At the men’s basketball game against Iowa Jan. 26, I flinched every time Iowa guard Pierre Pierce had the ball.
Not because the 6-foot-4 junior from Westmont, Ill., was the leading scorer for the Hawkeyes. Not because he led the Big Ten in steals. Not because I was scared that the swanky gold stripes on his shoes were going to blind our team
I flinched because this is what I heard all around me during the first half of the game while Pierce was holding the basketball: “Sex of-fen-der!” Clap clap clap-clap-clap! Or, “Ko-be Bry-ant!” “Rapist!” and, my personal favorite, “No means no!” in the rhythm of “Let’s go Cats!”
He’d pass it to someone else, and I’d relax. We’d chant, “Aiiiirball!” or “Deeeefense!” But then Pierce would get the ball back and it would be “No means no! No means no!” for an eternity until he made a shot, took his free-throw or passed the ball again.
I honestly didn’t care if the jeering, which referenced a 2002 charge of sexual assault that ended in a plea bargain and a redshirt 2002-03 season for Pierce, got to the Hawkeyes. The person it got to was me. While it was going on, I felt extremely uncomfortable.
I couldn’t believe I was surrounded by people who thought rape was fair game for taunts and jeers, just like ugly shoes or a lousy lay-up. Yelling “No means no!” with the intent to intimidate and embarrass had the side effect of intimidating and embarrassing people in the stands. Not everyone thinks sexual assault is something to laugh at. It’s a real problem at Northwestern.
“Am I just being thin-skinned?” I asked myself. Then a guy a couple rows back nudged his friend, cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled “RAPIST!” His whole row dissolved in snickers.
“No,” I thought. “I don’t think so.”
These weren’t just isolated actions by a few Cats fans who had done their homework on the opposing team. The Daily explicitly endorsed this jeering. The Daily sports section runs a “Wild Side Scouting” box before men’s basketball games labeled “a healthy dose of taunting material for each home game.”
On Wednesday, the box made fun of Pierce for telling The Daily Iowan he was “scared” when he was accused of sexual assault right after the box made fun of him for missing free-throws. The same box poked fun at Iowa guard Adam Haluska for transferring from Iowa State. (The punch line was “The corn is always taller.”) Free-throws, rape, corn. One of these things is not like the others.
As an ex-Daily staffer myself, I don’t delude myself into thinking every person at the game yelling accusations of rape onto the court was doing so because they had read about Pierce in The Daily. But I think The Daily helped. I’m sad that instead of seeing Pierce’s story as something to examine or to investigate, Daily staffers saw it as a humorous tidbit to print for the entertainment of Cats fans.
After the rape jeers had been going on for a while, NU officials told students they’d be ejected if they continued to chant personal insults. I was so relieved. I heard a lot of grumbling about home-court advantage and “Are we still allowed to yell ‘Airball?'”
Funny thing is, once Vedran Vukusic took control, scoring 13 points in the final 106 seconds and forcing overtime — and when Michael Jenkins made that final, miraculous 3-pointer, winning the game 75-74 and causing utter pandemonium as Cats fans stormed the court — I didn’t hear any complaints.
All I heard was what I should have been hearing all along: “Vedran! Vedran! Vedran!” and “Mi-chael Jen-kins!”
Former PLAY editor Carol Scott is a Medill senior. She can be reached at [email protected].
