Racist remarks and taunting

[CJP]

Any of you have to address racist remarks and taunting from the crowd? How would you have handled this as an official?

https://www.inforum.com/news/north-d...r-consequences

You can hear the monkey sounds and warhooping in the embedded video. Officials had to have heard it. Parents did let school official know, they did nothing.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by CJP

Any of you have to address racist remarks and taunting from the crowd? How would you have handled this as an official?

If the crowd yells bothersome inappropriate remarks at me, or my partner, I'm probably not waiting for the site director (school official) to react, rather, I'm immediately bringing it to the attention of the site director (school official), and I'm probably offering a suggestion (warning or expulsion), and in the worst cases, it may not only be a suggestion, but a mandate.

Originally Posted by Raymond

I have no problem stopping the game and not resuming until it was addressed.

I would also followup with a report to my game assigner, who might choose to bump it up to the state interscholastic sports governing body.

If the crowd yells bothersome possibly inappropriate (booing, air ball, miss, you can't do that, etc.) remarks to the players, I'm probably first waiting to see if the site director (school official) reacts. In the worst cases (swearing, epithets, racial, ethnic, etc.), if they don't react, and they chose to ignore, I will probably bring it to their attention and possibly offer a suggestion (warning or expulsion), but I doubt that I would mandate anything, it's more of a school problem, to be handled, in its own way, by the school administrators, rather than a problem to be dealt with by a game official. At the minimum, I would not ignore. I would also followup with a report to my game assigner, who might choose to bump it up to the state interscholastic sports governing body.

In both cases, I would not have any direct contact or direct communication with fans. That's the site director's (school official) job, not the job of game officials, we're there to just report such incidents to the site director (school official), and to possibly advise (warning or expulsion) the site director (school official).

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

If the crowd yells bothersome inappropriate remarks at me, or my partner, I'm probably not waiting for the site director (school official) to react, rather, I'm immediately bringing it to the attention of the site director (school official), and I'm probably offering a suggestion (warning or expulsion), and in the worst cases, it may not only be a suggestion, but a mandate. I would also followup with a report to my game assigner, who might choose to bump it up to the state interscholastic sports governing body.

If the crowd yells bothersome inappropriate remarks to the players, I'm probably first waiting to see if the site director (school official) reacts. In the worst cases, if they don't react, and they chose to ignore, I will probably bring it to their attention and possibly offer a suggestion (warning or expulsion), but I doubt that I would mandate anything, it's more of a school problem, to be handled, in its own way, by the school administrators, rather than a problem to be dealt with by a game official. But I would followup with a report to my game assigner, who might choose to bump it up to the state interscholastic sports governing body.

Why would you only address something of that nature if it was only directed at you or your partner(s)?

If remarks are unacceptable towards a game official, they're unacceptable towards the student athletes.

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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

If remarks are unacceptable towards a game official, they're unacceptable towards the student's athletes.

Fans yell at players all the time (booing, air ball, miss, you can't do that, etc.) Many are locally (it could vary from one school to another) considered acceptable as part of the game. But as they get worse (swearing, epithets, racial, ethnic, etc.) they must be dealt with, by officials, or by site directors (school officials), or by both.

Yelling at game officials with words (not swearing, not epithets, not racial, not ethic, etc.) that may be deemed locally acceptable if yelled at players, may not be similarly acceptable if yelled at game officials.

"You stink" (or similar words) may be locally acceptable if yelled at players (probably wouldn't get my attention) but, depending on the volume (stands out in a crowd) and tone, may not be acceptable if yelled at a game official and would get my attention and a tête-à-tête with the site director (school officials).

[Raymond]

Never had to deal with it. But if I ever had to, I have no problem stopping the game and not resuming until it was addressed.

I'm not going to work at that type of environment. Guess I'd be the official on the local news who walked out on a game.

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[Raymond]

Racial or equivalently unacceptable remarks directed at players--that's the conversation.

We're not talking about booing or "you stink". You like to go off on all these different directions. We're focused on something in particular here.

If you're willing to allow certain words to be directed at student athletes that you wouldn't allow directed at officials, you might need to re-examine your thought process, IMO.

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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

Racial or equivalently unacceptable remarks directed at players. That's the conversation.

I decided to take it in a more general direction, responsibilities of officials and site directors regarding fans, to react to the parent in the video who questioned why game officials (I think he was talking about game officials, not school officials) reacted to fans yelling at the game officials while not reacting to fans yelling at players.

As for me, I'm not sure that I would be cognizant enough to differentiate between monkey yells that are racial in nature and those that may be "garden variety" distracting. 99% of my attention is on the players, bench, table, scoreboard, and partner, only 1% is on the crowd. I honestly doubt that I would realize that the monkey yells were only directed at the Black player (unless pointed out to me). Yes, for good or bad, I'm that focused on the players, not the fans.

