Jason Johnson
+ FollowThis One is a Lot Worse Than “Nappy Headed Hoes”
Remember a few years ago when Don Imus got in trouble for referring to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as a bunch of “nappy headed hoes?” He was summarily suspended, but I remember not being all that surprised about his beliefs, only that he said them on the air.
One of the enduring myths in American culture is that sports somehow bring us all together. Movies like Remember the Titans and old TV shows like The White Shadow played on this myth that athletes working together would somehow overcome their own racial prejudices and learn to work together. (ie: White kids learn from having to play with Blacks). In the process, fans of all colors would learn to cheer together and the world would be as one.
It doesn’t quite always work out that way, just ask Tyra Batts in Buffalo New York.
Tyra Batts, the lone African American basketball player on the senior squad of Kenmore East High outside of Buffalo, and one other girl were suspended for fighting last week. Why does this stand out? Don’t high-school kids and even teammates fight all of the time? In this instance, Tyra finally had enough of the racist abuse she was receiving from her teammates. According to a Buffalo news report about girls’ basketball at Kenmore East:
For years, Tyra had endured this and other types of abuse. Of course she had tried to convince her teammates to stop it. Peer pressure and wanting to be a good teammate compelled the college sophomore to work it out with the other girls. But, they gave her answers typical of privileged White kids in the suburbs who have grown up with Boondocks, South Park and The Chappelle Show.
“I said, ‘You’re not allowed to say that word because I don’t like that word,’” she recalled. “They said, ‘You know we’re not racist, Tyra. It’s just a word, not a label.’ I was outnumbered.”
The reason this story hits so close to home is that as an African American who went to majority White high-schools all of my life I can identify with the struggle this young lady faced. You’re going through immense peer pressure as a student, mixed with fears of being socially ostracized, which you already are as one of the few Black kids in the building. Quiet as it’s kept, the teachers don’t really do anything about racist students because either they feel the same way or the whole idea makes them uncomfortable so they avoid it. Batts related how other teammates often made jokes during practice about shackles, slavery and other racial topics and the coach would ignore them or not address the issue directly.
There is a huge difference between a coach yelling “Stop talking during drills” and saying “Suzy that’s racist, I won’t have that on this team – hit the showers you’re done for the day.”
You can’t help but feel pity and anger when you see this high-school sophomore on video relating her experiences and having to show a level of composure and restraint that her White teammates clearly never had to learn.
The worst part of all is that usually this type of racist bullying (even though it seems like we’re only focused on taunts about looks and sexual orientation in public service campaigns these days) is only brought to light once the Black kid snaps, and they end up with the suspensions while coaches and teachers wring their hands. I’m not buying that students didn’t know about the chant, that it had been going on for years and that coaches were clueless. It’s much more likely they just didn’t want to investigate because there hadn’t been any Black students on the team before.
There will be seminars and sensitivity training at Kenmore, for sure. But, the larger issues may never be addressed. Not the fact that this type of bullying happens all the time, from opposing teams wearing Black face to racist chants from ‘fans’, we all know that won’t stop.
The real issue here is what happens after the media leaves and the school assemblies are over. When Tyra has to walk through the hallway and her coach is mad for putting her job at risk, and other White students taunt her in the bathroom or cafeteria – or when the abuse extends to the classroom from complicit teachers and former teammates. She is learning a bitter lesson that all too many African American students have to deal with in majority White high-schools: That no matter how smart, pretty, athletic or rich you may be, you’re always just “One, Two Three” steps away from being “N****R” to someone at that school.
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13 Responses to This One is a Lot Worse Than “Nappy Headed Hoes”
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Karen says:
That's bull and you know it. It's because .of your insensitivity that these young people believe it's funny or okay. My daughter not an athlete but in a field that isn't one that women or black students choose was treated unfairly. I grew up in the segregated south and there is no excuse for this type of behavior in 2011, None At All!
