Fans use banana suits and slurs to taunt rival team

Last Friday night, Monessen (Pa.) High School visited rival Pittsburgh (Pa.) Brentwood High School for a boys basketball match-up. Monessen is made up of mostly black players while the Brentwood team is mostly white. This usually wouldn't matter except for the attitude exhibited by Brentwood and its fans. Specifically, three fans left their seats in the student section at halftime. The three Brentwood students were wearing banana costumes and began taunting Monessen players by making monkey noises and yelling other racial slurs.

Monessen parents also told WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh that the Brentwood players themselves were calling their opponents "monkeys and cotton-pickers." I know it's difficult to assess someone's tone in a blog post, but understand that you could light a match on my forehead right now I'm so mad. We have a massive failure here by the adults involved - teachers, coaches, parents, administrators and security. You have a predominantly black team playing a predominantly white team and three kids come in wearing banana costumes. Do we need a slide rule to figure this out?

Let me make it plain. Other than the n-word, the worst thing you can call an African-American is a monkey. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. In the days of slavery and Jim Crow, black people were often referred to as monkeys partly because of our brown skin and thicker lips. Children were told we had tails as well. Brentwood fans and players obviously displayed poor sportsmanship by their taunts and the fact that the fans were on the court. Fans have no business on the court or on the field. But this goes deeper than poor sportsmanship. The incident described here speaks to a culture that has allowed racism to fester among its young people.

Kids don't learn this stuff on their own. There is simply no way a teenager in 2012 would know that calling an African-American a monkey is offensive unless an adult told them so. Most kids don't even know that cotton was ever picked - by black people or anyone else. I told a friend once that kids are tape-delayed DVRs. They record everything we say and do and replay those behaviors at the most inopportune time. If you want to know what's being taught and what's acceptable in a given household or community, just look at the kids. Their behavior will give you the clearest indicator.

I'm sorry the kids in Moneesen had to experience such a scene. Playing on your high school basketball team is supposed to be a fun, enriching experience - not a racially motivated assault. Some will say the kids have changed. No, they haven't. The adults have changed and I have a two-word solution to that problem. Change. Back. Until next time...

Be a Good Sport!

-Sol