My Old School System Banned Booster's Club 'White Out' Shirts for Being Racially Insensitive

Of all the sad things in the world, few are sadder than seeing the place you grew up fall into decay and ruin. It can be terribly depressing to see the hometown that will forever hold a place in your heart as the setting of all your fondest memories become a shadow of what it once was. Like something out a Steinbeck novel or a Springsteen song.

In my case, that town would be the once proud South Shore suburb of Weymouth, MA. Home of the Wildcats. The town that gave the world such greats as Abigail Adams, George Jung the cocaine smuggler who was portrayed by Johnny Depp in “Blow,” Rob Coddry of “Hot Tub Time Machine,” Bruins Paul Carrey and Charlie Coyle, and me. And despite that Murderer’s Row of legendary American icons, it would appear Weymouth has lost its soul:

Source – School administrators have banned the sale of t-shirts created by a booster club that read “Wildcat White Out” on school property, calling the shirts “insensitive.”

Superintendent Jennifer Curtis-Whipple said in a letter to the school community that a private booster group supporting women’s soccer created and sold the shirts without approval from Weymouth Public Schools. Curtis-Whipple said the sale of the shirts is not allowed on school property.

Members of the booster club advertised the shirts that read “Wildcat White Out” on Facebook over the weekend.

Similar “white outs,” in which fans in a crowd or stadium wear all white, have been used by professional and college sports team to unify their supporters. Penn State, for example, releases an official White Out t-shirt for fans to wear each year.

But some people found the Weymouth shirts racially insensitive and took to social media to voice their concern.

“While we are not suggesting this booster group had any malicious intent—make no mistake, words matter. Seemingly innocent words may mistakenly cause someone else harm, even though unintended,” Curtis-Whipple wrote. “The innocence, or ignorance, of the speaker does not take away from the reader or listener their hurt or pain.”

Curtis-Whipple said the school district has in the past supported the booster group’s efforts to raise money for high school sports, and looks forward to working with them to support female athletes “in a way that embraces everyone.

(Credit where credit is due, TurtleboySports had this story first and the screen cap.)

Yeah, that’s not the town I grew up in. Bud and Irene didn’t move their five kids out of the apartment in Dorchester and give me all those swimming lessons in the polluted Boston Harbor waters of Wessagussett Beach just to see the school system bow to pressure from … well, from nobody. To correct an offense that nobody found offensive. To right a racist wrong that wasn’t taken as racist by any living person that wasn’t Superintendent Jennifer Curtis Whipple.

It’s the height of irony that she mentions “the innocence, or ignorance, of the speaker,” when the only one being ignorant on this is her. Let’s assume she’s not enough of a sports fan to know that White Outs are a thing that’s done in arenas across this once great continent of ours. From the Jets of Winnipeg to the Heat of Miami and everywhere in between. Fine. Some people go home and watch HGTV instead of SportCenter. No problem there. To each his own.

But this could’ve been resolved with a five second Google search. Or better yet, a simple conversation with the students.

Boosters: “How do you like our t-shirts?”
JCW: “What do you mean by ‘White Out’?”
Boosters:“See, it’s like this …”

Crisis averted. But no. She did what academics would rather do in 2019. Take the path of much less resistance by assuming everyone is offended by everything. Start with the premise that if you let anyone who isn’t as wise and enlightened as you do what comes naturally, that you’ll do emotional damage to people that not even the snuggliest support animals can cure. And if you’re utter ignorance to the total innocuous harmlessness of the term “White Out” cost the students money because they’d already ordered the shirts, so be it. The people in charge get those all-important Virtue Points. Which is the most valuable cryptocurrency in their world. Like the coins the assassins trade in in all the John Wick films, only better.

So lesson learned, kids. If school is supposed to be about preparing you for life, you just got a great education about adults who are so full of shit they’re willing to screw you over chasing ghosts of their own ignorance rather than be seen as … insensitive.

My advice is to get all the “water based correction fluid” out of your lockers and backpacks before you get charged with a hate crime.

Also, try to have a great year anyway at my alma mater. While I go weep for your future.