Tuesday, March 03, 2015


Monkeys and bananas can NEVER be mentioned safely

Basketball fans on their home courts often go to great lengths to distract opposing players who take free throws.

Fans of teams in the NBA and at the collegiate level typically get the word out that everybody should wear the same color clothing — the more distracting the color, the better — so that when the poor player bounces the ball all alone at the foul line and gets ready to shoot, the explosions of color and sound will help a few shots get missed.

But students from New Jersey’s Holy Spirit High School in Absecon had a more elaborate idea during a tournament game Friday. They dreamed up a full-on skit, with makeshift curtains opening up to show actors dressed in costumes.

There was a guy outfitted like a cowgirl, a kid dressed up like a bee — and then a pair who got some people upset.

Not because they made an opposing player miss a free throw (which one did on his first attempt) but because the costumes in question — one student was dressed as a monkey and the other as a banana — were considered racially offensive by some.

The players from opposing Atlantic City High School are predominately black, WCAU-TV in Philadelphia reported, adding that they were told the skit went on during the first half of the game.

“I absolutely think it was offensive,” Ricardo Belgrave told WCAU after the Friday night’s game, noting that because it happened during Black History Month the gesture was more significant. “You should know when you’re putting that costume on, it should come in your mind that this might offend African-American people.”

In response the Cape Atlantic League’s board of referees told WCAU that the game officials were reprimanded — and while the students won’t face punishment, WCAU said they entire student body received a warning not to do it again.

SOURCE

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The players from opposing Atlantic City High School are predominately black"... The basketball players at the majority of high schools are predominately black, as are their football players. Check out any NBA or NFL team also. Such is life, build a bridge and get over it already.

AIB/44

Anonymous said...

This is so-called "sport" !

Anonymous said...

Blacks find So many things offensive, it is hard to do anything that will not offend.

Anonymous said...

The highly popular minions also love bananas and are essentially slaves so maybe they are a devious plot to disparage blacks in popular culture. If you look hard enough anything can be turned into something sinister so the perpetually offended will always have something to be offended with.

MDH

Bird of Paradise said...

Can anyone still rememeber those SAMBOS RESTRUANTS?

Anonymous said...

I remember Sambo's Restaurants. There was one in Savannah, GA when we moved there in 1978. It closed a couple of years after we moved there. I also remember the book. It was also one of my favorites in Elementary school. Times have changed....

AIB/44

Olaf Koenders said...

I wonder if we'll ever see the British sitcom "Love Thy Neighbour" again, considering the terms "nig-nog", "sambo", "honky" and "snowflake" were traded as more or less friendly greetings between black and white neighbours.

However, if somebody identifies blacks with monkeys then who's the racist? Maybe it had something to do with Muslims as well? Then again, monkeys are an entirely different species, so the racist pricks who called it out as racist are patently stupid.