Racism and the white Central New York SU hoops fan

Georgetown fan! That's me. Central New York is where I live and spent most of my life. Spending most of that time amongst white Central New York Syracuse University basketball fans. Not easy territory for me to be in during the heavy rivalry between the Hoya's and The Orangeman during the 80's and 90's. This rivalry has seen its best days but has begun to claw its way back into the mainstream of college basketball's center stage. We'll never see the likes of Patrick Ewing and Dwayne "Pearl" Washington again, but the the mentality of Central New York will most likely never change. SU fans have always disliked The great coach John Thompson's approach to giving inner city black kids the opportunity to play and succeed at arguably one of the nations most prestigious colleges because there were few, if any, suburban white kids on the squad. John Thompson had allowed his players a great opportunity by giving them the best chance to succeed. Coach Thompson: " maintained a graduation rate of (97%- 76 of 78 students who stayed four years) " -NCAA.Com March 27, 2008. While Jim Boeheim only hovers between 50-67% depending on which article you read.
This isn't a knock on Coach Boeheim or his staff. This is a blog about the hundreds of SU basketball fans I have encountered throughout my life in Central New York that have had no problems dealing a blow on the side of racism. It was Friday, November 13th, 2009 and I was sitting in a bar in Herkimer, NY. Through normal sports conversation it was brought up that I was a Georgetown fan. And not so shockingly, the 50-something year-old guy sitting near me set his drink down and in stride of many who came before him, ingeniously said; "throw him a banana." This was of course followed by a few laughs and other less than intelligent remarks. This is obviously not an isolated incident as racism never is. One of my all time favorites happened back in 1987 during a G'town, SU game, I was watching with a group of friends when a buddy of mine asked me; "what do the Hoya's do during halftime?" "what?" I asked, "go to the parking lot and steal hubcaps" he replied. In no way do I feel all SU fans are racist, in fact the majority probably aren't, but I can say it is far more than a hand full. The comments regarding the players and coach Thompson throughout the years have been appalling and not worth repeating.
This isn't totally about college basketball either, this is about the mentality of Central New York and the sad fact that racism exist heavily and deeply throughout the area. I have encountered more white people who harbor negative feelings for other races in Central New York then I have in any other part of the country. People here are afraid to be different, to accept anyone and everyone for who they are. So the rednecks, teachers, lawyers, judges, students, parents and sports fans will continue to shake the hands of all the races and bad mouth them behind their backs. Maybe the welcome sign on your way into this part of the state should read: "Welcome to Central New York, we're big on hiding racism."

No school no job - HELP I HAVE GREEN SKIN!

The days of getting your fingers dirty and working for your grandfather's feed shop or maybe the local supermarket to springboard your way out of your one horse town have come and gone. The time when you could toss a mint in your mouth, flash those pearly whites, and with some charm and charisma - BAM - someone gives you a job based on potential or the word of your cousin Joe who used you to paint his garage last summer. It doesn't matter that you had worked as a case manager for two years or you're "only two semesters away from your bachelors degree" and the fact that you have enough credits for an associates degree but decided to transfer and had your financial aid yanked out from underneath you. It only matters that you finish that degree in something, ANYTHING! There's nothing like opening an aging newspaper or furiously clicking away on numerous online job listings to see the same title swinging away at you in a fury "MUST HAVE AT LEAST AN ASSOCIATES DEGREE IN ALPHABETIZING" - "BACHELORS IN PENCIL SHARPENING NEED ONLY APPLY" or "MASTERS IN TIMELINESS IMPORTANT." The millions of us who have potential, drive, desire, goals, dreams, know how, experience, a pulse or many other desirable traits a person would love to have in an employee are laughed out of the application process. The resume is used to ignite the kindling in someone's 50 inch masonry wood burning fire place on the hill. There are moments when begging seems suitable for some of us trying to get a job and other times when turning green and tossing the mahogany desk with pictures of the interviewers last fishing trip to La Mexico sitting right under his degree from USC right out the fifth story window. At any rate it is a time now where no degree = no job and whining will get us nowhere. Doers do, and whiners won't. So put my ass in the doers column and get me on the fast track to success. Degree or no degree my torn jeans and green skin should definitely land me a job in Hollywood or at least a spot on the George Lopez Show.