A Dose Of Their Own Logic

In 37-varsity basketball coaching years, I can tell you that it happened only twice but it underscored that which I knew existed having grown up in the 1940's and 1950's segregated period. One time while coaching in Edwardsville (1970-77) and another time coaching in Jacksonville (1977-1998), my home telephone rang and a quick comment was made and the caller hung up. The comment, "Roustio, you're a n#*ger-lover."

Frustrating for me? Sure! Just as it was frustrating when my athletic director at Edwardsville would come to my basketball practice to tell me how that he had a telephone call from a school board member that wanted him to check and see if "Roustio's black players were at practice." This was to suggest that I played  black players who didn't even come to practice. On another occasion, the Edwardsville high school principal wondered into practice one afternoon and I could tell he was very angry. When I questioned him, he said, "A school board member just telephoned my office and asked me to look in one of your player's school locker because the board member was told the player's locker held drugs inside." (The player happened to be a minority). I asked the principal if he intended to examine the player's locker. The principal said, "I told the board member that we had 1,827 students and if he wanted to look in one student's locker for drugs, he would have to accompany me looking in the other 1,826 students' lockers." Those cowardly anonymous ambushes came from unhappy racists parents wishing to stir the pot by casting these disparaging racial comments. Why? Because their kid was not getting the playing time they'd anticipated.

Please re-examine these aforementioned bigoted accusations. Surely, you note the subliminal racist messages: 'Roustio's minority ball players are too lazy to attend practice and those minority players have illegal drugs in their school lockers.' We need to do something about "THOSE PEOPLE."

Make no mistake that some African Americans also play the race card to stir the same crap. I can recall late in my Jacksonville coaching tenure there was a strong cry from local African Americans for investigation into the minority extra-curricular participation percentages in Jacksonville high school suggesting there was unfair treatment of minorities. That meeting disclosed that 40% of the Crimsons' basketball  teams during my tenure was blacks...that percentage in a community that was only 7% African-American and a high school where less than 120 black students comprised the 1150 student enrollment.

Over the years, I have grown weary observing the same old racist games. People want food stamp  recipients to be drug tested. Okay drug them and then drug test farmers who get federal subsides also. Drug test food process workers who package our foods we eat. Drug test auto workers whose work has a safety factor in our lives. Drug test athletes, police, the military, the politicians, preachers and priests...why NOT?!

Folks the only way some things die is exposure to the light of day.