Racial profiling

I'm late to this story, but I found it very interesting. I had to piece together quotes from other sources, because the original article has been moved into the paper's pay-per-view archive. Here's the original lead though "Some in Danville cry foul over high school basketball cuts" and the teaser "Some black community members have accused the Danville High School boys basketball head coach of racial profiling for cutting at least eight black players from [the] team. Now they're planning to organize a protest in an attempt to get Coach Gary Tidwell, who is white, removed."

Here's some other quotes:

"We have racial profiling going on," said Frank McCullough, pastor of Mount Olive Christian Church, adding that's the only explanation in his mind. "He took a look at the way the young men wore their hair, and made comments about that and whether he thought they should be hanging out with certain people."

Senior Omar Kelly said he felt coach Gary Tidwell discriminated against him and senior Ayron Worthington because they wore braids.

Debra Gouard, a local minister and Bryant's mother, was incensed when Tidwell told her and other mothers that he chose the best players for the team, but that he didn't have his selection criteria in writing. She said the mothers are starting a petition to get the students reinstated and Tidwell removed.

Here's the kickers though:

1. All the remaining players are also black. The original sentence above ended "cutting at least eight black players from an all-black team." Also "The entire team is African-American."
2. Two of the remaining players have the same hairstyle as the whiners: "But he acknowledged that two other players who were not cut also wear them."
3. What mommy dearest (Gouard) was so mad about was that she was basically told that her son was not one of the 8 best players to base his team on based on his criteria: Tidwell "said there were five factors he looked at – whether they were coachable, academics, commitment level, behavior and athletic skill"
4. At least the principle is standing behind him: "The coach chose the student athletes that he thought were the very best players and would help the team be successful this year," Principal Mark Neil said. "That was the basis of the choice.

This sounds to me much like one of a brouhaha over nothing more than a coach making normal coaching decisions. It also seems to me that when you are hypersensitive to the point that you are imagining racial slights, then perhaps it it you who is the racist.

Oh, I found a full link.