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View Full Version : Chants of "USA! USA! USA!" considered racist at a basketball game in San Antonio


Elenin
March 8th, 2012, 03:23 PM
http://www.ksat.com/news/defenders/Racial-incident-mars-high-school-game/-/478436/9225754/-/145ddl2/-/index.html

SAN ANTONIO -

A local school district is apologizing after an apparent incident of racism at a boys high school basketball game this past weekend.

When the final whistle blew Saturday, Alamo Heights celebrated a convincing victory over San Antonio Edison.

Alamo Heights Head Coach Andrew Brewer said he was proud of his team.
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"Tremendously proud,” Brewer said. “Tremendously. It's the best group of kids."

But it was just after the trophy presentation when the coach was not proud of the chant coming from Alamo Heights fans.

"USA, USA, USA," they chanted.

San Antonio Independent School District officials took the chant as a racial insult to a school with all minority players from a school with mostly white ones.

On the KSAT 12 Defenders Facebook page, Santos Villarreal's post reads “this has to stop.”

SAISD Spokeswoman Leslie Price heard about the incident after it had happened.

"This is very disrespectful to our students,” Price said.

She said the district is glad the coach put a stop to the chant immediately and hopes Alamo Heights addresses it quickly.

"It is surprising and it's disappointing to hear that anyone would be out there making those kind of remarks," Price said.

Edison students who attended Saturday's game were shocked when they heard the chant. Some thought the fans of the victors should have been better behaved.

Ruby Arredondo and Forest Lebaron are seniors at Edison and Julian Castellano is a junior.

"I was very surprised,” Castellano said. “Very appalled."

"They didn't really have any class," Arredondo said.

"It just rubbed us the wrong way," Lebaron said.

Alamo Heights Superintendent Dr. Kevin Brown also apologized for the chant.

"We just hope that people know that that's not who we are and we're not going to let it happen again," Brown said.

Alamo Heights has apologized to SAISD and the students identified will also have to apologize and have been banned from the state title games.

"We think that you have to earn a right to be there and that's not a reflection of our school district," Brown said.

Both districts are now just trying to move past this disturbing incident.

Another SAISD school, Lanier High, faced a similar incident within the last year from students in the Cedar Park school district.

Copyright 2012 by KSAT.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

huginnmuninn
March 9th, 2012, 07:37 PM
when did chanting USA become racist?

Jess
March 9th, 2012, 08:42 PM
so now cheering for your country is considered racist...okay...-_-

Thanatos
March 9th, 2012, 09:06 PM
B-B-But I thought we all lived in the USA? Black, white, asian, whatever, still in the USA.

Also: Since when was USA a race?

Jess
March 9th, 2012, 09:25 PM
B-B-But I thought we all lived in the USA? Black, white, asian, whatever, still in the USA.

Also: Since when was USA a race?

very good point. I haven't even thought of that.

Peace God
March 10th, 2012, 12:05 AM
when did chanting USA become racist?
When both teams are from the same school country, but "USA" is chanted when the whiter team wins.

Mortal Coil
March 10th, 2012, 01:05 AM
When both teams are from the same school country, but "USA" is chanted when the whiter team wins.

Fair enough, but even so, Americans aren't a race. It may have been stupid and irrelevant, but repeatedly saying the name of a country is not racist. I'm all for political correctness, but this is ridiculous.

Peace God
March 10th, 2012, 01:25 AM
repeatedly saying the name of a country is not racist.
You're not getting it, no team is more american than the other. I think the crowd made it clear that their notion of patriotism is one of racial purity. I'm not always looking for acts of racism to bitch over but I can easily see how latino students and parents from the other team were offended.

Hatsune Miku
March 10th, 2012, 01:33 AM
Everything is considered racist now. A few days ago I was watching a news report about "U mad bro?" being racist. (it's cancerous but not racist)

Everybody this age are all pussies, they take offence to every little thing, it's fucking horrible.

Donkey
March 10th, 2012, 05:35 AM
You're not getting it, no team is more american than the other. I think the crowd made it clear that their notion of patriotism is one of racial purity. I'm not always looking for acts of racism to bitch over but I can easily see how latino students and parents from the other team were offended.
Yeah, definitely. The issue is understandable but exactly how it makes news is a bit questionable.

Professional Russian
March 10th, 2012, 09:08 AM
thats pretty fucking dumb. Why wouoild it be racist USA USA USA USA USA/ oh im so racist racisst now im chanting USA

Thanatos
March 10th, 2012, 12:55 PM
Also pointing out: After an investigation it was discovered that it was Hispanic students at Alamo Heights who started the chant.

Peace God
March 10th, 2012, 01:38 PM
Yeah, definitely. The issue is understandable but exactly how it makes news is a bit questionable.
I'm sort of wondering that too. I guess it is just local news after all (anything can make local news), plus stereotyping of certain minorities in southwest america has been a problem for a while now, maybe the publishers wanted to speak out against that.

Yeah, chanting "USA USA USA" at an event definitely isn't inherently racist but it still comes off as a boneheaded thing to do most of the time (unless it's like the olympics or the world cup). But that's probably my unpatriotic liberal bias speaking.

Thunduhbuhlt
March 10th, 2012, 03:20 PM
you hear people cheering USA!....when Bin Laden was killed but it's not okay now? That's stupid..

WickedWeekend
March 11th, 2012, 10:14 PM
"Another SAISD school, Lanier High, faced a similar incident within the last year from students in the Cedar Park school district."

What? Did they chant "Mexico! Mexico! Mexico!"?

HeatRush
March 15th, 2012, 10:51 PM
you hear people cheering USA!....when Bin Laden was killed but it's not okay now? That's stupid..

Exactly

Erasmus
March 18th, 2012, 11:13 AM
How is that racist?

huginnmuninn
March 18th, 2012, 12:25 PM
well if they were shouting "White power, White power, white power" i could understand.

BOSS
March 18th, 2012, 12:31 PM
wow talk about retarded. I think everyone finds reasons to sue someone. -___-

Neptune
March 22nd, 2012, 02:41 AM
Why did they chant USA in the first place? Seem kinda off in a basketball game that has nothing to about America as a whole. I could understand in an Olympic Game or something where international teams play against each other... but... that didn't happen here.