From the Daily Mail:
A girls high school basketball team is in trouble in Buffalo, New York after one team member alerted teachers that they used an offensive racial curse in their pregame cheer.
Tyra Batts, who is new to the team and the only black player, was shocked and offended to learn that there was a tradition of chanting 'One, two, three, n*****!' before heading out to the court.
Ms. Batts could not believe that her team-mates, who are all white, continued the supposedly long-standing tradition even after she made a point of telling them that she found it offensive.
'I said, "You're not allowed to say that word because I don't like that word." They said, "You know we're not racist, Tyra. It's just a word, not a label." I was outnumbered,' Ms. Batts told the local Buffalo News.
Apparently the chant has been used by the Kenmore East High School girls team for years, but coaches and school officials never knew because the team would sing the offensive chant in the locker room when there were no adults around.
The issue was only brought to the attention of school administrators after Ms. Batts, 15, got into a physical fight with another team-mate at school after an argument at a practice game last Friday followed over the weekend and moved from the court to the hallways.
Before Friday's practice, Ms. Batts argued with her team about the chant, and then she 'said something stupid' to one team-mate, who proceeded to call her 'a black piece of [expletive]'. When Ms. Batts saw that team-mate at school on Monday, she slammed her into a locker, punched her, and choked her.
Both girls were promptly suspended, and that was when she told school officials about the chant.
'It was a build up of anger and frustration at being singled out of the whole team,' Ms. Batts told The Buffalo News.
Upon hearing the news, the team's coach, Kristy Bondgren, said that she had heard the girls make the occasional comment that Ms. Batts was black but had no idea about the chant.
Ms. Bondgren, who has not commented on the issue, apparently missed some other barbs, as Ms. Batts said that the team-mates would often make racially-charged comments during practice. She said that they often made remarks referencing slavery, picking cotton, and shackles.
'The minute an adult knew, we started our inquiry and investigation,' said Mark P. Mondanaro, the superintendent of the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda school district.
As a result of the allegations, practice is suspended for the team for the week, a game has been postponed, a college visit was cancelled and a previous sportsmanship award was taken away.
All of the girls that participated in the chant were suspended from school for two days and they will all have to sit out one game each over the course of the season. All of the team members will have to undergo cultural sensitivity training.
14 comments:
I found out about this on Fox News. So I guess there's a reason not to turn it off after all.
(Actually, Fox News is good for America. We need diversity and more opinions and more views out there. It just doesn't cut it to have all of the major national news services be left-wing. And with the Left's campaign to "turn off", boycott, or censor Fox News, they look less tolerant of a free press than the Right is. There's no such effort coming from the Right directed at any of the leftist news networks. Not anything near on this level).
Dmarks: I stand by the anti-Fox "News" bumper sticker on my car and my blog. Before I go into a more detailed response to your comment, I have a question for you. Why do you think there is a campaign to turn off Fox?
Also, do you have anything to say about the actual topic of this post?
Stunned that this level of behavior was allowed to go on for so long... As for Ms. Batts, I cannot imagine what it was like for her to encounter this "sanctioned" behavior. I also think the Coach needs to do a better job at a higher level of awareness. The fact that she did not notice makes me question her abilities to be leading young people. I do not buy for one second that "no adults" were aware of this before now. The Coach and the students all need to be held accountable.
Malcolm asked: "Why do you think there is a campaign to turn off Fox?"
Because there's a tendency for intolerance for diversity of news and opinion. It quite often does come from the Right. But in this, it is coming from the Left.
As for me, I simply do not have it. I might disagree, and often strongly, with left-wing news sources from "Democracy Now" to "Pacifica Radio" to MSNBC, but... I am tolerant. I don't mind ANYONE listening to or watching these. At all. I'd no more ask someone to turn off a news channel than I would ask someone to burn books.
Teresa: Agreed. Heads should roll.
I'd go for civil rights violation charges. This is not a matter of "PC": t his is outright hate speech.
Very odd chant.
Were they using it in a hip hop context, trying to be "down" or some such nonsense, or were they chanting it to be offensive?
I get that the girls got catty and mean and bitter once confronted about it, but what I don't understand is the context of the "tradition" aspect of it.
Quite a stupid chant, to be sure.
You don't see a lot of incidents where girls are held to task for their bullying and bullshit as teenagers. Boys usually get more play.
But in my experience, no one in that age range is as cruel and shortsighted as a girl trying to be "in."
Cultural sensitivity is total garbage, though. It's more of pushing the standard that Americans are held to different standards depending on skin tone, religion, etc.
That doesn't breed tolerance. That teaches you that you can't say this about these or that about those; it separates people by groups in the name of bringing people together.
Am I the only one who fails to see the logic in that?
In any framework, the N bomb needs to be treated like a curse word. If you chanted "One, two, three, f*$@!" you should be suspended or made to stop the chant. Not because it does or doesn't offend someone, but because punishing language deemed to be abusive across the board is a much better approach than punishing language deemed to be offensive.
As for the crazy twist on tolerance that y'all are going back and forth about, it's odd that the side that preaches all about tolerance is wholly intolerant of not only an entire news network and anyone on it, even if it's someone on their side, but also anyone in media who espouses Republican/conservative virtues.
Violations of Civil Rights seems a little harsh. If was in charge I would go as far as suspending everyone guilty for the entire season. I'm sure that there would be plenty of girls with better sense willing and able to take the suspended girls places.
