High School Basketball Team Suspended for Racial Comments

Racism was a big issue in the past and it is still a very big issue we face today.  Racism primarily deals with the discrimination of people based on their race.  It has been exposed in the past through the Civil War and the Holocaust.  African Americans were treated poorly during those times because of their race and Jews were persecuted because of their religion.

Teenager Tyra Batts from Buffalo high school stands alone on her high school basketball team as the other players make racial comments.  She is the only African-American on the team so she is outnumbered when asking them to stop.  The team’s pre-game ritual included yelling the N-word on the count of three.  Although Tyra voiced her concerns about using that word, her teammates replied saying that it was just a word and not a label, and that they weren’t being racist.  The superintendent of the school district says, “That no coaches, administrators or other adults were aware of the tradition the team was doing.”  No one knew what was going on and that the team was making racial comments.  That was until Tyra was suspended from school for getting into a fight with one of her teammates over the matter.  She was fed up with how she was being treated and she threw a teammate into a locker and chocked her.  Tyra said, “I took my frustration out on her at school second period and I got suspended for five days.  It was a buildup of anger and frustration at being singled out of the whole team.”  The superintendent said, “The minute an adult knew, we started our search and investigation.” After looking into the situation it was found that the girls would do the chant after the coaches and all other adults had left the locker room and they were alone.  Before one of their games Tyra argued with her teammates but no one took her side; they said it was a tradition and they do it every year.  Tyra also said that there were jokes and comments made at practice that the coach heard but she didn’t know about the pre-game chant.  During practices Tyra would endure several racially charged insults.  They would make comments about picking cotton and shackles.  A senior on the varsity basketball team last year said that the team’s pre-game ritual wasn’t supposed to be racist.  The superintendent said that after looking into the matter that the members of the team had broken the school’s code of conduct and the extracurricular athletic code. They received a one-game suspension and a two-day suspension from school. They are also required to attend cultural sensitivity training.  After the dispute was settled Tyra’s dad said, “This was not something that just developed this year.  This is something that has been going on for quite some time.” Tyra’s family respected the District because of their quick response to the situation, but would have been happier with harsher consequences for the basketball team.  Even after all of this Tyra still returned to the basketball floor with her teammates and continues to play.