High School's Chant "USA USA USA" deemed racist!

[ptwonline]

Here's the problem with this. You don't actually have any clue what they were implying with the chant, or if they were implying anything at all. You have replaced their actual motivations with your own assumptions.

Why would anyone be offended by an American patriotic chant delivered in an American high school, one of the few places where patriotism is supposed to be on the actual curriculum? And I do mean that literally. There is a reason for the Pledge of Allegiance and the flag displayed in the classroom and the mandatory US History class.

Just as you say, this could only be offensive if the offended parties took it to mean that they really aren't American due to their ethnicity. But why would they jump to this conclusion? Why would you? And why didn't the other team's fans join in the chant? Most of this is unknowable. But it is a trend I have noticed, that in recent times it has become an act ranging from bad taste to hate crime to express love for country whilst in the company of ethnic minorities, and that, my friend, infuriates me.

Come on. We're not stupid. We know exactly what was going on and why. So did the winning team's coach because he put an end to it quickly. So did the winning team's school district because they apologized as well.

[Heythere]

Yeah it's really stupid, it's real usual here in sweden, you're not allowed to even state that you love your country here because then your a nazi. Swedens national anthem is banned at our highschool.

I'm sorry, but where do you live? Personally I live in stockholm and every year we sing the national anthem on the last day of school (I go to uni now, so it's different), since I was in kindergarten til I was 18. You are by no means NOT disallowed to say you love your country and I have NEVER seen any school ban the national anthem..*
Im not saying you're lying of course, but your place must be real fucked up.

[Extrazero8]

All they said was USA, thats it, simply USA.
There was no racist term.
all they said was United States of America.
stop over thinking it.
It's a chant, they are at every sporting event.

but it was a chant for a team they are not playing for.

Why would they chant USA unless they thought an American team won a game against a non-American team?

Have they ever chanted USA when they won against a team made up of mostly white people?

[Edison]

I'm sorry, but where do you live? Personally I live in stockholm and every year we sing the national anthem on the last day of school (I go to uni now, so it's different), since I was in kindergarten til I was 18. You are by no means NOT allowed to say you love your country and I have NEVER seen any school ban the national anthem..*
Im not saying you're lying of course, but your place must be real fucked up.

Arboga - Västmanland. And A couple of years ago In 9th grade a guy on my school got kicked out just for wearing a sweden hoodie. There's alot of immigrants on my school who are "Offended" by us loving sweden, and afaik this is happening all around over sweden. But no i'm not lying, your not allowed to sing the national anthem here. (Just for the record ofcourse i don't have anything again immigrants.)

[Deleted]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

What in the name of common sense if happening in that country?

[Reeve]

All they said was USA, thats it, simply USA.
There was no racist term.
all they said was United States of America.
stop over thinking it.
It's a chant, they are at every sporting event.

I could say some extremely racist things without ever uttering a racial slur.

[Deleted]

i'm at a lose for words... the words were interpreted as racist from the people that got beat. They weren't racist, the asshats on the other team took it that way.

I hope the kids on the basketball team that get banned from state finals sue the fuck out of that school district.

Chill dude. Twas the spectators doing the chanting that got banned, not the team. I made the same mistake myself.

[stabetha]

I'm sorry, but where do you live? Personally I live in stockholm and every year we sing the national anthem on the last day of school (I go to uni now, so it's different), since I was in kindergarten til I was 18. You are by no means NOT disallowed to say you love your country and I have NEVER seen any school ban the national anthem..*
Im not saying you're lying of course, but your place must be real fucked up.

yeah and from what I've seen from most posters here from Sweden they all think their country is great.

[Jaxi]

but it was a chant for a team they are not playing for.

Why would they chant USA unless they thought an American team won a game against a non-American team?

Have they ever chanted USA when they won against a team made up of mostly white people?

Again, you are overthinking it.

This is a high school basketball game! They were probably just caught up in the moment and started chanting as soon as one person did. Do you really think that right after their team won and the adrenaline is soaring through their veins that they came up with a collective consensus to start chanting "USA" with the implication that their team was America and the other team was not? That's a stretch of the imagination any way you approach it. This is classic overreacting.

Edit: And furthermore, even if they somehow did mean to imply that, at the very most it would be nationalist and possibly, possibly jingoist. It would only be racist if they implied USA = Caucasians and Non-USA = minorities.

[Bearshield]

Yeah, I don't believe that for a second. If you had such a large latino population in your schools, chances are the majority of them were either citizens or legal residents.

