THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

When I first started reading the article, I assumed that most of the team would be black in which case the “chant” would be relatively good-natured (IMO). When I read that the entire team but one player was white, I was appalled. And do you think that the coach really didn’t know about this?

Anyway, addressing Tango’s point, and I have thought about this many times already, what makes one racist is racist actions. Using the N-word in that situation is a racist action. Period.

Whether one is aware of considers themselves racist is certainly not a pre-requisite of racism. In fact I would venture a guess that a high percentage of racists do not consider themselves racists, just like a high percentage of annoying or arrogant or dumb or insincere (etc.) people don’t consider themselves annoying, arrogant, etc.
Isn’t that kind of the hallmark of having a negative quality? You don’t know or admit it.

On the other hand, it is just a word, and like most words, it can have very different meanings for very different people. Which is why getting wrapped up in a word or words is usually not productive. The issue is that they were using a word that is typically offensive to an entire race of people and especially to the one black girl on the team. For that, they should recognize their mistake and apologize.

I am glad that the school saw fit to have sensitivity training for the offending girls. Too often there is a punishment and that’s it. Punishment tends to make people resent their punishers and reinforces the offending behavior. These are young people we are talking about. Education about these types of issues is the most important thing we can do.

It is unfortunate, IMO, that many schools have to wait until an incident like this one or a more serious one, like when a bullied student commits suicide or their is a hazing incident where someone gets injured or killed (of just assaulted). All schools should be having “training” about bullying, racial and religious tolerance, and just common, decent human behavior in general. I am shocked that that is not part of all school curricula.

And as usual, the commenters on the article make the original perpetrators look sensitive by comparison.

My son was called the N-word at recess about 2 weeks ago.

Now my son is pretty dark due to having a Hispanic mom, so I figured that it was in response to his appearance, and it’s been reported to me that the term has been directed at him from the football stands when he does too well in the regards of running someone over and things of that nature. It bothers me that one just can’t complain about how a kid is playing or if his size should relegate him to another position, but that they must go after the race of the kid to make their point. Yes, it’s out of frustration, but when was the last time someone complained about the fullback and made a crack at his Irish ancestry?

Anyway, my son asked “Dad, what’s a nigger?” and I asked why he was asking me. He said that he was called that at recess after his team won, and he told me the name of the kid that said it. The kid is also biracial, but white and black. I also know the kid’s older brothers, which are black and I know that they likely use the word consistently, but with a different usage. I reported it to the principal, which is a friend of mine, and they talked to the boys about the word. Since he’s in 5th grade, I find it sort of refreshing that so many of the kids weren’t really aware of the word and its historical context. Most of the kids have only heard the word in some songs.

The case described in the article is so over-the-top that it’s puzzling.

Anyway, at my job at the Junior High, I have to occasionally suspend kids for using words like that, although it’s largely disappeared from the insultive language of kids and been replaced by the word “faggot”.

On Friday, I suspended a kid for 3-days (1st offense) bullying another by repeatedly calling him “faggot”, and the victim had recently attempted suicide (for various reasons), which is how it was brought to my attention. I was also disappointed in that the other kids in the class that knew what was going on didn’t report it, even though they did a good job of not joining in. We have had quite a few trainings where the emphasis is on the bystanders telling the bullying student to knock it off or tell them it’s not funny.

I would also state that rarely is punishment assigned without some form of counseling on what is expected and why, and sometimes depending on the offense, a trust-building activity is required (such as writing an essay on bullying or derogatory terms, an apology, etc).

Bullying training dominates the current landscape. There’s no shortage of information and discussion among adults and students about the behavior. The problem is that some kids enjoy bullying, as it makes them feel cool or powerful or whatever. Building confidence so that kids don;t feel to need to tear someone else down in order to make themselves feel better is the hard part.

It’s been shocking to me that no bullies other kids for being overweight than does a kid that’s slightly less overweight, and no one uses the term “retard” more than someone whose IQ is barely above the level of someone that would be labelled as mentally impaired.

The frustrating part of my job is how much time and effort we keep putting into the same kids in regards to counseling, consequences, etc and they just are not responding. What works one day, may not work the next, but may work again in two weeks. There just simply is not a uniform system or program that works for everything.

The other surprising change in the landscape is what is happening with girls (the bane of my existence). So much emphasis was put on boys bullying the small kid, that it is largely gone from schools. But, due to neglect and other reasons, girls have become outright thugs and mean as hell. Based on my experience, the male student I suspended will come back to school and leave the other student, if for no other reason than self-preservation. A female student, on the other hand, is going to return to school and form an “anti-group” toward the girl they were bullying (or as they see it, the b---- that got them into trouble) and they’re basically going to hate each other for the next 50 years.

It’s a horrible problem than is continual, and I spend much of my time sorting out events in girl conflict (or girl ick as it is often called). I’m amazed at how much of it stems form an event that happened 2-3 years ago.

CircleChange wrote: “It’s been shocking to me that no bullies other kids for being overweight than does a kid that’s slightly less overweight, and no one uses the term “retard” more than someone whose IQ is barely above the level of someone that would be labelled as mentally impaired.”

I can see why that might shock people at first, but it actually makes perfect sense - the people whose position (and its attendant privileges) are most tenuous are the people who have the most to gain from continuing to oppress and marginalize the people at the very bottom, who threaten that little bit of privilege. (Either due to their proximity - ‘people might mistake me for them, and i can’t let that happen’ - or their potential for advancement.) The dumb kid calls someone a retard in order to assert that he’s intellectually superior to SOMEone; the smart kid doesn’t need to do that, though, because his position is fairly comfortable and unthreatened. (Or for a banal but perfectly recognizable example, it’s not the star QB who’s the bully, it’s his hangers-on.)

And the same logic is equally apparent in all aspects of identity - gay men are unusually misogynistic; poor white people are especially racist; the elderly are hard on kids; new immigrants are often the most resistant to bills in support of religious and cultural accommodation. If you can’t unseat the big fish, (or if it’s unimaginable) then the only real option is to take a shot at another small one.

Neil, you’re exactly right.

We refer to this as “passing on the pain” or “hurting people hurt people”. That’s the challenge, to get people to deal with pain in a way that doesn’t just pass it around.

We also see the same thing with kids that will become an ally of the bully to reduce their chances of being a target.

I won’t defend the instance in that article, but a lot of times when kids use racial slurs they are doing so ironically - mostly making fun of the people who use it seriously.