Darsh's Story: Retold
It was October 2004, Darsh had begun college at Trinity University, where several of his other family members also attended college. Growing up in San Antonio and graduating from O’Connor High School, the atmosphere was comfortable for him. He engaged in a game of pickup basketball with some of his newly found friends. “At first people never really took me seriously. I think they thought ‘this guy in the turban can’t play basketball’” (Singh, D. 2018). But after consistently proving himself and his skills, one of the players on the university’s varsity team encouraged Darsh to try out for the team. Darsh agreed, and within weeks found himself on a collegiate basketball team and petitioning to be granted the permission to play his sport with no restrictions placed on his turban. During one particular game, the referee motioned Coach Patrick Cunningham over to him, still Trinity’s current head basketball coach, and told him that Darsh could not play with his turban. Coach Cunningham responded: “You can go over and tell him that he cannot play then.” Darsh played anyway and continued to do so for the next four years of his collegiate career.
Over time, the introverted engineering student (as Darsh describes himself) became more comfortable with the team, making his appearance a common topic of humor. Darsh was searched and questioned nearly every time the team passed through security when traveling by airplane. It eventually became a “bet” between teammates whether he would make it through without being profiled. Most often, the team that voted he would be stopped, prevailed and cheered when he was pulled aside. While these types of things may have made the reality of discrimination easier to swallow for the largest number of people, a utilitarian approach likely is not the most effective in terms of solving social ills like such.
Teammate, Ross Burt, said “It didn't feel any different having him [Darsh] on the team. I just remember how hard of a worker he was” (Burt, 2018). Darsh, Simran, Burt, other former teammate, Casey Hill, and Coach Cunningham all recalled the high acceptance that the Trinity community had for everyone, especially Darsh and his big personality. In other words, Trinity was ahead of its time as far as acceptance. For example, in 2005 Trinity held a cultural awareness week in which the Students Creating Awareness of the Sikh Faith club, participated. Darsh was photographed on the front page of the October Trinitonian newspaper teaching another student how to tie a turban.
In this respect and the innocent ignorance of the popularity it would later gain, the number of people previously listed all perceive the event somewhat similarly. However, when it comes to the discriminatory acts that were and are committed towards Darsh, different perceptions come into play. These different perceptions do not beg attention in regards to the recollection of negative events occurring, but rather in something deeper. “We just kind of reacted by following his reaction. He had such a spectacular way of handling it” (Hill, 2018). To most of his teammates, his reactions were admirable. To Darsh, he has regrets.