Racist letter to Cass Tech football coach goes national

[iheartthed]

A harshly worded letter addressed to Cass Technical High School football coach Thomas Wilcher, who led his team to victory against Detroit Catholic Central High School on Saturday, alleges that players are "ghetto warriors" bound for prison or drug addiction.

Cass Tech beat Catholic Central 49-13 at Ford Field to win the state's Division I championship, a first for a Detroit Public School.

Photos of the letter, which is dated November 28 and signed, were shared and posted across social media sites late Tuesday and caught the attention of school administrators on both sides Wednesday morning.


A transcript of the letter reads:

I had the misfortune of attending Saturday's game. As I watched, I wondered how many of your players would be academically eligible if they attended a real school rather than a DPS holding tank. While graduation rates may be high, a recent study concluded only 4.4% of DPS high school graduates are academically prepared to advance to higher education.

Questions abound: Do your players attend class? Are they, even by DPS standards, eligible? As one looks at the declining enrollment freshman-senior, it is clear that DPS is a failure and in five years your players will be unemployed, in jail, addicted to drugs or worse. In a word--failures. So while Cass celebrates today, the future is bleak and you and everyone associated with DPS is a failure, hence, we have Detroit -- a city about to be handed over to a financial manager.

The ghetto warriors had their Saturday but, in life, they are losers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1120723.html

Stay classy, Metro Detroit.

[Bham1982]

That letter is absolutely descpicable. Racism still exists, there's no question about that.

I'm guessing that this is an angry Catholic Central supporter. Kinda projecting, no? I have never heard anything regarding CC's academic standards. All I hear about is football.

In contrast, Cass has quite the academic legacy.

[animatedmartian]

From the school's website:

This morning, some upset members of our football team called our attention to a letter found on the internet denigrating Cass Tech and their football team’s recent accomplishment of being the Division One State Champion. We have searched our student, alumni and parent databases and we find no one with that name ever associated in any way with Detroit Catholic Central High School. Everything in the letter speaks against the beliefs and teachings that Catholic Central stands for.

...

[j to the jeremy]

Valid points Bham. DCC always seemed like more of a school that recruited athletes...often from Detroit...

[rjk]

This is a story that will get a lot more attention than it actually deserves.
The media loves these kind of stories, but it was probably a letter sent by one person.

In refernce to the post above, there is no evidence that anyone from Catholic Central or anyone connected to CC sent the letter. Unfortunately they're going to have to go on the defensive now and defend themslves.

This is a great example of how much damage/problems one person can cause.

[R8RBOB]

The letter was disgusting but ladies and gentlemen we have a coward. A coward who has to hide under a false name. We know there are disgusting racist pigs out there but any racist who chooses to hide rather than show his or her true colors show not be given any press.

[bartock]

Stay classy, Metro Detroit.

are you serious?

[fryar]

Such emotional attachment to a high school sports team undeniably signals academic achievement. DPS has much to gain from enabling similar passions in the population it serves.

[Pickford-Bentler]

I graduated from Catholic Central in 1977. It is a fine school with high academic standards. However, like many schools that put an emphasis on winning, those standards did not always apply to top athletes. One of the star players on our football team was taking remedial reading at U of M. At least U of M recognized the deficiency that we all saw back at CC. Still, I am not going to indict CC over acts that can be found in just about any school that touts athletic championships as a be-all and end-all.

I will indict the moron who wrote the letter.

Cass Tech is a magnet school that produces fine products that go on to success in careers other than drug dealing or sports. This forum has at least few a examples whose prose makes my case self-evident. I also work with a manager who graduated from Cass Tech. After Cass Tech, she went on to get a degree in Chemical Engineering. Hardly a failure in life.

BTW, my mother graduated from Cass Tech in 1943.

Edited.

[Planner3357]

Valid points Bham. DCC always seemed like more of a school that recruited athletes...often from Detroit...

HAHAHA!!!! Often from Detroit?? Are you serious? I'm a CC grad and there is no recruiting. I think I had only a few kids in my class actually from Detroit. I'm sure now that the school has moved out to Novi that number is even less.

Our school is one of the finest high schools academically in the state, year after year. Yes, sports are a big part, but those kids often have well over a 3.5 gpa.

I will not believe that someone from CC would write this disgusting letter.

[SMRJim]

I would guess that WIlcher and others at Cass Tech are smart enough to know that this is just one moron speaking his so-called mind and that he doesn't represent anyone other than himself.

[Pickford-Bentler]

HAHAHA!!!! Often from Detroit?? Are you serious? I'm a CC grad and there is no recruiting. I think I had only a few kids in my class actually from Detroit. I'm sure now that the school has moved out to Novi that number is even less.

Our school is one of the finest high schools academically in the state, year after year. Yes, sports are a big part, but those kids often have well over a 3.5 gpa.

