Laguna Hills High School Crowd Yelled Racial Slurs at Black Basketball Player from Portola Hills High School in Irvine (VIDEO)

I saw this on Twitter a couple of weeks ago. Damn this is bad!

At the time, I'd only read that "racial slurs" had been yelled and the black student's father confronted the Laguna Hills coach and then an assistant coach basically told the father to "step outside." The boy's father was escorted out of the basketball game. The boy's father! Maybe the head coach should be escorted right out of that school district. The whole coaching staff. Sheesh. 

The crackers in the crowd were yelling, "Where is his slave owner?!," "He's a monkey!," and "Chain him up!!" 

Watch and listen to the video here, at the Los Angeles Times, "Video captures Laguna Hills student shouting racist slurs at Black basketball player."

And the full story here,  "After a Black student faced racist slurs, some wonder: Will O.C. ever change?":

Watching his son play basketball at Laguna Hills High School, Terrell Brown couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling.

He has felt it before in Orange County, where he and his family are often the only Black people in a room.

Fans of the home team, the Hawks, and the visiting Portola High Bulldogs slammed their feet against the wood bleachers and screamed. It was a type of energy that often makes for an exciting game. But the vibe was off, Brown recalled.

He was soon proved right. His son, Makai, became the target of racial slurs shouted from the stands by a Laguna Hills student.

A video capturing the slurs at the Jan. 21 basketball game has generated widespread outrage. The family was interviewed by Don Lemon on CNN. A group of local businessmen gave Makai a $20,000 college scholarship. But Brown and others are wondering what will change in a county where racial taunts of students of color, particularly at sporting events, still happen with alarming regularity.

Brown, who moved to Irvine from the Atlanta area about four years ago, said the overt racism of the South is in some ways easier to deal with than Orange County racism.

“The microaggressions here are worse,” said Brown, 48. “The guy with the Confederate flag, he’s letting you know he’s a racist. He’s making it very clear. But here, you don’t even know.”

For Black people, life in Orange County can be particularly challenging. They are 2% of the population in a county where whites are a minority and two-thirds of residents are Latino or Asian.

With all the crowd noise, the Browns didn’t hear the insults at the time. Makai, 17, a senior point guard at Portola High, discovered them the next day while studying game footage.

“Where’s his … slave owner? Who let him out of his chains? Who let him out of his cage? He’s a monkey!” the student yelled as Makai shot free throws.

For several days, the Browns dealt with their shock and pain mostly alone.

Then, Makai’s mother, Sabrina Brown, posted the video on Instagram. It was viewed more than 171,000 times in just over a week...

Keep reading. 

At at the Laguna Hills High School homepage:

Hawk Community,

The Laguna Hills High School administration, staff, and students are devastated by the racial commentary captured on video at the home basketball game on January 21st with Portola High School. The words used by the student are absolutely contrary to our core beliefs and the values of our greater community. Those awful words go against LHHS’s vision of empowering our students to build a better world through mutual respect and intercultural understanding. This is not who we are, Hawks.

We have had several meetings with the Orange County Human Relations Commission this week to develop our plan to make our school a better place as a result of this terrible scenario. As a result, LHHS is building out a schedule for a series of listening sessions over the subsequent weeks which will enable students, staff and families to express their respective feelings through guided conversation. Our objective is to utilize the information derived from the listening session process to inform our action plan as we move forward with next steps toward ensuring respect for all.

Faculty and staff will be meeting Monday for our first listening session. Information will be coming out Tuesday for our students and parents to sign up for listening sessions on Tuesday, February 15th, and Wednesday, February 16. Hawks, it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to make sure our school is better in response to this event. Racism is not tolerated at Laguna Hills High School. Please join me in this call to action.

Bill Hinds Principal, Laguna Hills High School