wasn’t even the only WaPo guy to pounce (yes, we said “pounce”) on Dunleavy. Their social media editor Ric Sanchez also called Dunleavy out for his “kinda-racist DC take”:

lol shoutout to the guy who took the annoying baseball take and then upgraded it to the kinda-racist DC take pic.twitter.com/bfMBZEebiH — ?.?.?. sanchez (@ricsanchez) October 16, 2019

YES, DRAG HIM! — sharia board ??‍♂️?? (@SirajAHashmi) October 16, 2019

Drag him, Ric.

one hundred thousand yikes! — Hannah Jewell (@hcjewell) October 16, 2019

he's like quadrupling down, too! ! — ?.?.?. sanchez (@ricsanchez) October 16, 2019

Quadrupling down? Wow, this sounds serious.

Ric Sanchez isn’t a real Blue Check. https://t.co/DYmCdlfRMV — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

A Washington Post employee is doing nothing but tracking my tweets right now. Amazing. And excuse me sir but at this point I’ve at least quintupled or sextupled or septupled down at least. Arguably even octupled— you tell me, since this is apparently what you’re being paid to do! https://t.co/EUCXSKoLng — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

Nice work if you can get it.

ric, now that people are like hey dude don't do that it's now a joke, according to him!!!! — Chelsea Cirruzzo ☕️ (@ChelseaCirruzzo) October 16, 2019

he's not mad, he's laughing, actually — ?.?.?. sanchez (@ricsanchez) October 16, 2019

And as you all can see, there’s absolutely nothing funny about any of this.

It's racist because um it just is — Huell Babineaux did nothing wrong (@jtLOL) October 16, 2019

Ric Sanchez says it’s racist. His word should be enough for you.

not sure about this one! — Halloween Name Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) October 16, 2019

This ain’t it, chief — JCF (@jcfris1) October 16, 2019

How is this "kinda-racist"? — The Purple Pilgrim (@Purple_Pilgrim8) October 16, 2019

Racist? Lmfao — Malak Kobbe (@Malak_Kobbe) October 16, 2019

Where's the race part? I'm confused. — Zombie Aaron, MD ?‍♂️ (@swaggymdees) October 16, 2019

DC is not a race — Reluctant Exister (@IriathZhul) October 16, 2019

It’s not? No way.

This is ridiculous. Unplug for a day, man. — Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 16, 2019

lol all i'm saying is that's it's a tone-deaf tweet at best — ?.?.?. sanchez (@ricsanchez) October 16, 2019

What’s tone-deaf about it? Seems like Ric’s the tone-deaf one here.

i just feel like someone who (even jokingly!) says "dc is not real it's all K Street transplants" must realize that their experience is perhaps different than that of a lot of people who are from here, who also do not look like him — ?.?.?. sanchez (@ricsanchez) October 16, 2019

I will stop trolling for one sec here. Ric is calling me a racist because he’s mad I joked that D.C. is not a real city while dunking on transplants who move to D.C. & become bandwagon fans of the Nationals. A bit of sports humor by me — and he is calling me racist in response. https://t.co/r7a4fM6iSb — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 16, 2019

All in a day’s work!

How is this racist? You need a break. — Paul Z. (@zoll_p) October 16, 2019

Racist? Lmao. Are you a parody? — ? Spookyween Approacheth ? (@JerTunks) October 16, 2019

you must be fun at parties — Caleb SkHull ??? (@CalebJHull) October 16, 2019

lol shoutout to the guy who took an obvious joke and upgraded it to a "this guy is racist" take and is now being ratio'd. pic.twitter.com/wviaSLjZS9 — Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 16, 2019