Dallas Morning News Blog Says La La Vasquez Is Playing The Race Card. We Beg To Differ.
13 May 2009, 9:39 AM. By Cindy Casares
MTV something or other La La Vasquez is the fiance of Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony who made headlines this week when she got ejected from Carmelo’s game in Dallas against the Mavericks. Video of that is below.
La La spent all day yesterday telling the press that she was the victim of racist slurs, but one Dallas fan has come forward to say La La Vasquez is playing the race card. Of course, that fan has found a home on the Dallas Morning News. The only place subjective enough to believe its city couldn’t hold racism.
Quick to identify her as “a season ticket holder” (code for “she’s one of us.”), a Dallas Mavericks blog post housed within the paper’s website identifies the witness simply as Peggy. Because a person telling the truth wouldn’t want to be identified by her last name.
Peggy, a season-ticket holder who sat in the row behind Carmelo Anthony’s love LaLa Vazquez and Kenyon Martin’s mother last night, put the blame for the bad scene during Game 4 squarely on Melo’s fiancee and her bodyguard.
The hostility started, according to Peggy, when the bodyguard turned around and loudly and crudely insulted her.
“Everybody started defending me,” she said, “and it just got really nasty.”
Oh, yes. Did we mention that Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin’s mother, Lydia Martin, who was sitting next to LaLa, was also assaulted? There are several reports that she was having stuff thrown at her by Mavericks fans, too. And Denver coach George Karl said Dallas fans “weren’t classy.”
But Peggy, who says she is the reason for LaLa’s ejection, claims, “Dallas fans are getting a bad rap for this I think [LaLa and co. are] pulling the race card, and there’s nothing to it. It’s ridiculous, because it’s not at all what they’re saying.”
Of course, commenters are chiming in from all over Dallas saying that Dallas fans are never known to be racist, but we can think of at least one situation where racism was well documented by fans and the press, but the Dallas Morning News chose to say they saw nothing of the sort.
In a 2006 Brownsville Herald article entitled, “Victory sweet, despite sour behavior from Coppell fans,” the Herald reported that soccer fans for the nationally ranked #2 Coppell High School Cowboys, (located in Coppell, a wealthy, white suburb of Dallas), brought a Speedy Gonzales sign to the State Championship game against the Brownsville Porter Cowboys–a school two miles from the border and full of hispanic students.
A poster depicting Speedy Gonzalez, the Warner Bros. Mexican cartoon mouse, was displayed by Coppell fans and taken down during the game after Porter fans complained to officials.
Porter defender Cristian Sierra recalled Coppell fans taunting him during the game.
They (Coppell fans) told me, You suck you beaner! Sierra, a junior, said.
We got upset, he said of enduring chants of USA! USA! by Coppell fans, who implied the Porter players were not from the United States. But we still won, Sierra pointed out.
Calls to Coppells athletic director and high school principal seeking comment for this article were not returned.
We emailed Dallas Morning News sports editor Matt Wixon when this article came out and he responded that he hadn’t seen the Speedy Gonzales sign or any of the alleged racist behavior from the press box. He did say he’d forward the story to his editors, but no coverage was given to this story by the Dallas Morning News.
If this kind of behavior is endorsed by Dallas area parents in front of their kids and overlooked by the local press, what kind of behavior should we expect from this community when professional athletes and beer are involved? We find it pretty easy to believe the Dallas fans got ugly that night.
MFFL Peggy: LaLa Vazquez and her bodyguard were the instigators [Dallas Mavericks Blog]
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I would like to say that not everyone in Dallas (DFW metroplex) is racist. But, the DMN does suck when it comes to covering race issues in the area. They can be very racist. The DMN could really use some shaking up.
Just saying.
I am 100% in agreement with you. There is racism flowing here with no end in sight and yet, none of it is ever reported correctly. And worse, some parents do very little to stop the cycle.
I was not at that Mavs game but I am willing to bet my house that the Dallas fans were acting like a bunch of assholes. When I do go to games in Dallas (for various sports) the Dallas fans DO get nasty. I have seen it with my own eyes. It’s not always racist, but it’s still bad behavior.
But the locals (and by that I mean White people) can trust that the DMN will do everything to cover up any hint of racism. That is so typical of DMN. For example, this story was left in the blogs section but I couldn’t find it anywhere in the DMN - online or print:
http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/05/the-new-improve.html
You forgot to mention the barrage of resentful comments that blog post incited. People complaining that the writer didn’t list the Black Panthers, the NAACP or La Raza (whatever that is–National Council of La Raza maybe?) in his story on racist oriented organizations. Scary.
I thought the dessert should be a surprise.
Yet another reason I root for the Spurs.
That, and the Mavs sucked up until Cuban bought them, so I won’t go switching teams when I’ve been pulling for San Antonio all this time.
My birthplace, you and your racial intolerance that I tend to see and hear surprisingly often when I visit family up there makes me sad.
The game tonight has the potential to be a complete shitstorm!!! I am so psyched.
“Proving” racism by the Dallas Morning News by citing the fact that one of their writers missed a racist sign on the field when he was sitting in the press box? For a suburban Dallas high school soccer game? Maybe persuasive writing is not for you.
i think it’s more the fact that the incident was well documented by another newspaper, called to their attention and completely ignored by the DMN. And as far as it being a high school soccer game, i would argue that a 5A state championship game is a far worse venue in which to experience such ugliness than a pro game where at least everyone involved is an adult. It’s a great example of the values this community is setting for its children. If you act that way in front of your kids, how will you act when you aren’t with them?