Post by 19delta on Jul 16, 2010 12:30:07 GMT -6
I helped coach my 8-year-old's Peewee baseball team this summer. We had a mulatto kid on the team (lives with his white mom/black dad is not in the picture). The kid is pretty dark-skinned and stands out in my community.
Anyway, the kid is basically a little spoiled brat with serious emotional problems. Mom is a welfare deadbeat who is shacked up with some redneck loser whose only source of income, from what I can tell, is suing insurance companies for disability compensation.
This kid cries uncontrollably, throws fits and temper tantrums on the field, complains about what position he is playing, and yells at the other kids when things go badly. The other coaches don't call him on his BS...they coddle him and tell him that it is OK and make excuses for his antisocial behavior. Last night, we had a playoff game and his behavior was completely inexcuseable and, like I had done all year, I called him out on it.
After the game, trailer park princess mom comes up to me and tells me that I was too hard on little Precious this year and that she didn't want me to coach him next year. I told her that her son needed counseling and that if she didn't do something, he was going to end up in serious trouble.
Point is...IMO, this kid got away with this behavior because he is part black. The people in my community don't have a lot of experience dealing with minority kids so they think they are doing this boy a favor by making excuses for him and letting him get away with this crap.
The white kids on the team who tried to pull the same kind of crap...the coaches (myself included) jumped on it right away. But, because everyone (apparently except for me) was worried about appearing "racist", they let this kid's behavior slide.
My point is that we are not doing black kids or poor kids (or any kids, for that matter) any good by coddling them and telling them they are OK when they really aren't.
There is a WORLD of difference between treating kids EQUALLY and treating kids FAIRLY. They are NOT, in my opinion, the same thing. With that being said, there HAS to be certain standards of what is and what is not acceptable in regards to being a member of a team or organization.
I guess what bothered me the most about the situation is that most of the adults involved with the team looked the other way when this boy threw his fits and had temper tantrums and did everything he could to manipulate situations so he was the center of attention.
And I would damn near bet my next paycheck that if a white kid on the team would have acted like this little brat, it would not have been allowed to continue. The general attitude was that the boy's behavior was acceptable because of his race and his economic status. I just think that is wrong.
When this kid is sitting in front of a judge and is showing off his DOJ ankle bracelet to his 7th grade classmates, maybe the adults in his life will realize that they haven't been doing him any favors...
Anyway, the kid is basically a little spoiled brat with serious emotional problems. Mom is a welfare deadbeat who is shacked up with some redneck loser whose only source of income, from what I can tell, is suing insurance companies for disability compensation.
This kid cries uncontrollably, throws fits and temper tantrums on the field, complains about what position he is playing, and yells at the other kids when things go badly. The other coaches don't call him on his BS...they coddle him and tell him that it is OK and make excuses for his antisocial behavior. Last night, we had a playoff game and his behavior was completely inexcuseable and, like I had done all year, I called him out on it.
After the game, trailer park princess mom comes up to me and tells me that I was too hard on little Precious this year and that she didn't want me to coach him next year. I told her that her son needed counseling and that if she didn't do something, he was going to end up in serious trouble.
Point is...IMO, this kid got away with this behavior because he is part black. The people in my community don't have a lot of experience dealing with minority kids so they think they are doing this boy a favor by making excuses for him and letting him get away with this crap.
The white kids on the team who tried to pull the same kind of crap...the coaches (myself included) jumped on it right away. But, because everyone (apparently except for me) was worried about appearing "racist", they let this kid's behavior slide.
My point is that we are not doing black kids or poor kids (or any kids, for that matter) any good by coddling them and telling them they are OK when they really aren't.
There is a WORLD of difference between treating kids EQUALLY and treating kids FAIRLY. They are NOT, in my opinion, the same thing. With that being said, there HAS to be certain standards of what is and what is not acceptable in regards to being a member of a team or organization.
I guess what bothered me the most about the situation is that most of the adults involved with the team looked the other way when this boy threw his fits and had temper tantrums and did everything he could to manipulate situations so he was the center of attention.
And I would damn near bet my next paycheck that if a white kid on the team would have acted like this little brat, it would not have been allowed to continue. The general attitude was that the boy's behavior was acceptable because of his race and his economic status. I just think that is wrong.
When this kid is sitting in front of a judge and is showing off his DOJ ankle bracelet to his 7th grade classmates, maybe the adults in his life will realize that they haven't been doing him any favors...
