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."
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