Photo of Juwan Howard
By Dana James
Writer Charles Hallman is battling online trolls who disliked his interview with Juwan Howard, the former Michigan men’s basketball coach.
It is 2024 and we still have some people who just can’t stand when Black people talk about Black people. Too often we are misunderstood, whatever and whenever we say or ask, then they take it out of context and twist it into something that fits nicely into their twisted narrative.
It sadly becomes “clickbait” that permeates social media these days. The Urban Dictionary in 2016 defined “trolling” – “Being a prick on the internet because you can” that can “range from annoying to downright damaging.”
It sadly transforms into “truth” — when it is only distorted information.
On Wednesday, March 13, during the Michigan post-game press conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the first day of the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, I asked the final question of then Michigan head coach Juwan Howard — it came after he was constantly asked by other reporters in the room about his job:
Hallman: “There’s three Black coaches in this conference and throughout the season, each one of you has been put on a hot seat by the white media. I’m hoping that you survive this because we know Black coaches sometimes don’t. But can you speak on just the fact that the three of you are doing the job that you’ve been hired to do, representing as coaches. There was Black kids in the stands today that got to see you coach and will see the other two Black coaches during this tournament. Can you just speak on that.”
Juwan Howard: “Well, I got into coaching because I remember how my coaches impacted me as I grew. When I first touched campus on the University of Michigan, how Steve Fisher and his staff helped me in so many ways to become a graduate student at one of the prestigious universities, speaking of the University of Michigan.
“Coming as a kid from the inner city, being the first in my family to receive my degree. Promising my grandmother, no matter what, my goal is to make it to the NBA and take care of my family, but I promise you I’m going to get my education to inspire my family members and also others that come from our community that they can do the same thing.
“Now fast track, this is, I’ve always said to you guys, a dream job to be able to impact these young men, to encourage them, to grow with them, to teach them how to come from a young man to a man during some of these uncomfortable times in our society.
“I relish the fact that, yeah, there are always going to be moments where everyone’s entitled to their opinion. Im not going to please everyone. But I’m going to, of course, roll up my sleeves and be inspired to work hard every day to make sure that I’m responsible to do a job to help our university be proud of a winning culture. We’re going to get back to that, and that’s my goal, and I’m going to stick to it.
“There have been coaches that have really inspired me to go out and do something special during this college game, and I look back to the John Thompsons of the world. I also am inspired by the Mike Jarvises of the world and many others.”
Howard was fired almost two days later. Almost at the same time, my name got dragged through the social media mud, being called everything but a child of God. I became the unwilling subject of several click-bait articles on right wing media, as well.
Most of all, I was called a Black racist.
First, Black people in this country can’t be racist. Secondly, as a veteran reporter I always ask questions that others shy away from and not for click-bait value. Thirdly, name-calling isn’t something I resort to in order to carry a conversation. If it is not the name my parents gave, then it’s totally off limits and could subject the person or persons to be permanently deleted from any contact with me on social media.
I unabashedly advocate for all Black coaches in all sport, at all levels, of both genders. I am not a bandwagon media member, as many in this business are, especially sports media.
Like a baseball umpire, I call them as I see them, and not through some race-colored glasses.
If my questions and the subsequent responses offend the uneducated or should I say — the white racists out there, they must get over it.
One of them, in their racist eyes, put me on the list of Blacks, such as Jemele Hill, that they can’t stand because we speak about Black too much — he doesn’t know it but he gave me a great honor to be alongside a fellow native Detroiter and college alum. Being accused of “race-baiting” is not what I did, but it’s what these racist trolls did. They totally distorted what was asked and went bat crazy with it, and, right-wing conservative media has run with the controversy.
Don’t believe it that words don’t hurt — they do more than that. They misinform, miseducate and become distractions from what was asked and what was said.
Howard did not lose his job after five seasons due to white media, as I have been miscast as saying. His job performance was oft-questioned by the other reporters in the room long before my turn to ask questions of him last Wednesday night in Minneapolis. But funny, no one questioned them — I was the only Black reporter in the room that night as well.
I didn’t see their line of questioning as being racist, nor was mine. They were doing their job, and I was doing mine.
Finally, if white racists want to feel warm and fuzzy calling Black people racist, we can’t do nothing about such ignorance. The Urban Dictionary surmised that racist trolling and any updated version of it will be around as long as racists exist.
I was born Black, and proud of it. Being racist, however, is an acquired trait.
Charles Hallman is an award-winning reporter and columnist for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, celebrating its 90th year of informing the community.
