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

[Tychus]

Why would you chant "USA" at a domestic game? Why not the school's/team's name? It makes no sense. I could understand at the Olympics or some other international event, but between two high schools? The hell?

[Deleted]

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?

Because they encounter similar attitudes in their day to day lives, maybe? I wouldn't have to look very hard to find the same viewpoint online.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_baby
For example. That term didn't come out of nowhere.

[Jaxi]

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.

The mass of baseless assumptions you toss out is remarkable. You see it and conclude it was racist. You made an assumption without any proof at all, just by asking questions, and you think it is racist.

Someone else sees this, makes the assumption that they just mindlessly started without any thought to what the other team might think they are insinuating, and passes it off as just high school kids getting caught up in the moment. Tell me how either one can be proven correct? The school district went off of hurt feelings and assumptions, so they are at fault here, not the chanters.

[Deleted]

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.

It's certainly an interesting choice of chant for a game between schools.

Do you really think that right after their team won and the adrenaline is soaring through their veins that they came up with a (1)collective consensus to start chanting "USA" (2)with the implication that their team was America and the other team was not? (3)That's a stretch of the imagination any way you approach it. This is classic overreacting.

(1) Chanting does not require pre-planning.
(2) This is a perfectly reasonable conclusion to come to. See below.
(3) The chant was nationalistic, and as such was an odd choice for an inter-school game; the chant was orchestrated by the (supporters of the) victors, who are predominantly caucasian; and the losers were of racial minorities in a state where immigration is a delicate issue.

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.

That is exactly what is implied.

[Deleted]

I don't believe this to be a case of racism.
Just a case of nationalism, nothing more.

[stabetha]

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

I went and and corrected my wording because I unlike you didn't mean to insult anyone.

oh and by the way U.S.A. is much better then Sweden we don't make our hard working people pay for the lazy to survive

<Infracted>

[Deleted]

This is brilliant. I hate cocky americans that chant this shit. They are almost all rednecks. You dont see a canadian going around shouting CANADA, CANADA, CANADA!

[muto]

Remind me not to move to Texas... Oh wait you don't need to, I already knew not to move there.

The only good things in Texas are the lakes.

[rigoremortis]

ummm, did this lady forget our history?


we as white people were minorities when we came here, to the indians......how the **** is this racist? lol


we're all "minorities" compared to indians, they were here first.....just /facepalm


texas was originally owned by mexico, ffs lol

we're all part of the USA godamnit, we all came here to make a better life for ourselves, mexicans, blacks, whites, jews, arabs, asians, everybody came here, so by chanting USA its not really racist, as we all came here as one giant mixing pot, lol. ffs cant we all just get along? lol

[Extrazero8]

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.

You're under thinking it or you're being intellectually dishonest. I think I know which one.

Why would a group of Americans chant USA after winning a game against another group of Americans?

Why does the winning team supporters think they won something for America?

[Heythere]

we're all "minorities" compared to indians, they were here first.....just /facepalm

Do u even know what a minority is?*

[Blood Fox]

coming from Texas and knowing alot of highschoolers are nothing but wild animals I can see them doing this to be racist.However I doubt it was ment to be and the other person took offense.

Think of it this way imagine you are Caucasian and you are you child are walking in the streets of Chicago and right as an black guy walked past your child for no reason whatsoever said the N word. Your baby didn't mean anything by it but the other guy still took offense.

edit: I'm saving that example for further use

[ptwonline]

ummm, did this lady forget our history?


we as white people were minorities when we came here, to the indians......how the **** is this racist? lol


we're all "minorities" compared to indians, they were here first.....just /facepalm


texas was originally owned by mexico, ffs lol

Was that post part of a "Just say no to drugs" campaign or something?

[Bearshield]

Was that post part of a "Just say no to drugs" campaign or something?

Lol I'm sorry, I know it's offtopic but this is good signature material right here!

[Deleted]

The same thing seems to happen in Sweden aswell, the kids can't even sing our national anthem when they go for summerbreak. (It's a tradition to go to church the last day of school, and sing a couple of songs and the principle holds a speech and whatnot, and now my lil' sis told me they can't sing our national anthem anymore, as we used to do...). I mean wth is racist with that?*

"can't even sing national anthem" and nex thing you say is that you used to force people to go to church and you see absolutely nothing wrong in that.

/Facepalm

[Purlina]

ummm, did this lady forget our history?


we as white people were minorities when we came here, to the indians......how the **** is this racist? lol


we're all "minorities" compared to indians, they were here first.....just /facepalm


texas was originally owned by mexico, ffs lol

You don't seem to understand what a minority group is...

[Deleted]

Was that post part of a "Just say no to drugs" campaign or something?

Indeed. I don't think he quite understands the word minority.

[Bakis]

I went and and corrected my wording because I unlike you didn't mean to insult anyone.

oh and by the way U.S.A. is much better then Sweden we don't make our hard working people pay for the lazy to survive

Sup with torture? Now shhh and stay on topic.

[ptwonline]

coming from Texas and knowing alot of highschoolers are nothing but wild animals I can see them doing this to be racist.However I doubt it was ment to be and the other person took offense.

Think of it this way imagine you are Caucasian and you are you child are walking in the streets of Chicago and right as an black guy walked past your child for no reason whatsoever said the N word. Your baby didn't mean anything by it but the other guy still took offense.

But ask yourself this: how did your child know that word in the first place, and have it spring so quickly to mind that when they saw the black person, that's what they said? The association between the two must have been made beforehand and probably not casually.

Furthermore, we're talking about high schoolers here, not young children who might not know better. I don't know if you have noticed, but high school kids can be some of the cruelest people on the planet. I think they knew exactly what they were doing.

[GKLeatherCraft]

Wow, thats crazy it is silly how it seems to be the cool thing to just throw the racist card at anyone -.-'