Racist remarks and taunting

[Archetype]

Issue #1 in this clip is the student section standing on the basketball floor. Plenty of seats in the stands...should have been addressed by floor officials through game administration if necessary. Yes, stop the game...we don't continue until everyone takes a seat...don't care how much room there is on that sideline to stand.

Pretty sad this happened without anyone addressing the matter. Many times it is unfortunate that we have to be first to get involved and address nonsense like this...but as Raymond correctly points out, you better be aware of these things going on in your gym.

[BillyMac]

Utah High School Students Sanctioned Over Barking, Slurs Against Visiting Basketball Team

https://www.yahoo.com/news/utah-high...172959529.html

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Utah High School Students Sanctioned Over Barking, Slurs Against Visiting Basketball Team

https://www.yahoo.com/news/utah-high...172959529.html

Those are some piss poor sanctions

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

Those are some piss poor sanctions.

Even the word "sanction" just doesn't seem strong enough, "punishment", "penalty", or "consequence" might seem stronger.

[SCalScoreKeeper]

They deserve to play at least three games without a student section along with suspensions for the entire student section for at least a week.

[BillyMac]

... The year prior, the same student section reportedly taunted Asian American and Polynesian players from Hunter High when the team visited Roy High for their annual basketball match-up. According to witnesses, the spectators called members of the visiting team “dog eaters.” … The student section did not repeat the slur at last month's game, opting instead to bark …

As a game official, not knowing what occurred last year, the barking by itself might not get my ears up, and I might just pass it off as super obnoxious distracting fan behavior not crossing any ethic/racial/etc. line in the sand.

... In addition to the barking, the Roy High students could be heard shouting other offensive comments, such as “go home and eat more rice.” ...

Now this would get my ears up that would lead to a tête-à-tête with the site director.

To show how bad things have gotten, for the first 90% of my officiating career the word "site director" hardly ever came up. Their most important job was seeing that the locker room door was unlocked for us at halftime and after the game, and they were only noticed (squeaky wheel) if they didn't do that simple job.

Now we use the word "site director" all the time in regard to fan behavior, and it comes up at almost every single local board meeting where we're encouraged to identify them as soon as we walk in the door and to be aware of where they are located throughout the game, even in my middle school games.

Over the past three years, or so, Connecticut interscholastic basketball (and other sports) has had many occurrences of racial epithets, some subtle, other not so subtle, from fans directed at both players and opposing fans, sometimes leading to fights among fans.

As a lifetime Connecticut native this embarrasses me.

[BillyMac]

Had a weird bad language situation this past year.

I worked a lot of games in a nearby four middle school town.

One middle school had so many students that it had two boys teams, white and blue, and I worked three games between these two teams, two regular season, and one playoff.

These kids knew each other well, ate lunch together, sat next to each other in class, so there was a lot of friendly trash talk in the games.

First game, in a five person conference, I warned two players and their coaches that, although the taunting trash talk was friendly, with no profanity, it had to stop.

Second game was uneventful.

Third game, two Black opponents, more friendly taunting trash talk, but one quietly using the N-word ending in an “a”, both with smiles on their faces.

Tough decision for me, a White guy, but I decided to again go with the players and coaches conference warning.

It actually was the toughest call of the year for me, I still lose sleep over it.

Context is important, at least I hope it is?

Months later and I'm still not sure if I did the right thing?

One consolation, at least I didn't ignore the situation.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Third game, two Black opponents, more friendly taunting trash talk, but one quietly using the N-word ending in an “a”, both with smiles on their faces. Tough decision for me, a White guy, but I decided to again go with the players and coaches conference warning.

Oddly, if the N-word taunt had ended in an “r”, I’m 100% sure that I would have charged the technical foul.

I never heard either of my parents swear, or use any type of profanity.

Never the N-word, they politely used the term “colored people”, seemingly acceptable to all races back in the late 1950s here in Connecticut.

I once used the F-word, repeating what a childhood friend said, in front of Mom and immediately got my mouth washed out with soap.

Spending thirty years as a science teacher in front of a classroom of middle school students will teach one to watch one’s language.

The F-word and the N-word are not part of my vocabulary.

At least until I accidentally drop an anvil on my foot.