Gloucester High students face penalties for racist tweets after Bruins loss
By adamg - 5/4/12 - 10:46 pm
The Gloucester Daily Times reports at least four students are facing suspension from extracurricular activities because of anti-black tweets linked to them over the way Joel Ward scored the winning goal against the Bruins on April 18.
Comments
Good.
.
You can make it look better than that, Gloucester
First, the kids' use of the n-word is idiotic and not nice. Let's be clear on where I stand on that.
Now that having been said, suspending a kid from a sports team looks downright flimsy to me. Heck, if this were my kid, I could and would punish him myself. But I would do so by sitting down with him and telling him what happens when you say the n-word to the wrong person(s.) I would tell him about great black Americans with whom he might not be familiar, and then I'd finish the talk by putting my foot in his ass and telling him "I didn't raise you to talk to people like that, in real life or to a celebrity on Twitter."
It's not the school district's job to suspend the kids from sports because of a Tweet posted off school grounds. Participation in sports should be between the kid, his parents, and the coach. Period. And if the coach himself doesn't want the kid around for having said the n-word, then find another reason to kick him off, and make that the official reason.
violation of code of conduct
Most sports teams have a code of conduct that the player signs. I would think such a comment would be a violation of said code. Thus, suspension.
If you were their parent?
Usually the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I'm going to bet these kids have parents who aren't that surprised their kids said something like this.
Learned Behavior
Many of these kids have never actually met, face to face, person to person with a black person. They hear about "those people" from their families and friends (who likely have little contact, either).
My community fields multicultural sports teams because the community is diverse and everybody plays soccer and many of those kids play hockey and lacrosse, too. There are some communities in our fair commonwealth where one can expect to hear a torrent of fear laced hate from the opposing squads on the fields. These kids get really sickening sometimes when they meet our guys on the home turf - as if Meffuh was the ghetto or something. The stupid parents just sit there and act like it is no big deal or yell more nuanced but equally hateful bullshit. At least the adult ref backed up my son when, as a junior linesman, he heard a 13-year old Wilmington soccer goalie hurl an n-bomb at a defender. The ref then had to threaten to call the police (two off duty cop dads were already backing her up) when the parent demonstrated where that little loser learned her attitude!
Welcome to Whitopian Segregation, folks. Hate what you don't see everyday because of the stories you have been told to make you feel like God's chosen specialness.
And if the coach himself
So, lie. That's setting a great example!
We lie all the time like this in society
The example I like to cite is OJ's conviction for stealing memorabilia. You really think he got the sentence he got for that crime? Hell no! He's only now getting punished for the murders...of course, you can't legally come out and say that, but it's obviously implied.
Imagine if they were adults
If they were adults, would they get fired from their jobs for tweeting the same comments. My guess is probably. That being the case, suspension from an extracurricular activity is an appropriate response in order to convey what the real world consequences of their future behavior will be.
I liked them better when they were knocking up their girlfriends
I do find it interesting however that creating a child who will probably require state involvement and funding for the next 18 years was less stigmatized than ephemeral (albeit hateful) speech in the same high school. Neither is defensible but the power of PC is indeed impressive.
More Mythology
Just like the "black people are bad" myths, the "baby pact" turned out to be purely nonsense, too.
That's because it is easier to swallow that bad sluts wanna get knocked up than that the vogue for scientifically discredited "abstinence-only" stupidity leads to a strong increase in unintended pregnancy.
Just another example
why when I have kids they won't be getting individual computers or phones with data plans until they're headed to college. Teenagers are not mature enough to understand the internet is forever, and that it is a broadcast medium.
You want to joke? Go over your friends house.
This is a new problem popping up the in the last 5-10 years or so, as net connected devices have becomes bargain cheap.
How terribly naive
You can't wall your children off from the world. In fact, I suspect this kind of behavior stems in part from similar sentiments to your idea (blocking exposure to diversity, rather than your plan to block exposure to free expression). We teach our children to live in this world, how to handle it, where to look for danger. You will come to a different plan when you have kids, and no doubt laugh at your former self.
Meh...
The Deadspin version of this thread was better, or at least smarter.
Regardless of this case, I think
that having hip-hop as the dominant culture of our youth for the last 30 years has deluded a lot of young white kids (both racist & non-racist) into thinking that they can use the word, with a 'a' or 'er', willy-nilly. I see it all the time on Twitter with no apparent or obvious malice and wonder what these supposedly enlightened (due to the supposed diversity they've been taught) millenials are thinking. Many will learn the hard way.
How many times you think the word gets sung along to in clubs every weekend?