Racist cheer? High school forced to apologize for ‘USA!’ chant at basketball game
Mar 7, 2012, 11:38 AM EDT
A district superintendent has apologized and students have been reprimanded for a perceived racist chant at a high school playoff basketball game in San Antonio on Saturday — but not all parties agree that it was offensive. A host of message board critics and conservative talk radio host all says it’s been blown way out of proportion.
Our story so far: Alamo Heights High School, which is made up mostly of Caucasian students, beat Edison High, which is predominantly Hispanic, in the Region IV-4A championship in San Antonio on Saturday. As Alamo players celebrated the win on the court, a large group of students began cheering “USA! USA!” until the Alamo coach made them stop. Deeming the cheer a racist slur on the Edison players, the San Antonio Independent School District, which represents Edison, filed a complaint with the University Interscholastic League, the governing body of high school sports in the area. From the San Antonio Express News:
It was the second year in a row that a complaint about racially motivated chants was filed after the Region IV-4A basketball tournament.
“A bunch of kids made a poor decision, but we can’t ignore it,” said Edison athletic director Gil Garza, who filed the complaint. “Our community is fed up.”
Alamo Heights ISD Superintendent Kevin Brown said he has apologized to SAISD officials. Heights students who were involved in the chanting will not be allowed to attend the Mules’ Class 4A state semifinal game against Dallas Kimball on Thursday.
Brown said some of the Heights students who took part and were disciplined are Hispanic.
“Unfortunately, after the game, we had a handful of students who made a bad decision and we’re very sorry it happened,” Brown said. “They made a mistake and we’re going to use this as a learning experience.”
But not all agree that the chant was racist. From The Blaze:
Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo — a nationally syndicated radio host based in San Antonio and frequent fill-in for Glenn Beck — on Wednesday blasted the local media coverage of the controversy, saying reporters demonized the “U-S-A!” chant, rather than presenting the story as students misusing it as a taunt.
From the Blaze message board:
Maybe Mr. Garza can tell us how many kids on his team are actually in the country legally. “Once again”, Mr. Garza, the citizens of the USA are on “pins and needles” wondering how our country is going to survive the plentiful “entitled” ILLEGALS on the USA’s dole. — Copatriots
Sanctuary Cities to flourish in Texas what did ya’ll expect? Hell there’s a Taco Stand in every shopping center parking lot, and hordes of Illegal’s that will swarm your work truck if you pull-up to eat looking to cut your grass. — Spankdamonkey
Had you attended a USA vs Mexico soccer event in San Diego you would see why these kids feel that a USA chant was necessary . Every “Latino” in the stands were cheering for the Mexican National team and jeering team USA but they were ALL GOOD Americans ….right ? People on border states know what the truth is. — Drattastic
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- alligatorsnapper - Mar 7, 2012 at 12:44 PM
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Did La Rasa send reps and wave the Mexican flag during protests until they were told it did not look good for these cause on TV? This strain on the medical and educational facilities in California, New Mexico, Arizona and in the border regions of Texas are well know and becoming worse. America is far from being anti-immigrant since we all are, even the native Americans came here from somewhere else. What we want is accountability. We want legal immigration. We don’t want one group jumping ahead of other groups of immigrants who want to come here because they can jump the border (or just walk across).
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- anotheryx - Mar 7, 2012 at 1:25 PM
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That’s all good and fair, but what that has anything to do with the high school basketball game? I would assume high school is not a natural gathering point for illegal aliens, or am I missing something?
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- koufaxmitzvah - Mar 7, 2012 at 1:28 PM
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Fine. But San Antonio is a part of America. Not sure why taunting a person of Mexican heritage– which, by the way, is where Texas, California, Arizona, and New Mexico come from– is considered acceptable.
This isn’t being PC. This is being aware of our nation’s history and heritage.
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- seahawks55 - Mar 7, 2012 at 2:31 PM
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I consider myself starkly conservative on immigration issues, however, making people of another heritage feel alienated will only create further division along racial lines and increase their support for organizations like La Raza.
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- umpire12 - Mar 13, 2012 at 1:39 PM
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The problem is the fact the are chanting usa to another team that is in the usa that is racist the way it was ment to be used. it is wrong. its an insult to call someone illegal by chanting usa to another usa team.
