Going bananas: A case study in
media-manufactured racism
By Michelle Malkin
MichelleMalkin.com
Political correctness is a pathological disorder.
You can’t say
“niggardly” or “black holes” or
“chink in the armor” without provoking protests
or risking your job. You can’t
invoke the Constitution or
call illegal behavior “illegal” without being
accused of hatred. And now, you can’t goof around at
a high school basketball game in silly costumes
without the world accusing you of “racial
insensitivity.”
Last week, thanks to hyperbolic grievance-mongers
and irresponsible reporters, the students of Holy
Spirit High School in Absecon, N.J., garnered
international headlines and Internet infamy.
“Shocking moment students at Catholic school dressed
as monkeys and a banana and taunted black basketball
players … and DIDN’T get punished,” the
U.K. Daily Mail blared last week. “Students who
taunted black players at New Jersey basketball game
get warning, no punishment,“
USA Today decried.
Bossip.com, “the premier destination for
African-American pop culture and entertainment,”
exclaimed: “Really?!? White High School Students
Taunt Black Basketball Team in Monkey and Banana
Costumes.”
No, not really.
If any of these media outlets had bothered breathing
into paper bags before making abject fools of
themselves, they might have actually committed
journalism. Holy Spirit is a tight-knit community
with a 50-year tradition of excellence in academics,
sports and character education. I know more than a
little about the school and its student body because
I am a
proud alumna of H.S.H.S. and have stayed in
touch with many of its dedicated teachers and
administrators over the years.
Part of Holy Spirit’s half-century legacy includes a
storied athletic rivalry with nearby Atlantic City
High School. The competition between the Holy Spirit
Spartans and the Atlantic City Vikings has always
been fierce but friendly. At a basketball game two
weeks ago, Holy Spirit students decided to show
their team spirit by recreating Arizona State
University’s famous
“Curtain of Distraction” during their rivals’
foul shots.
Unlike the pot-stirrers who’ve turned an innocent
prank into an international p.c. incident,
Holy Spirit’s senior class president Pat Shober was
actually in the stands on Feb. 18 during the
game. He donned a green ballerina tutu for the foul
shot skits. Other students scrounged up a bumblebee
suit, monkey pajamas, costumes for Dorothy from the
“Wizard of Oz,” a jack-o’-lantern and a banana.
“The fan section was louder than it had been all
season long, and the fans, of both sides I may add,
were thoroughly amused and actually complimented
many of us on our actions numerous times both at the
game itself and throughout the time since then,”
Shober recounted in an
open letter to the public. “Racism was not
brought up once by a student, player or spectator
that night. We intended no racist connotations
during our performances that night.”
The Spartans had used the costumes at previous games
without controversy. Ray Ellis, a black Holy Spirit
alumnus and former football player, had dressed up
as the banana at a sports match three years ago. The
19-year-old athlete tweeted a photo of himself in
costume after the manufactured brouhaha, which he
rightly called “ridiculous.”
Ellis explained to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Phil
Anastasia – one of the few responsible journalists
who covered the story — that “we get creative at
games, we dress up in costumes, we show a lot of
enthusiasm. … Other people see what they want to see
and try to make it into something it’s not.”
Indeed, race didn’t enter the picture until two
error-riddled reports from the
Press of Atlantic City appeared a week after the
game occurred and snowballed into global tabloid
hysteria. The paper extensively quoted an Atlantic
City high school coach who wasn’t even there. The
paper failed to mention that the vast majority of
the Holy Spirit basketball team is black. The paper
neglected to describe the full array of costumes
involved. Nor did it quote any of the kids involved
in the skits.
Anastasia, who was in attendance, noted: “I
was there that night in Absecon. There were
black kids along with white kids in that student
section, yelling at Atlantic City’s players and
cheering for Holy Spirit players. And for the
record, there were times during that game when
Atlantic City had more white players on the floor
(two) than Holy Spirit.”
Stephen Brown, a Holy Spirit alumnus who graduated
last year and has many friends at the school, told
me: “It is a classic example of how the race card is
so unfairly pulled, and in this case is being used
to vilify innocent high school students.” Showing
more maturity than the Chicken Little instigators in
newsrooms around the world who defamed his fellow
Spartans, Brown reflected: “This is not only a
perfect example of poor journalism, but an example
of how members of the biased media like to stir the
racial pot.”
What we have here is a textbook case of
media-manufactured racism. Knee-jerk race-baiters
who see bigotry at every turn are an embarrassment
to the profession. Shame on the smear merchants and
their enablers who go bananas over every last
imagined slight and recklessly monkey around with
students’ lives and reputations.
The cage-rattlers don’t care about truth, honor or
integrity. Lesson learned: It’s a social justice
jungle out there, kids. Be prepared.
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2015