We already know that racism will gladly show its ugly head at all sporting events across the globe. Last night it made another disgusting appearance at a high school boys basketball game in Orange County, California.
A video captured the racist taunts spewed at Makai Brown, a Black player from Portola High School, by a student from the opposing school, Laguna Hills High School.
Sabrina Brown, Makai’s mother, voiced her anger at an Irvine City Council meeting earlier in the week.
“You may believe that this is an isolated incident and would like to put this behind you, but we don’t have that option,” said Brown to the City Council. “The color of our skin does not allow us that option.”
Makai wasn’t aware of the taunts until he watched the game film afterward. Needless to say, he was shocked.
“He came into my room STUNNED,” wrote Brown in her IG post. “What he heard directed 100% to him is contained in this video, but these disgusting, racist insults continued throughout the entire game footage. Needless to say, our family is up in arms.”
Crystal Turner, the Superintendent of Saddleback Valley Unified School District, of which Laguna Hills High is a part of, condemned the actions by the student.
“After a thorough fact finding process that included review of the entire game footage and interviews with each individual verified as being near the attendee, it was determined that the unacceptable comments were made by a [Laguna Hills High] student,” said Turner in a statement.
According to Turner, the student was counseled and disciplined, something which Sabrina Brown doubts will help.
“My family was guarded, uneasy and on alert well before the video surfaced,” Brown told the City Council, adding that any discipline to the offending student “won’t change the vile things that he felt comfortable enough to say — the vile things that were created by the culture at Laguna Hills, and made my family feel unsafe even before stepping foot into the game Friday night.”
This isn’t an isolated event as racist incidents appear to be on the rise in Orange County high schools.
From private chat groups discussing confederate flags and selling Black people as slaves to racist taunts being slung at high school football games, Orange County, which is roughly 2% Black, has a racism issue.
At a time where Southern states are trying to erase Black history and punish people for causing embarrassment to white people, it’s time for Orange County, and counties across the country, to take a serious stand against racism.