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- osgakogi - Mar 7, 2012 at 4:41 PM
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The idea that the land masses of the Americas were up for grabs because “even the native Americans came here from somewhere else” is a tired racist rant. Except for Bushman in the African bush, everyone came from somewhere else. Native Americans are not immigrants and to imply that we are is RACIST and insulting. Think about – every continent in the eastern hemisphere was populated by people who are there by right but somehow the western hemisphere was totally up for grabs? That is racist! During the 11th century our largest city had a larger population than London did at that time (and yes the British did migrate to Europe from Africa during prehistoric times just like everyone else did, does that make all Europeans in Europe immigrants? – does that mean no culture except African Bushmen have a homeland? No, but your words show an incredible lack of understanding for basic logic). We are an established culture, this is our homeland. We are not immigrants and you ARE a racist for not understanding that.
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- ron05342 - Mar 7, 2012 at 4:01 PM
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Quoting message boards for a news story? Any crazy nut case can post on a message board. What a waste of time reading this article.
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- cur68 - Mar 7, 2012 at 4:46 PM
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Is the irony here^^^ intentional or unintentional? This is gonna bug me all day…
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- hamstergram - Mar 7, 2012 at 6:17 PM
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Any crazy nut can post a comment here as well, as you’ve proven. You’re in a sports blog, by the way — not CNN Politics.
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- eddar38 - Mar 7, 2012 at 6:40 PM
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This is The USA-enough of the PC crap.Freedom of speech etc,somebodies are denying Americans their rights.It starts at the top,maybe we’ll have people up there who respect the Constitution and follow it.We do not have to apologize for loving the U.S.A.
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- Dr Gary Ferguson - Mar 8, 2012 at 12:04 PM
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This wasn’t loving the USA. It was white kids mocking non-white kids. Last year, they chanted Arizona, Arizona, Arizona because of Arizona’s new law on illegal immigrants. It was racism, and you’d have to be stupid not to know that.
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- koufaxmitzvah - Mar 8, 2012 at 1:29 PM
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“This is The USA-enough of the PC crap.”
Funny. “PC crap” is American made. See, Mark Twain.
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- jsoup16 - Mar 7, 2012 at 6:57 PM
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I actually attend this high school, and the whole situation has, in fact, been blown out of proportion. There were 5 to 10 students who began the chant that was stopped seconds later by Coach Brewer, the head basketball coach at AHHS. These students have been punished properly, but they weren’t even regular attendees to the basketball games. Not to mention, the Edison basketball fans were chanting ,only minutes before our out break, “Alamo Whites”, which I’m almost positive is a racial remark as well. All in all, a few teenagers were being idiots. Unfortunately, it is reported nationally that a large crowd of the student body was chanting U-S-A, and this is completely inaccurate. I hope all of this is taken into consideration as the article is being processed in your mind.
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- umpire12 - Mar 13, 2012 at 1:43 PM
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yea the problem with that is high school boys have to have respect the fans you cnanot control nor am i going to by you’re story as i don’t believe you have enough edvince to support your claim
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- turiddhu - Mar 7, 2012 at 7:51 PM
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i wonder if just speaking english would be considered by some to be racist.
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- koufaxmitzvah - Mar 8, 2012 at 1:26 PM
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On the other hand, I doubt you will ever wonder why your sense of support is only found amongst the likeminded and fellow-skinned.
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- revcat44 - Mar 8, 2012 at 11:54 AM
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Last time I checked both cities were still in the USA,so I think that they need to relax.I beginning to wonder who the racist really are.I don’t care what color the skin is,if you live here legally your an American here in the USA.And if you don’t like it leave.
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- umpire12 - Mar 13, 2012 at 1:43 PM
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last time i check its rude and ingorant to think its ok in high school basketball game to chant usa usa to another team IN THE USA.
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- Jeanne Roué-Taylor - Mar 8, 2012 at 12:08 PM
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According to local TV stations, last year they chanted “Arizona, Arizona, Arizona” because of the new, controversial law targeting illegal immigrants. There was nothing patriotic about it.
This was white kids mocking non-white kids and nothing less. To not see that requires ignorance and/or hate.
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- jsoup16 - Mar 8, 2012 at 11:56 PM
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That was not Alamo Heights. That was the previous year, and it was Cedar Park who chanted “Arizona, Arizona, Arizona”. I will not have my school falsely accused of any actions like that.
