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As a half-black woman officiating boys basketball, I am usually very much on my own in the gym. But because of that I've had to deal with a lot more crap from players and coaches, and I find now that I'm much less sensitive to comments from players than my partners are. In a situation like Dan's, I usually mention to the player that it seems they are questioning my integrity, which tends to result in a technical foul, and they usually get the message.
In my experience, I've found officials generally judge other officials by skill - not race, gender or some other category - but those in the minority do have to work harder to get to the top. But race, on the basketball court, is the topic which can cause problems to flare up faster than any other. For me, in the black school/white school games, it seems like I'm expected to be in favor of the black team, which has caused some technical fouls on the coaches of either team. But I will say, as far as racial comments go, coaches get no leeway from me. They should no better than to question an officials integrity, let alone involving race.
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Sara
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