- Racist incidents at a high school volleyball game spark investigation and community response.
- Schools must move beyond just ‘investigating’ and impose consequences to stop such incidents.
- High school sports should be about competition, friendship, and representing one’s school, not racism.
Apparently, some folks still haven’t gotten the memo that a high school volleyball game is supposed to be about volleyball, not a field trip back to Jim Crow.
A Thursday night matchup at Fernandina Beach High School in Florida has sparked an investigation after a parent reported a disturbing display of racism involving students from the school. According to the Jacksonville Free Press, students allegedly held up a Black baby doll, made racial slurs, chants and gestures, and laughed while engaging in the offensive behavior. The situation reportedly escalated after an Andrew Jackson player was injured, when the Black doll was allegedly held upside down while students made jokes.
It goes without saying that, the incident has prompted outrage, including from the NAACP, while Nassau County School District officials say they are investigating the allegations.
“Racism has no place in our schools or at our athletic events, and every student-athlete and guest deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” the district said. It said it is also communicating with Duval County Public Schools and will take appropriate action based on its findings.
We wish we could agree that racism has no place in schools and athletic events but unfortunately, we’ve seen these types of cases a lot over the years. BOSSIP has previously reported on the ugly intersection of racism and high school sports, including the case of a Black soccer player who was allegedly subjected to “Ebola” taunts by opposing players during a Pennsylvania high school game. We’ve also covered the Georgia high school marching band controversy where students appeared to spell out a racial slur during a football game halftime performance.
High school sports are supposed to give kids a place to compete, build friendships and represent their schools. Instead, Black students and athletes continue finding themselves subjected to racial harassment while administrators scramble to investigate after the damage is already done. A Black doll being used as a racist prop isn’t harmless “school spirit.” It’s not a joke. And it certainly isn’t something that should be dismissed as kids simply getting carried away at a volleyball game.
According to News4JAX, local faith leaders like Rev. Bernard Johnson have called a community meeting to show support to the families of the young ladies who faced the harassment.
“This is a time for us to come together, to show solidarity in supporting not only the young ladies that came over from Andrew Jackson, but also shed some light on things that have been going on in this neighborhood,” Johnson said.
Thompson said community members are seeking “accountability, responsibility, dignity, respect, and a public apology.”
If schools actually want these incidents to stop, perhaps “we’re investigating” needs to be followed by consequences.
