Girls Basketball season ended in a 41-24 loss to the eventual State runner-ups, Loyola, in the regional semi-finals. However, the game was not remembered for what happened on the court, but rather for something that happened in the stands. In the Fourth Quarter, a black Evanston player was shooting a free throw when a member of the Loyola student section yelled, “Chewbacca.” The remark, to both the officials and the ETHS Athletic Director, Chris Livatino, was clearly reinforcing the age-old trope that Black people are like apes, something that has been recently spread by the current US president, Trump, who on February 5th, posted on Truth Social a clip portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as Apes.
The incident resulted in the entire Loyola student section being ejected from the game as the officials were not able to pinpoint exactly which student had made the remark. The story garnered coverage from almost every single Chicago news station, and the Loyola president, Gregory Ostdiek, traveled to ETHS to make a formal apology for the incident.
Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a highly publicized incident to draw attention to a much bigger problem. Athletes of color across the board face racism that prohibits them from feeling safe while they play their sport. Livatino stated that these kinds of incidents often happen at least once a year for many programs. The issue is particularly bad in the Central Suburban League, the conference that the Kits play in, which is made up of schools from rich and predominantly white northern suburbs. Livatino recounts the first time he ever saw one of these incidents.
“I was horrified when I heard one of my Black football teammates being called the N-Word for the first time, my freshman year. I remember later that year a basketball game had to be stopped because the same kind of thing had happened,” said Livatino. “Then, when the issue came up again, once I was the Athletic Director, I knew I had to do something.”
Livatino acted quickly to propose a strict hate speech policy to the CSL. The policy that dictates ejections, suspensions, and possible forfeits will be dished out to offenders was agreed upon by fellow CSL schools, and in 2020, it was implemented across the State by the IHSA.
“The policy has been relatively successful as it has reduced the number of offenses by competitors significantly, but there is still a lot of room for improvement,” commented Livatino.
That improvement should be targeted at improving regulations on hate speech delivered by fans, as in incidents like the Loyola basketball game. Compared to a detailed list of possible actions regarding comments by competitors, the only action the IHSAA policy lists for fans is for officials to remove offenders. The current policy is difficult to enforce and has no added punishments for repeat offenders or when the entire fan base participates in the act, as was the case when Gurnee High School participated in mass chants of “build the wall” whenever a Hispanic player touched the ball. Possibly, the IHSA could look to European Soccer’s playbook for possible punishments. European soccer, particularly in Eastern Europe, has a massive racism problem. It is not uncommon for an incident of fascist chants, monkey noises, or even Nazi Solutes to occur. Dynamo Kyiv, Udinese, and the Hungarian National team were all forced to play games without spectators due to racism from fans. Individual fans are also banned if they commit any hate speech offenses. Policies such as these should at least be on the cards for the IHSA to truly stifle hate speech.
However, it is important to remember that these punishments should be reserved for severe cases, as kids and programs should be allowed to learn from their mistakes.
“I would say that was the most well-behaved Loyola student section I have ever seen. They were committed to making up for their wrongs, and I was extremely proud of both their and our fans that night,” commented Livatino after Boys Basketball defeated Loyola 77-70 in overtime at Loyola just weeks later.
