Racist messages a reminder of ugliness

CHICAGO — As Loyola-Chicago revealed itself as a national power, beating team after team, mail addressed to specific dorms and to specific players arrived.

The letters were threatening, written to Black players and signed by the Ku Klux Klan.

“I was [scared],” star guard Jerry Harkness told the Chicago Tribune in 2018. “It was addressed to the dorm on Sheridan Road. I started thinking, ‘These guys are talking like this and they know where we live.’ Wouldn’t you be a little nervous? ‘What else do they know? They could wait out there and ambush me.’ Yeah, I was afraid.”

In bloody, violent 1963 — a year before the Civil Rights Act passed — white fans were angry the Ramblers started four Black players, boldly ignoring an unwritten agreement limiting more than two Black players from the same team on the court together. Harkness and his teammates went on to win the national championship that same season.

Harkness was only 22 when he and his teammates opened those letters. He’s 80 now.

Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell is 20. Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn is 21.

They also played in the NCAA Tournament — an achievement of a lifetime — and in 2021 were targeted with racist messages after their teams lost.

All that has changed is the method of communication: Stamped letters then. Social media posts now.

Cockburn and Liddell shared the messages on social media. It would be foolish to think other Black players haven’t received similar messages over the years.

Maybe that’s why Liddell and Cockburn publicly showcased the bigotry to turn the spotlight on the racists.

“Honestly, what did I do to deserve this? I’m human,” Liddell posted on social media. “I’ve never done anything to anyone in my life to be approached like this.”

When Black athletes assert their humanity, calling for racial justice amid police shootings of unarmed Black men and women, they’re told to “shut up and dribble” or “stick to sports.”

Critics said this to Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. They say this to Serena Williams, LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick.

Jackie Robinson, lionized for breaking Major League Baseball’s color line, said fans cheered him when he succeeded while silently absorbing racism but hated him when he spoke out.

“The minute I began to sound off,” he said, according to the Washington Post, “I became a swellhead, wise guy, an ‘uppity’ [slur].”

During last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, some white college administrators, coaches, teammates and fans joined in on campus marches to speak — some genuinely, some forced — against racism.

But some fans said they never would watch these teams again.

Ohio State was right to report Liddell’s identified harasser to police. Illinois is looking into the messages.

There is joy this March to be sure. The thrilling upsets are a welcome reprieve from an unprecedented year of loneliness. But this season’s tournament also has been notable for revealing the omnipresent ugly side of sports.

It was less than two weeks ago when Cockburn helped provide one of the most joyous moments of the season. He made giggling contagious during a news conference with Giorgi Bezhanishvili, a white teammate from the republic of Georgia.

Bezhanishvili explained their bond.

“We have so many conversations even at our apartment,” he said. “We have so many conversations about our families, our journeys. You know, he’s telling me a lot about his country, his family, his culture. I’m doing the same thing.

“In practice we go at each other. And sometimes, you know, we have almost fought a couple of times, but we know we’re not going to hit each other. It’s all competing, and it’s all making each other better.”

Cockburn took his turn to explain the wonder of competition. Despite differences — born a world apart, belonging to different identities and growing up with distinct cultures — he discussed how sports can be a bridge.

“Sports brings people together because when you have a love for a certain sport, you dedicate most of your life to that sport,” Cockburn said in his typical earnestness. “When you share that sport with somebody else that has that same feeling about it, it’s an automatic connection that’s created right there.”

Here’s hoping some bad actors who mask as fans can find something to brighten their lives and stop threatening good kids over a game.