I grew up in a school where caucasian was the minority (San Jose, CA), with the ethnicities being pretty evenly split (40% Asian, 25% Caucasian, 25% Latino, 5% African American, 5% Other, more or less). The only ethnic discrimination occurring was perceived and not real, imo.*

So you don't believe that we had no European immigrants at the schools I attended? The first time I met someone from a country other than the US or Mexico was in high school. There was one African immigrant (I honestly couldn't tell you which country at this point but he was a nice boy) We had about 5-6 foreign exchange students when I was there, all from European countries except for one and one of the Europeans was sent home early because he was participating in racist activities. I had a couple of friends who were half Asian, half white but both were American citizens and we had a handful of black students. Aside from that, most of the kids were either Mexican or white, with Mexican being the dominant race and many of them being non-citizens.

Then you have two kinds of legal Mexicans in this situation, the ones who are honest, hard working folks who dont support the freeloaders hopping the border illegally. And the ones who still see themselves as Mexicans first, Americans second and are often racist towards other races. (the biggest racial riot we had near our school actually did not involve white people at all)

And there was no question about whether or not racism existed and unfortunately it was not limited to the students.

[Purlina]

Again, you are overthinking it.

This is a high school basketball game! They were probably just caught up in the moment and started chanting as soon as one person did. Do you really think that right after their team won and the adrenaline is soaring through their veins that they came up with a collective consensus to start chanting "USA" with the implication that their team was America and the other team was not? That's a stretch of the imagination any way you approach it. This is classic overreacting.

Why else would they do it? The custom is to chant the teams name or schools name. Not the country....

[Deleted]

I'm sure if someone did sue, (aka the accused teams parents etc) the lawyer would have a field day and gain an easy victory.

That would be difficult, since the team isn't involved in any way.
I suppose the banned spectators could do so...

[Foosha]

Political correctness strikes again!

Honestly, I don't see why these immigrants/minorities are mad, USA gave them a chance to equally participate in a sport, gave them free education etc.. They should be chanting USA USA USA as well.

[Jaxi]

Why else would they do it? The custom is to chant the teams name or schools name. Not the country....

This is a high school basketball game! They were probably just caught up in the moment and started chanting as soon as one person did. Do you really think that right after their team won and the adrenaline is soaring through their veins

I already stated why.

[Azgraal]

tbh it's only in the US that people chant their country name when they do something to be proud of, but weren't facing another country.. that would be a bit silly... for example, a football (real football) match between Portugal and Spain, if Portugal won we'd be chanting for our country. Now if 2 regional teams faced eachother it would be ridiculous for them to chant they country's name...

That and USA calling the world series "world" series, when they're the only ones on it.... oh well...... PLANET EARTH! PLANET EARTH! PLANET EARTH!

[Conbot]

You, just like the news, take everything way to literal.
Do you really think the whole school plotted to chant USA when their team won to say that minorities aren't Americans?

Why the hell would a HIGH SCHOOL team chant USA when the other team is also from America? This isn't a conspiracy theory. If they didn't intend it to be racist, they would have just chanted the name of their school like EVERY OTHER HIGHSCHOOL ON THE PLANET DOES.

[Sadgazm]

It is easy; especially when you counter your own arguments. Given how redneck is a slang term with wide usage, it is hard to hand the word a scientifically clear-cut definition. His definition of the word (that will be the norm in his age group or location - hence his use of it) - I'm assuming it's along the lines of one that has little world-view, a reactionary view of politics and potentially bigoted values - is almost certainly different to the one that you assigned to him.

His or her usage of the word redneck was clear, go back and read the original comment I quoted. You're right redneck is slang and can be used in different ways, so can n*gger. I hear it in rap music all the time, I also hear it from time to time in a less respectful way. I'm simply pointing out that calling one group of people a racial epithet in the same post about how they're racist and are bad people for using potentially racial comments is ironic.

[Purlina]

Political correctness strikes again!

Honestly, I don't see why these immigrants are mad, USA gave them a chance to equally participate in a sport, gave them free education etc.. They should be chanting USA USA USA as well.

Everyone is an immigrant or descendant of one, try again

[Heythere]

yeah and from what I've seen from most posters here from Sweden they all think their country is better then everyone else's

What does that have to do with anything? Im talking with someone from Sweden. I'm from Sweden, he's from Sweden. Im sharing my POV and he's sharing his POV.*
Afaik, Sweden is _1_ country.

And if you'd like to know, almost every country is better than USA. Even Sweden

[Karazee]

Why weren't the spectators chanting the name of the school they were rooting for? That would be more appropriate for a competition between schools, and nobody would ever take offense to that. Instead, they decided to use the USA chant to insinuate that the team of minorities were not Americans. Also keep in mind that this is Texas, which isn't exactly famous for its racial tolerance.

Basically, you had a bunch of likely drunk, NASCAR-loving, gun-toting rednecks trying to show off how tough they thought they were at a children's athletic competition. It was really pathetic of them, and it was right to throw them out. Adults should be setting a better example for kids and trying to progress away from racial intolerance, not promote it.