Ape suit tips off racial debate

Reports of a racially tinged incident at a Tuesday night basketball game between Columbia's two most elite private schools has prompted an NAACP inquiry and self-reviews by officials at Heathwood Hall and Hammond schools.

According to accounts the NAACP said it received from six parents and two students at Heathwood, a Hammond School student dressed in an ape costume attended the boys' varsity game and other Hammond students offered fried chicken to Heathwood's African-American players.

"They are definitely racial stereotypes ... belittling one group versus another," NAACP president Lonnie Randolph said Friday. He stopped short of labeling the events "racist."

Both schools' headmasters attended the game at Hammond. Neither responded to The State newspaper's requests for interviews. Nor did any other school official provide details of events that night.

"We have talked to our students and have determined that there was no racial motivation behind their actions," Hammond said in a statement Friday. "We regret any offense."

Heathwood, an Episcopal school, notified its staff and trustees in writing to not discuss the events with the media and warned them against "unnecessary gossip."

Heathwood issued a two-sentence statement noting that its mission is to "value inclusivity."

An official with the S.C. Independent School Association, which oversees athletics events at 105 of the state's private schools, said he received no complaint from the referees who officiated the game, two of whom are black.

"I have never received a report, especially any type of racism, about Hammond, about either school," Mike Fanning, athletics director at the association for 21 years, said.

When Fanning contacted the head referee, he reported that one of the officials noticed a student in a gorilla suit. But the official thought nothing of it, Fanning said.

None of the players or coaches reported anything to the association, he said.

Occasionally, students wear outlandish costumes to high school games, Fanning said. He has not seen costumes at other Heathwood/Hammond games, which Fanning said he attends regularly. He did not attend Tuesday's game.

The schools, arch rivals on athletics fields, are working on a resolution and will supply the association with a report when they are finished, Fanning said.

"I have no doubt that Hammond will take swift and appropriate action," Fanning said.

He said he might ask to view videotape of the game taken by both schools.

The association has authority over players and spectators at games, he said. It also has the power to sanction individuals or schools.

That has not happened in his more than two decades on the job, Fanning said.

The NAACP's Randolph said separate accounts of the night's events he received are "pretty consistent." But none of the parents reported their complaints to the schools, he said.

Their accounts include that Hammond headmaster, Chris Angel, spoke with the student in costume and the student took off the suit.

Randolph said the parents who complained - half of whom are white - and students who spoke to him told him other students walked up to Heathwood's African-American players before the game began with fried chicken in hand.

"I haven't heard it was offered to any white players," Randolph said.

Asked if any of the adults who complained to the NAACP would be interviewed by a reporter, Randolph said all have declined.

Why? "Out of fear of retaliation from students and administrators toward their children," Randolph said.

In its statement, Hammond said it has taken measures to ensure "it is not repeated and that our students are more aware of sensitivities in the future."

The school said it "has unqualified and public commitment to racial and religious tolerance."

To Randolph, there is too much tolerance of racial insensitivity in South Carolina and the nation.

He cited efforts in Washington to soften published comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that Barack Obama made a good African-American presidential candidate because he was light skinned and did not speak with a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

Reid has apologized to the president, who has accepted the apology.

Randolph said if adults try to make such language OK, children will take their lead from them.

"We're having this conversation on what would have been Dr. King's 81st birthday, someone who lived and died to ensure that all human beings are treated with decency and respect," Randolph said Friday.

The ape and fried chicken stereotypes are, "one of the many ultimate forms of disrespect," he said.

This story was originally published January 16, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Ape suit tips off racial debate."