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Kathleen says:
Here is the rest of my comment, it was cut off for some reason:
My oldest is now 25. For all these years my kid's friends, white and black, would sing the rap songs, call each other "n*gga" and laugh when one the black kids would joke about how they wanted grape koolaid or fried chicken. Growing up in the civil rights movement, I would stomp, yell, lecture, and forbid that kind of joking in my house. They would just laugh at me. They would tell me that "friends" get it. They all make jokes about each other's race. With Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock leading the way, race was "supposed to be joked about." Let's not even get started on Tosh.0, who regularly makes jokes about blacks stealing & being in jail. This is the thing. You can't have it both ways. You can't accept these comedians and rappers with all their racist language, and then expect our youth not to parrot it. So, when people who care about this issue start insisting that the music industry and the comedians stop saying things like "n*gga," then you can't expect kids to not say it either. I, for one, condemn in our culture, and with our kids, but I don't see too many adults doing that. -
misslourde says:
Kathleen….You've hit the nail on the head! We can't have it both ways, because kids will parrot what adults do. Not sure that making fun of each other's race is a good or bad thing……does it lead to insensitivity or does it say we shouldn't take it so seriously? Perhaps those same kids that are friends of your kids, are more tolerant?? and would most likely vote for an African American President………and would most likely see your kids in that role as well?????? Gosh, what a dilemma……..
I'd be curious how it worked out.
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BTW, the author of the article could use a bit of improvement in research. The name of the New Jersey college is R-U-T-G-E-R-S, NOT Rutger's.
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Guest 2 says:
To the Guest commenter: You could use a bit of improvement in writing conventions yourself. The writer wrote Rutger's because the proper noun (RUTGERS) was showing ownership of the women's basketball team. DUH! Yes, the apostrophe REALLY did belong after the existing S in Rutgers (Rutgers') but I think you missed the whole point of the article. Perhaps you should focus more on the content rather than attempting to demonstrate your knowledge which does need improvement. Just remember, no one is perfect, and that does include you!
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Ninure da Hippie says:
How could it be that White girls didn't know that shouting "Ni**er" was offensive, especially after being TOLD repeatedly by a fellow Black student that what they were doing was hurtful and offensive?
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unfiltered discourse says:
Kathleen and misslourde made good points and ninure da hippie is making a broad not necessarily true assumption. How would younger people know it’s SO wrong when there’s The Boondock, Southpark, Chappelle Show, Chris Rock, rappers, kids walking down the street, Big Boy (radio personality in LA, CA) doing a skit called n****derm during prime time drive hours (doing the skit at all) – WHAT DO BLACK PEOPLE EXPECT?! I’m sure it happens in other communities, but it is not so apparently blatant nor so publicly pervasive that it is perceived as acceptable. There is no what’s up my wetback, no what’s up my kike, etc. And if you’re not one of them, YOU BETTER NOT EVEN MENTION THESE TERMS. (I’m sure someone will chime in on the terms and completely miss the point). Call the use of n***** pop culture if you want to, but don’t cry foul when pop culture slaps you in the face. Jay-Z said something ignorant about our use taking the power out of the word. Obviously not! While she wasn’t the first to make this argument, Oprah’s rebuttal that resonates as the MOST powerfully valid argument against its use at all, ‘It was the last word heard being yelled in the sometimes party-like frenzied atmosphere of the lynching of a Black person. Pop culture? We’ve taken the power out of the word? MY ASS! But there are grumbles and moans when people talk about the Middle Passage, institutionalized racism, and the fact that “the Help’s” setting was JUST 50 years ago. By the time Black people en masse get a clue, we won’t be back to the back of the bus, we’ll be openly denied access to the bus at all!!! Don’t be mislead by community millionaires leading you to slaughter. Money is its own language, but at the end of the day no one has forgotten except the community that fell prey to brainwashing. ‘LESS WE FORGET’
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The girls on her team may or may not have been racist. What they could be, as I have seen myself with four teenagers with many black friends, is a product of their culture. A culture, I might add, that many in the black community, as much as the white community look up to… the culture of music and comedy.