People Aint Isht: Guinean Teen Speaks Out After Racist Fans Chant “Ebola!” During His HS Soccer Game In Pennsylvania

Black Teen Soccer Player Speaks About Being Taunted With “Ebola” Chant During High School Game

via The Morning Call

Ibraham Tounkara tried his best to ignore the taunts, the fake coughs and the references to a man in Texas who died from Ebola.

But the Nazareth Area High School soccer player from West Africa finally lost his cool during a game last Thursday when he asked a referee to repeat instructions and a Northampton Area High School player hurled another insult, he said.

“The kid just tells me, ‘You can’t hear … you are a black kid, you have Ebola,’ ” Ibraham, 16, recalled during an interview in his home Wednesday night.

Tounkara, whose allegations of Ebola taunts led to the resignation of Northampton’s soccer coaches and discipline for any students deemed to have broken the school’s code of conduct, spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday.

Taunts about Ebola started as soon as the game began and came from multiple players on the Northampton team, he said.

“Every time I come next to them, like stand next to them, the defenders, they cough … and they say, ‘Oh, I have Ebola,’ ” Tounkara said.

Tounkara, whose parents live in Guinea, near the heart of the Ebola outbreak, did not recall any specific racial slur being used, but remembers trying to block out “all kind of stuff” being said.

The soft-spoken teen was surprised and disappointed to be the subject of jokes about the virus, which he frequently prays to God that his parents won’t contract.

Ibraham went on to elaborate on the way he thought things would be upon coming to America and how he doesn’t plan to dwell on the incident.

“When I was in Africa, I heard a lot of good things from this country,” Ibraham said. “They were saying this country is a great country, they are really nice to people, they help you, like anything you want to do to be successful they will help you, and there are a lot of nice people.”

After the alleged “You are a black kid, you have Ebola” comment, Tounkara charged a Northampton player and was ejected from the game.

“When I came here I didn’t expect any of these things,” he said of the taunts. “Where I am from, we think everybody, everyone is the same. … We have respect for everyone. We respect each other. So that’s what I think. …I think when I come here I would have the same thing.”

Tounkara said representatives from Northampton talked to the entire Nazareth soccer team Wednesday and apologized to the team, but not directly to him. He plans to continue pursuing his dream of becoming a professional soccer player.

He said he didn’t have any thoughts on what discipline was appropriate and thinks he eventually is “just going to let things go.”

SMH. This poor kid actually sounds like he has a good head on his shoulders. Hopefully he won’t encounter any of this foolishness again at school.