In Lunenburg Massachusetts near
where I leave there was a racial incident involving an unidentified group of
people or person against an African American football player. It involved
graffiti on one of the Lunenburg’s player’s lawn stating, “Knights don’t need
niggers”. Following the discovery of this on their house the parent’s contacted
police, which in turn contacted the school. This incident made Lunenburg cancel
the rest of their football season.
The player who was attacked was
only ¼ Black with his mother being white and father half African American. I
find this quiet interesting as the North especially the rural towns of
Massachusetts never really experience racism as almost all the inhabitants are
white. For example Lunenburg that is over two times the size of my town has a
demographic of 97.01% White and 0.69% Black so when I mean almost all white I
mean that. It hard for racism to emerge in a place where there really hasn’t
been any African culture or interactions between the populations, which makes
this instance very intriguing.
Another topic about this is how the
school reacted by cancelling the season. By doing something this drastic do you
put this kid in an even worse situation? The town is overwhelmingly white and
more then likely the same can be said about his school. So does that make the
kid more likely to be harmed in the process by angered players and or parents
who feel wronged?
The New
England football league released "This brazen attack on the home of a high
school football player warrants everyone's condemnation. This case is
indicative of how school bullying can quickly escalate to a hate crime and
civil rights violations, making it a community wide concern," said
regional director Robert Trestan in the statement. "We applaud the Lunenburg
police for making this case a top priority, and are confident that the
offenders will be quickly apprehended."
Do you feel the school over reacted? Do you feel that this
kid is in now a dangerous situation?
I do believe that canceling the remainder of the school's football season is an over reaction, and in addition I assume that in doing this it will worsen the situation for the family who has been attacked. I don't think that a few individuals committing a hate crime is a representation of what the common thought or behavior for the majority of the population will be towards this the african american football player. It could have been a group of 2 or 3 guys that were expressing their opinions but that doesn't mean that the school, football team, or town is in agreement with what was said. Because of their drastic decision I think that members of the community now could have a reason to blame him for the cancelation and disruption of the normal proceedings of the school. If I were in his shoes I would imagine feeling extremely uncomfortable being "the guy that caused the whole football season to get cancelled." I think that the decisions that were made here were too drastic, however I do agree that aggressive and firm action against hate crimes like this should be admired and continued.
ReplyDeleteI do think that it is a bit of an overreaction and many members of the town, including the rest of the football team, would be very disappointed with the outcome. However, it is also a hopeful reaction in my eyes. Although it has an unfortunate backlash for the town, I enjoy seeing the police treat racist hate crime so seriously. In a town that has such a large majority of white people, this case of racism could easily be ignored and placed on the back burner.
ReplyDeleteI also don't think that the whole town would blame the African American athlete for the crime. It seems to me that everyone would be quite angry at the handful of people who committed this racist hate crime.
Merrill, you wouldn't happen to have any more information on the case would you? Perhaps the reasoning behind cancellation of the rest of the football season was due to the majority of or all of the team having some say or involvement in this case. if the team was not involved in this in any way, then the team should not be punished. This could potentially, because some kids are ignorant and rash, cause a lot of discomfort for the African American football player who could be a target for blame by some of the kids. Most kids I wouldn't think would be this ignorant, but bullying happens everyday and it ceases to amaze me. Kids can truly be the cruelest creatures. I would think, unless this town is majority racist, that he will have a good support group to back him, regardless of their all being white (that implies very little unless they are racist). The school may have felt, and I disagree, that this was the best punishment because there really isn't anything else they can do if they don't know whom the perpetrators are. The severity of the punishment to me is right on target, but I don' think it was necessarily appropriate if the football team was not involved. It's a tough case because something clearly has to be done, but what can be done that will make a statement without knowing the perpetrators?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amy, would you happen to have more information regarding the outcome of the case? It seems to me that cancelling the season (this late in the semester? I don't know when this incident occurred) is not drastic. What I find concerning is that if this is the only action to take place without truly having a conversation as to why. Having such an over-representation of the while population in this town can be used as an opportunity to discuss why this is not an acceptable act in the community, or in any community for that matter. In punishing the whole school, by extension the town is also punished (because in a small communities I have noticed trends where the community revolves around or at least strongly supports high-school sports, specifically football). My other concern, and my reason for supporting the statement released by the New England football league, is that the people/group felt comfortable in doing this act. What does it say of the community, living and interacting in a white normative environment when this group/individuals think that this is okay? I'm just not sure that this person/group knows what they did. Can they really not see that this is a hate crime? Reading this post I took a break and though if this really happens, can this really happen? in the north? And then I realized that it can, it does, and will continue to happen if people/individuals do not know their own history.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to an earlier conversation this semester, ‘why have an African-American History course?’, I think that this is very important information that is not covered in schools across the nation. I was surprised when hearing that some class members found this to be new information. Maybe growing up in a different country and later moving around the US gave me a different perspective in looking at African American history, be that as it may, I still feel that this is an important class and without it, we have cases where people/groups commit acts of racism (whether they are aware of its racism or not).