I will not believe that someone from CC would write this disgusting letter.

I was a national merit semi-finalist.

One could not just apply from a Catholic grade school and automatically get into CC. If I remember correctly, they looked at my grades and test scores at Christ the King, before I got accepted.

In my day, they had a great debate team coached by Frank Garlicki.

In those days, the band would march down Outer Drive to the Benedictine field for the "home" games.

[rjk]

That letter is absolutely descpicable. Racism still exists, there's no question about that.

I'm guessing that this is an angry Catholic Central supporter. Kinda projecting, no? I have never heard anything regarding CC's academic standards. All I hear about is football.

In contrast, Cass has quite the academic legacy.

All you hear about Notre Dame is their football team and they haven't been relevant in football in the last 15 years. That doesn't mean that ND isn't a fine institution.

I didn't go to CC myself, but I know a handful of people who have including two nephews and CC can stand shoulder to shoulder with any of the top high schools in the area.

[Vic_doucette]

In my day, they had a great debate team coached by Frank Garlicki.

I was a high school debater at Southfield-Lathrup and frequently competed against Frank Garlicki's teams. They were always thoroughly prepared and well-coached, and very stiff competition. He later became my neighbor and lived just a block from me. A very nice man. I found it odd, though, that a man of his size [[he weighed well over 300 pounds, I'm sure, and didn't move around very well) was also the coach of the tennis team.

[detroitjim]

What a joke !

How could anyone validate a letter like that....... Seriously!


Someone must be a bit overly sensitive....eh?????


Where your button at?

[firstandten]

Even in fine academic universities some athletes tend to get steered into certain majors or certain schools, or as the coaches like to say they can hide them. At UofM it tends to be the school that has Kinesiology as a major. And other universities have there own schools and majors that serve the same purpose. It doesn't make the school any less of an academic institution.

As far as the letter is concerned as a CT alum I doubt that anyone from CC wrote that. One of the recurring themes from people who post in HS football forums is the unfairness of schools like CC over public schools because they can recruit athletes or the old Public v Private argument. I'm sure as many times as CC has won state titles, I think around 10 in football and as much heat as CC has taken over the years because of that I'm sure they wouldn't fall into the same trap as that moronic poster in the Det News.

[mwilbert]

Anyone who writes a letter like that can't be assumed to represent anything but his own internal demons.

If he's a Catholic, perhaps an exorcism would be in order.

[Goose]

I don't see racism in the letter, classism and elitist attitude, but that letter could just as easily be written by the rich bitter black father of a black player on CC that is bitter that his five figure school payout resulted in a loss to what he considers an inferior segment of society......

that being said the person who wrote it is truly a a-hole...

bitter assholes are not limited to the white population...

[corktownyuppie]

That letter is absolutely descpicable. Racism still exists, there's no question about that.

I'm guessing that this is an angry Catholic Central supporter. Kinda projecting, no? I have never heard anything regarding CC's academic standards. All I hear about is football.

In contrast, Cass has quite the academic legacy.

Yeah, no kidding. No offense to my CC brethren, but we called them the Catholic League Diploma Factory when I was in high school.

[Ravine]

I agree with SMRJim.
It's a shame, that the letter received any attention, at all, and while I can't blame the local media for covering the incident, I wish they had not.
We can't jump up and take notice every time some knuckle-dragging, in-bred loser pushes aside his rock and crawls out to bay at the goddam moon, can we?
The entire thing has nothing to do with either school, other than the possibility that the outcome of that particular game somehow meant something waaaaaaaaay more than it should have meant to some asshole, somewhere, who knows, who cares, fuck it, next?

[Hypestyles]

Not that this is going to change, but i'm curious wy "Detroit catholic central" is in Novi, why not Detroit?

[jcole]

Not that this is going to change, but i'm curious wy "Detroit catholic central" is in Novi, why not Detroit?

It used to be. They moved like the rest of the Catholic High Schools did. They followed their parishoners/supporters.

[lilpup]

Is it still racist if the letter writer is of color?

With Goose on this one.

afraid, if anything, that this is a prime example of how racism so easily gets read into virtually everything around here

[Lowell]

Why is this alleged 'letter" even being discussed and thereby stealing the light from a truly positive event - Cass Tech winning the Division HS football title.

I can read or find nothing that authenticates that this 'letter' is genuine. Did I miss something? Nobody got it in the mail. It appears nothing more than an internet spoof and everybody is biting on it.

With the internet and computer graphics it is a simple matter for any prankster or troll or Aryan Nation member to create something like this and circulate it on the web. The MLive writer could have created it for a story, although I don't think he did. But he deserves criticism for not indicating that lack of evidence of authenticity.

[Red Devil]

It used to be. They moved like the rest of the Catholic High Schools did. They followed their parishoners/supporters.

Let's not forget about U of D Jesuit