WHEN I was a reporter in Hilo 20 years ago, the top-ranked basketball team from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas came to town to take on the University of Hawaii at Hilo. N-word and institutional
racism at UHI was sitting behind the UNLV bench with a friend. It wasn't much of a contest and late in the game UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian was still running up the score with his starters.
This incensed my friend and he began riding Tarkanian hard with a loud string of insults. Tarkanian was no stranger to trouble and the offensive heckling was clearly getting under his skin. But he kept his cool this time. When one of his burly young assistants swore at my friend and started up the bleachers, Tarkanian barked at the assistant, "Don't say one more word or take one more step. Be a professional. Keep your head in the game."
If University of Hawaii basketball coach Riley Wallace and his son Robert had shown similar good judgment, it could have saved a lot of grief. But they didn't and we have an ugly incident instead.
In 1995, Rainbow booster Eric White, an African American, was loudly riding Riley Wallace from behind the bench as UH was getting whipped by the University of Utah. There's little dispute that White's comments were irritating. But not irritating enough to justify Robert Wallace, then the team manager, getting into a shouting match with White in which he twice used the N-word and allegedly threatened violence against White.
Unlike Tarkanian, Riley Wallace didn't control his staff. It still probably could have ended there if sincere apologies were quickly made all the way around. But instead, the UH circled the wagons. The UH arena manager refused to even accept White's complaint. The UH finally suspended Robert Wallace, but Riley Wallace refused to see White to talk it out. Wallace sent word that his son had suffered enough and challenged White to "do what you have to do."
White did. He filed a complaint with the state Civil Rights Commission, which this week ordered Robert Wallace and the UH to pay White a total of $30,000. Attorneys for Wallace and the UH are crying foul, claiming Wallace was simply exercising his free-speech rights -- however offensively.
Bull. If it's a private argument between two guys in a parking lot, it's an offensive exercise of free speech. If it's the utterance of a public employee on the job at a public facility, and the state resists remedial action, it's state-supported institutional racism -- exactly what civil rights laws were written to correct.
They're right that it was most offensive, given that Robert's dad makes a living off of black kids running up and down the court for him. We can argue that the fine was too stiff. But it seems that stiff fines are the only way the commission can teach these boneheads that it's never acceptable -- never -- for an agent of the state to inflict racial discrimination on a citizen who goes to a public facility.
I had an unpleasant opportunity to practice what I preach this week. Members of an ethnic group were offended by one of our columns. I didn't try to defend the indefensible. I heard them out and concluded that they had a point. I arranged for their letters of protest to be published along with an apology by the newspaper. I expressed my displeasure to those responsible -- including myself for not pulling the column out of the second edition -- and we talked about what we did wrong and how we could make sure it didn't happen again.
I certainly don't expect gratitude from those we offended, but I hope our forthrightness regained us a little of their respect.
David Shapiro is managing editor of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at editor@starbulletin.com.
Volcanic Ash runs every Saturday in the Star-Bulletin.
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