Arkansas college investigating reports of racist noises aimed at Kansas opponents

A college in Arkansas has launched an investigation into whether racist crowd noises were directed at their opponents from Kansas last week.

Fans at North Arkansas College in Harrison hurled monkey noises and crow caws, a reference to Jim Crow, at the Labette Community College men’s and women’s basketball teams when the two schools played each other on Jan. 10, the Parsons Sun reported.

In raw game footage viewed by a Sun reporter, one member of the North Arkansas crowd made sounds of a crow cawing several times when black Labette players shot free throws. Crow caws have been used to reference Jim Crow laws, which were used to enforce segregation in the South from the late 1800s until the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Fans at North Arkansas also made monkey noises directed at Labette players, often whenever Labette was on offense, the Sun reported.

“As you can imagine, we are very aware of the allegations in the article,” North Arkansas College president Randy Esters said in a statement issued by the college. “We take those allegations very seriously and will investigate them. To thoroughly investigate, however, we need to view the video that contains the alleged offenses. If those offenses were made by Northark students or employees, we will take appropriate actions to ensure it does not happen in the future.

“At this time we have not received any complaints from anyone at the game, including coaches, athletes, officials or members of the public.

“This situation is truly unfortunate since we make every effort to be inclusive and welcoming to all of our students, community and visitors.”

Labette Community College issued a statement late last week in response to the fan behavior reported by the Sun.

“Teachers, parents, colleagues have taught me that diversity is a foundation to a strong people, no matter the peoples’ origin, or what they look like,” Labette Community College president Mark Watkins said. “An institution, such as a community college, is no different. We should appreciate people for who they are, not tolerate them for who we want them to be.”

Watkins said athletics “is much like the world.”

“The opposing team will try to distract us, to cause us to lose our focus,” he said. “Fortunately, coaches use their experiences to keep the team in focus.

“If the opposing team is successful, and our players are distracted, then we have a greater chance of losing. But, as long as we continue to focus on utilizing our strength through diversity, we will overcome distractions, such as discrimination.”

The teams meet again in Parsons on Wednesday night.

This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Arkansas college investigating reports of racist noises aimed at Kansas opponents."