Political correctness is a pathological disorder.
You cant say niggardly or black holes or chink in the armor without provoking protests or risking your job. You cant invoke the Constitution or call illegal behavior illegal without being accused of hatred. And now you cant 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 DIDNT 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 Spirits 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 Universitys famous Curtain of Distraction during their rivals foul shots.
Unlike the pot-stirrers whove turned an innocent prank into an international p.c. incident Holy Spirits 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 Inquirers 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 its not.
Indeed race didnt 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 wasnt 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 Citys 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..
Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats Crooks & Cronies (Regnery 2010).
Political correctness is a pathological disorder.
You cant say niggardly or black holes or chink in the armor without provoking protests or risking your job. You cant invoke the Constitution or call illegal behavior illegal without being accused of hatred. And now you cant 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 DIDNT 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 Spirits 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 Universitys famous Curtain of Distraction during their rivals foul shots.
Unlike the pot-stirrers whove turned an innocent prank into an international p.c. incident Holy Spirits 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 Inquirers 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 its not.
Indeed race didnt 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 wasnt 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 Citys 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..
Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats Crooks & Cronies (Regnery 2010).
