In case you thought racism was dead ...

A high school basketball victory is marred by some unconscionable Tweeting afterward.

I'd like to meet the parents of the kid who wrote #HitlerIsMyDad.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2014/03/members_of_howell_high_school.html

 

Howell has become a Detroit/Lansing exurb in the past couple of decades, since it's a reasonable commute from each. But when I was a kid it had a reputation as a pretty hardcore KKK/White Separatist hotbed (home of Pastor Bob Miles). Livingston County in general had a reputation as a racist place. I guess the old attitude is alive and well after all?

 

One day a kid *will* be tweeting that Hitler is his dad.

 

Not shocked so much by the racism as by the stupidity of kids who broadcast their stupidity to the world without thinking about the repercussions of doing so.

 

They're teen-agers.

 

While this certainly doesn't help the city's cause, Howell has long been wrongfully accused of a KKK hotbed. Pastor Bob Miles actually lived outside Putnam Township which is closer to Pickney and well away from Howell. In fact, when the KKK tried to hold a rally on the Howell courthouse steps many years ago, more folks from Howell turned out to protest than KKK members showed up.

I know this because my first newspaper gig was in Howell. I heard all the stories. I know there are other board members who work or have worked there. They can provide more information.

 

There have been other instances like this in rural Indiana and suburban New York City in the last few weeks, and generally it's started in areas that have escaped the diversity part of being the most diverse generation in American history. Not that racism doesn't exist elsewhere, but these are kids who are too stupid to realize nonwhites can read their tweets or hear their heckling.

 

I think these kids should get the death penalty and their parents sent to prison forever. And if we found out they used homophobic slurs as well, well, my God shut down the whole town and burn them all out......

 

OK the tweets are one thing, but this:

How does the game not get stopped by the official? Also if you hear this as a player, you have to stand up for yourself. Leave the damn floor in protest. Nobody should have to put up with this shit.

 

The dude is 16-years old and is there to play a basketball game, not be the next Rosa Parks.

I love how message board guys want to project all of their talking points and social injustices onto some teenager.

 

So everyone should just take it.

 

I don't know if 'everyone should just take it'. Maybe the kid didn't hear it. Maybe the kid hears it everyday. Maybe he heard it but he was intent on winning the basketball game. Maybe the N word isn't the be all and end all to the kid like it is to the message board crusaders here. Maybe he was planning to go into the stands as soon as the game ends.

Who knows?

For you to postulate that he should "leave the game in protest" is just down right silly. Why don't you fight YOUR own battles, and let the kid decide what battles he should fight for himself.