Teresa: I was thinking the same thing about the coach. When she heard the girls making occasional comments about the fact that Ms. Batts is black, she should have stepped in then. I won't be surprised if people call for the coach to lose her job or at least some type of disciplinary action.
Dmarks: This definitely isn't a "PC" issue. I was glad to see the school's superintendent take swift action.
As for your theory regarding the campaign to turn off Fox, you are off by a mile. Earlier in this thread, I said I was going to respond to your comments in detail here. However, I changed my mind because "Octopus" asked me last week if I'd like to write a guest post at Shaw's blog. The post I'll be writing is Fox-related. I'll address your theory within that post (which I hope to have finished within the next week).
Josh: Since you are against cultural sensitivity training, what would you suggest?
Just like Dmarks, you are off the mark too about how liberals in general feel about conservative media, conservatives, etc. No need for you to provide a rebuttal in this thread because we're not going to fly off the tracks. Once I finish the news media-related guest post I referenced in my reply to Dmarks, I'll let you know.
Curious: I like your suggestion of a year's suspension. If that happened, hopefully the girls involved would use that time to think about about their actions which led to the suspension.
I suggest just what I said: Expand a category of words deemed to be abusive across the board, not offensive for some, and punish those who choose to use them.
Teaching that one must show sensitivity to certain cultures, orientations, religions, and other happenstances of inhabiting the same country furthers cultural separation.
That might be fine if we're talking about France V America. But we're all in the same flippin' country.
Cultural sensitivity essentially highlights the many ways in which people are different. What you end up with is an awkward existence wherein you sidestep normality in constant fear of offending someone.
The "N word" is already one of the most confusing words out there, able to be said by some but not by others.
I'm in my 30s now and have learned about the word's history. For younger people coming up inundated with the word in popular culture, they probably see nothing wrong with using it. And while I do imagine that the girl in this instance did feel victimized, I'd also argue that most "offense" felt from that word in most instances with younger people is more of a Sherri Shepherd standard: you can say it, but you can't.
Very strange way of viewing language. Even more confusing when you force someone into sensitivity training to explain why, damn near 2012, we're still viewed as all separate but equal.
It's a curse word or it's not. Stephen A. Smith, for a quick example, dropped a line on First Take when talking about LeBron James in the 4th quarter: "This nigga; come on, man!"
I found it to be hilarious. But Skip Bayless woulda been fired.
If someone watched that show, thought it was funny, and went through school saying it the next day, there are two reactions: okay for a group, potential cultural sensitivity training for anyone else.
I'm all LMAO over here like a kid just thinking about it the ridiculousness of it.
There are about a million and one things dancing through my head when it comes to this word, popular culture, how people handle it, and what's expected of people for the sake of, well, nothing.
And I see no instance where teaching a young person about differences does anything but make them weary of difference.
That, of course, pertaining to cultural sensitivity and how it relates to one who may use that word.
For this particular instance, I still have no clue why the girls were chanting it - the "tradition" of it.
Malcolm: I'm not off at all. The left's war against Fox News is about nothing more than intolerance of the free press, especially segments of the free press that present facts that they'd rather see quashed.
Contempt for the Bill of Rights, really.
If you don't like it, turn the channel.
And whatever problems Fox news has, the other networks have in spades.
Remember when Dan Rather knowingly based his 'reporting' on the "Bush went AWOL" hoax on forged documents, and he insisted the story was real even though the evidence was fake.
Or the person ranting in MSNBC about Herman Cain's "predatory black sexuality"; just another example of a leftist who thought it was OK to use racism in their rhetorical arsenal to bash the former candidate.
Or you might mention the supposed "surveys" that prove that Fox News viewers are more ignorant; containing so many examples where the Fox News viewers were correct and the survey-takers were wrong.
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Anyway, despite the problems with CBS and MSNBC which include fabricating stories to try to being a President down and blatant racism, I don't want anyone to boycott them. To turn it off. I'd no sooner do that than support that someone burn books. The attitude is the same.
Josh: Thank you for clarifying. It wasn't clear to me that your "expand the category of words" suggestion was an alternative to cultural sensitivity training.
Out of curiosity, have you ever taken a cultural sensitivity training program? Although I haven't, I'd like to so I can experience the class myself. I did a Google search and found a company (World Links GPA) which specializes in diversity training for the workplace. Suffice to say, I have more confidence in what they have to offer than your suggestion. No offense. :-)
Dmarks: Again, you're wrong as the day as long. You don't have to worry about responding here because I have zero interest in a drawn out back and forth in this thread explaining how wrong you are. You'll have ample opportunity to defend your precious Fox "News" when I write my guest post at Shaw's blog.
I spent three months of my life working on a campaign to promote cultural sensitivity. Three months I'll never get back.
All I could think after viewing material was that the government would step in and shut these things down completely if the material had the word "white" in place of any other group.
My brother had to take some sensitivity course for his managerial job, and was told essentially that you cannot reprimand--much less fire--women, African Americans, Latinos or homosexuals without sending it up the ladder first.
The threat of lawsuits was too high.
I understand that a lot of these courses may be well intentioned, but the message that we need to treat one another differently is what prevails.
That's not to say that they're all the same, obviously. But the gist is: point out and emphasize difference to make people aware of how they "should" act around someone.
I find that to be incredibly insulting to everyone across the board. And degrading. And pointless. And going in reverse.
Josh: "the government would step in and shut these things down completely if the material had the word "white" in place of any other group."
That's a good sign that something is purely racist, if it treats people differently (or so differently) based on their skin color.
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