Is Ga. Tech Basketball Racist Again?

[JEFF]

When I attended Georgia Tech in the late 1960’s and mid 1970’s the school had an average SEC men’s basketball team. Tech was a football school and basketball was interesting when football was not available. The program was, as it had always been, in terms of race, totally racist. We did not think a lot about it, the whole society was racist, so the basketball team was racist. That was just how it was. Deep down in those dark places, we knew it was wrong and evil, but that was how things were. The Coach and all the players were white, and anything else was unthinkable. I graduated in 1968 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and in 1976 with a MS in Sanitary Engineering.
Sometime between the 1970’s and today, things got much better. The ugly stain of racism went away, but it is a mean customer and hard to keep away. Certainly Georgia Tech changed. The teams of Coach Cremins and Mark Price, John Salley, Yvonne Joseph (the Haitian sensation), Scott Petway and many others, transformed Tech into a football/basketball school. Basketball was no longer just a sport to be tolerated and supported, until football season.
Now as I look at my old alma mater, I am confused. I am concerned that Tech men’s basketball has slipped back into racism. The Coach and all the players are black. It is just as it was in the bad days, but just opposite, black instead of white.
I always enjoyed playing basketball, even if I was not good enough to make my high school team. I had a cousin that was good enough and I know he enjoyed basketball. I can only imagine how great it would feel to play for a major college team like Georgia Tech. What a rush. You could make memories to last a lifetime. My point here is that white kids like basketball.
I like the current men’s basketball Coach, Paul Hewitt (although he does not Reply to my email), and the players are great. I watched them on ESPN and ABC this year and enjoyed the games, although Tech lost most of the games. Coach Hewitt and the players represent Tech very well, and make old alumni proud to be Ramblin Wreck. I also enjoyed the Duke vs. North Carolina game this year, however I noticed a difference. Both Duke and North Carolina have both black and white players, while Tech only has black players. Why? The last time I checked both of these teams were ranked ahead of Tech. The last time I checked Ga. Tech was not a predominately black student body. This is important, I do not want to be misunderstood here – Ga. Tech is enriched and made better by having black, and Chinese and South Korean and German and French etc., as students and student/athletes.
I think there are only two possible reasons that Tech has again slipped into ugly racism. If Coach Hewitt only recruits black players, that is racism. As a black man, if Coach Hewitt can not attract white players and/or their parents to Ga. Tech, that is racism. Either way, it is racism and must be drug out into the sunlight and discussed and resolved. A proud heritage is at stake. Racism was and still is EVIL, and must not be tolerated and/or given a chance to root itself ever again.