Words Beneath the Words

When I was in college our basketball team played in the NCAA tournament and made it to the Elite Eight. 
Then they lost, and I felt so sad and heartbroken and disappointed and I wandered down the street of off-campus housing.
There were lots of other sad and heartbroken and disappointed students too.
They were so heartbroken they threw couches off of the second and third story balconies of their rented homes.
They were so sad they jumped on top of cars parked in the street.
They were so sad they threw wooden furniture into a massive pile and started a fire.
They were so sad when the firetrucks and police cars came.  So sad that they climbed on top of the firetrucks.  Heartbroken at the sheer injustice of a team losing.  It was our team.  It was anguish.


I was shaken out of my sadness watching the crazy happen that night.
I was like: I am sad, and now I am confused.  Why is there a couch sailing through the air? 
Why are 14 young men jumping on the roof of a parked car?
That bonfire is extremely big and does not seem to be contained.  Why is this? 
What does this have to do with basketball?


No one called us thugs. 

There is no justification for rioting, looting and the destruction of property. But the way in which many Americans talk about what's happening....seems to suggest that sports is a valid reason to riot and destroy property, while anger about systemic injustice, economic oppression and the institutional devaluation of an entire race are not.

            ----from photos of white people rioting