Everyone Look! There's a Honky in the Building!

This weekend I covered a basketball game where I was one of only a handful of white people in the building. It was a high school game between two rivals and I guesstimate the crowd was around 1,000 people. I'm not sure how many middle class whites have had experiences like that, but it's definitely something everyone should be exposed to at least once in their lifetime.

I've experienced this sensation before, but there's still something jarring about going from the majority to the minority in the blink of an eye. It's really a fascinating experiment in perceived bias. Friday night basketball games tend to be a social event and my guess is that I was one of the very few people in the gym who came alone.

It is not uncommon at a high school game for people to come up to me when I open up my scorebook and start asking me questions about who I am and why I'm keeping score. My favorite ones are when people ask me if I'm a scout. Anyway, not a soul talked to me at this game.

Is no one talking to me because I'm white?

No one talked to me at the private school game I covered the next day and I didn't really give it a second thought. But everything gets magnified when you are out of your comfort zone.

My wife likes to give me a hard time about my "hermit" tendencies. I can't argue with her because I've always been looking for the uninhabited island with fantastic night life. But I doubt there is anyone alive who doesn't mind being social in the right setting. And I wanted to be social Friday night.

The home team has a new coach this year who used to play in the NBA. I would have enjoyed talking to fans about how it feels to have such a high-profile individual coaching their son or classmate. The visiting team is one of the best basketball programs in North Carolina and their football team just won a state title. It would have been great to discuss the history of a program that I know little about with some knowledgeable fans.

But did I want to increase my knowledge of local sports or was I just looking to ease my mind?

I've covered games where I've been checked for weapons and I've been searched for drugs at various events. But nothing like that happened here. However, there was a bigger police presence at this game than any high school game I've done previously. And if the boys game matched the girls game for intensity, we might have needed it.

I sat on the visitor's side and heard several comments during the girls game about how there was going to be fights. But that was it; at least that was the extent of what I saw. While I thought there were a lot of cops inside, there was twice as many outside. Officers were telling students in no uncertain words to go home and not walk around to look for friends.

Bottom line was there was no gun fire, no fist fights, no racial slurs of any kind. There was just one very competitive basketball game and one blowout. Just a typical night covering preps hoops.

Except for the middle aged white guy who made sure to wear colors from both schools and who spent the night trying not to draw attention to him rather than enjoying good basketball.