Originally Posted by Raymond

We're not talking about booing or "you stink".

I was (opening it up to all types fan yelling, good, bad, and ugly). Sorry if I confused anybody.

[Raymond]

The parent compared fans yelling at officials being addressed to fans yelling out explicit racial comments at a player not being addressed.

If the subject matter is too uncomfortable for you to discuss, it's alright not to post. You don't have to entirely distort the conversation to meet your entertainment needs.




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[BillyMac]

... but McIntosh Apples and Delicious Apples.

Originally Posted by Raymond

The parent compared fans yelling at officials being addressed to fans yelling out explicit racial comments at a player not being addressed.

If you only want to post regarding the racial aspect of the parent comment, I'm fine with that that.

I just wanted to speculate about why one aspect (yelling at of officials) may have been be dealt with by game officials while the other aspect (monkey sounds by fans) may have been seemingly ignored by game officials.

Note: Maybe it wasn't completely ignored by the game officials but was reported to the site director, who chose not to do anything about it?

If this were my game, I probably could have been oblivious to the monkey sounds as racially intended (unless pointed out to me), but I may have had rabbit ears to the high volume fan obnoxiously and unacceptably yelling at me, or my partner.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

As for me, I'm not sure that I would be cognizant enough to differentiate between monkey yells that are racial in nature and those that may be "garden variety" distracting. 99% of my attention is on the players, bench, table, scoreboard, and partner, only 1% is on the crowd. I honestly doubt that I would realize that the monkey yells were only directed at the Black player (unless pointed out to me). Yes, for good or bad, I'm that focused on the players, not the fans.

My response to the parent would be, "I'm sorry sir, but I didn't realize that the monkey sounds were racially motivated. I didn't even realize that they were supposed to be monkey sounds, nor did I realize that they were only directed at Black players. Until you set me straight, I thought that they were just fans trying to distract the shooter. I did happen to hear one fan yelling obnoxiously and unacceptably at both me and my partner, and I couldn't ignore that. Be assured that I will report both of these unsporting issues to my assigner who, I'm sure, will bump both reports up to the state. I guarantee that your issue will not continue to be ignored".

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

If the subject matter is too uncomfortable for you to discuss, it's alright not to post.

While discussing social justice issues may be uncomfortable for for some, they're not for me.

Complex? Sure. Uncomfortable? If we don't discuss them, things will never get better.

[Rufus]

When the student section that took up a good chunk of mid-court started making racists remarks that I didn't hear. My crew chief, who was right in front of them when it happened, turned around immediately and gestured for the entire section to leave the gym. Got game admin and the school resource officer to assist and would not resume the game until they'd all left the premises.

Made sure to inform school admins what had happened but never did repeat to my partner or myself what was said other than it was "despicable."

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Rufus

When the student section that took up a good chunk of mid-court started making racists remarks that I didn't hear. My crew chief, who was right in front of them when it happened, turned around immediately and gestured for the entire section to leave the gym. Got game admin and the school resource officer to assist and would not resume the game until they'd all left the premises.



Made sure to inform school admins what had happened but never did repeat to my partner or myself what was said other than it was "despicable."

Thanks for sharing.

I always pay attention to what comments are made by fans to the players and vice versa. I'll also tell players not to interact with fans and if they're saying something out of line to let the crew know. In today's world we need to be cognizant of what's going on around us. Not just for the players' safety, but for our safety as well. We have seen players slap fans. We have seen shootings inside of gymnasiums. We have fans who follow players and officials off the court. We can't say we don't know what's going on around us because we're staring at players standing around during free throws. Calling somebody a monkey is not a normal distraction technique by fans. Anybody who doesn't know what's going on in that situation just wants to be oblivious. I simply am not going to work in that type of environment. Any of those remarks made toward the player I take them as applying to me also, whether they be racial, anti-semitic, anti LGBTQ, threats of violence, etc.

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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

We have fans who follow players and officials off the court.

Partners should always leave the facility together. We had a group of disgruntled fans waiting for our guys in the parking lot a few years ago. Police had to be called.

Originally Posted by Raymond

Calling somebody a monkey is not a normal distraction technique by fans.

Agree, but this didn't happen in the video.

Racial issues between fans and players have been happening more and more in Connecticut, in many sports, over the past few years, making it necessary for both game administrators and game officials to be more aware.

Some issues have been quite subtle ("SAT. SAT. SAT", implying academic ineptitude of urban (mostly Black opponents) while others have been much more aggressive ("N-word").

Originally Posted by Raymond

... whether they be racial, anti-semitic, anti LGBTQ, threats of violence, etc.

Don't belong in a school, or any other "civilized" environment.