Coach Pat Williams and the School Committee

This is the real deal.

If you want to support calls for an independent review of accusations of racism in local high school basketball, you gotta be there.

If you suspect that Pat Williams is “the sort of person many parents would want coaching their children — and watching their backs” (Mr. Moynihan, T&G), or that “he also may be . . . someone who deserves not a circle-the-wagons reprimand but something more akin to Teacher of the Year” (Worcester Magazine), you gotta be there.

Thursday, March 16th , 6pm, Worcester City Hall. The rally is at 6pm, followed by the School Committee meeting inside City Hall at 7pm. Updates at Indymedia. Rally sponsored by Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker.

  • Support an independent investigation of Coach Williams’s concerns
  • Oppose retaliation against Coach Williams.
  • Speak out against unjust bias of all kinds.
  • Support School Committee member Dr. Ogretta McNeil’s motion to “…review those unacceptable behaviors which consciously and unconsciously may reflect bias….”

Also there will be like 500 members of the teacher’s union demonstrating outside on some other issue. So there will be a big social aspect.

Coach Williams rally video

Here’s some video from last week’s rally to support Coach Pat Williams at City Hall. It was shot by Hermis Yanis.

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Democracy: Internet TV

Racism? I’m shocked!

So the big story in Worcester is not that the refs at a couple South High vs. Holy Name basketball games made bizarre calls that handed the games to Holy Name.

The big story is that the South High coach, in a considered statement to the press, violated Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association rules by criticizing the refs and suggesting they were motivated by racism:

“It’s everywhere, but the Catholic schools are worse,” [South coach Patrick Williams] told the Telegram & Gazette in a 29-minute interview after his team’s 60-56 loss Sunday afternoon at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “You have the same officials, and they look at all black players and a black coach, and they make the calls.”
(Telegram & Gazette)

T&G subscribers can get part of the story over there. Indymedia has Scott Schaeffer-Duffy’s take:

I saw five South High games this year and noticed a definite difference when South played Holy Name and Saint John’s. In both games, South took substantial leads over their opponents only to suddenly face a disproportionate number of foul calls against them. It was like watching the all-black squad from South having to play with cement blocks on their feet to even up the competition.
[…]
If we dismiss Coach Williams’s charge without absolutely clear independent review, we tell black youth in Worcester that they will never get a fair shake in this town. Let’s not go that route.

My favorite tidbit is that Worcester Public Schools athletic director John Pepi called the refs to apologize. That’s right: no investigation has happened, but the schools have apologized to the refs.

This reminds me of Harry Whittington apologizing to Dick Cheney for getting shot.
Continue reading “Racism? I’m shocked!”

If elected, I’ll ask for a recount.

The NPR affiliate in Norman, Oklahoma — KGOU — aired a great story about my campaign for Mayor of Oklahoma City today. The reporter, Scott Gurian, used to hang out with folks at the NYC Catholic Worker, so he understood how to interview and report on a Catholic Worker running for a political office. I put an mp3 of the story at my website, http://www.bobwaldrop.net/waldropkgou.mp3