Panel at UAFS discusses race, coach comments

Official: Remarks insensitive

FORT SMITH — The top athletics official at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith at a panel discussion on race Tuesday agreed that remarks by the men’s basketball coach were insensitive.

But while Curtis Janz, the athletic director, and Chancellor Terisa Riley also described steps underway to improve intercultural understanding on campus, several in the crowd of approximately 150 people spoke out against the lack of action taken by UAFS against Coach Jim Boone.

An internal investigation found no “substantial” evidence of racial discrimination by Boone after a former player, Tyler Williams, said publicly earlier this month that he had been dismissed from the team in August after the coach’s disapproval of Williams’ hairstyle.

Williams, who is black, wears his hair in dreadlocks. Boone did not order Williams to change his hairstyle, but Williams has said that remarks by Boone, who is white, caused him to feel “devalued and disrespected” and stated, in a letter, that “Boone’s action of policing black hair is a form of pervasive racism and bias.”

An attorney for Boone has denied any racial discrimination, calling Boone “admittedly old-school” in attitudes about hair.

Audio of a meeting in August between Boone and Williams and his family was part of the complaint and investigation, with the recording published by The Oklahoman news outlet and elsewhere. Williams now attends Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma.

Boone was not present at the event organized by the UAFS Black Student Association. The group’s president, Karissa Cole, said in an email Boone was never disinvited from attending but that he was not asked to be a panelist “because we didn’t want this discussion to turn into a trial.”

Panelist Crystal Lougin, a mental health counselor from the community, said “where insensitivity comes into play” is when Boone spoke dismissively after being told about an anti-discrimination law in California, stating that Boone appeared unwilling to listen.

In the audio, as published, Boone responds: “I don’t have to live with that. I don’t live in California, so I don’t have to deal with that.”

The law, passed this year, prohibits discrimination based on hairstyles, with advocacy groups in favor of the law, including the National Urban League, stating that grooming policies disproportionately affect people of color.

“That comment that was on the audio was bad,” Janz said after Lougin’s remarks.

Janz also said a person cannot always know what might be offensive to someone else.

“If it offends you, it offends you, and I should have enough soul to say that I’m sorry it offended you, and I need to find out why. So, the sensitivity part is individual and it’s very important,” said Janz, who is white.

The event included questions from the audience. Andre Good, a member of the city’s Board of Directors, said that a dozen years ago he wore dreadlocks that extended to his back. Good said he wanted to know why Boone remained on the UAFS staff.

He spoke after others in the crowd — mostly from the community outside UAFS, and about half black — had asked questions related to holding Boone accountable.

Riley, who is white, repeated a statement she had made earlier in the evening and in a campuswide email, that there will not be any hair policy for student athletes at UAFS.

“I also need to be really clear, that I believe that people can do better and will be held to much higher expectations,” Riley said. She joined UAFS as chancellor July 1.

She also said at the event that players on the team supported Boone, a veteran coach of 33 years but in his first year at UAFS.

Alexsis Brown, a player on the women’s basketball team who is black, spoke from the audience, telling the panel that students on the school’s sports teams should be given an explanation and apology.

“It’s hard to be here and want to be here and want to stay here knowing that your culture may or may not be accepted,” said Brown, who attended Little Rock Central High School.

Janz said “apologies are necessary.” Riley and Janz did not respond to a question asking if Boone would be required to apologize publicly.

Janz stated an athletics diversity committee would be formed. Riley, in her earlier email to the campus, stated there would be a campus diversity and inclusion committee that will seek to boost the numbers of minority-group students, faculty and staff.

In the email, Riley also said UAFS would hire a director of campus diversity and inclusion, and Tuesday she said that person could begin in the position before the end of the year.

The city of Fort Smith has an estimated 8,438 black residents, or about 9.6% of the population. At the university, however, black students make up a smaller proportion of the total: 249 black students last fall, or 3.8% of all undergraduates.

After the event, Taylor Youngblood, 20, a UAFS student from Little Rock, said the discussion “was a conversation that was long overdue.”

But Youngblood, who is black, said that after listening to the audio of Boone’s comments, she was “saddened” that he is remaining as a representative of UAFS.

“I’m an education major, and I’m all about inclusion. To have someone to say that here, it’s just really sad,” Youngblood said.

In the audio, as published, Williams states: “When you came in, you had talked about my hair, like you not liking it, and, you, like, not wanting to recruit nobody with locks like mine — ”

To which Boone responds: “No, it’s not that we don’t recruit them, but we make it very clear that once they get in here they’re not going to have their hair that way. I told you, though, because you were here before me, that I didn’t think it was fair for me to tell you you needed to cut your hair, that I was going to let you have it.”

And Williams says: “But that’s like you basically saying you’re not going to bring nobody in with hair like mine.”

Boone says: “Probably not.”

Williams says: “That’s kind of like — to me, that’s a racist comment.”

Boone replies: “Well it’s not meant to be that way.”