Last week, at the 4A basketball finals in San Antonio, Alamo Heights High School beat San Antonio Edison High.
As the trophies were being presented, Alamo fans were overjoyed, the Edison fans were disconsolate. And then, in the crowd, fans of the victorious Alamo team broke out in a chant that horrified school officials:
Alamo coaches rushed to shut it down, but the local TV station picks up just enough of it…
“USA, USA, USA,” could be heard in the news report. “They chanted USA, which San Antonio School Distric officials took as a racial insult to a school with all minority players to a school with mostly white ones,” continued the report.
Because the winners were from a mostly white school, and the losers were from a mostly Hispanic school, the USA chant was considered racist. Well, that rocketed across the web and the talk show circuit.
How dare they say that chanting USA as racist!
But when the school finally issued its reply, it became clear why. It turns out the cheer only seems to happen when the other team is Hispanic. Last year, students at mostly white Cedar Park High School did the same thing at a game against mostly Hispanic Lanier High. Not only did they chant “USA, USA”, they chanted “Arizona, Arizona” which had just passed its immigration crackdown.
In other words, some fans have re-defined “USA” to mean, “get out of my country.” Which may be the way they feel, and may be the way a lot of people feel, but is that what we want the letters USA to stand for?
