I’m actually in the middle of an extended research process--squeezed in to what little “free” time my writing career allows--for a first diary about the Constitution, First Amendment issues and my own memories of a treasured figure from American media history, whom I was lucky enough to have as a professor in college. But the best laid plans sometimes have to be put aside. Today, something very personal seems terribly political to me. Has McCain’s hideous climate of race-baiting reached into my precious nephew’s life? I don’t know for sure, but the timing sickens me.
I just got off the phone with my sister, who finished debriefing me on my beloved nephews’ final game of this year’s high school football season. It’s been a difficult year for their team, which has been badly coached and winless before yesterday. They won last night, and both kids played well: the 17-year-old senior, who is team captain and a highly creative running back, and 15-year-old sophomore, who is an unstoppable defensive force. They live in conservative Western Michigan, and are among just a handful of African-American kids (with a pale Irish mom) at a wealthy public school.
Last night a player on the other team, at the end of a play on the field, called my younger nephew “N.” It’s the first time in his life the word has been directed at him. He told one of his coaches (immediately, I believe) and of course, his mom, after the game. He seems to be taking it pretty well, realizing that the slur says everything about the ignorance and idiocy of this kid, and nothing about him. (They have the kid’s jersey number, and thus his name, from the roster.) Apparently, the kid had manifested unsportsmanlike conduct throughout the game.
My sister’s plan is firm: calling the school principal first thing Monday morning, reporting exactly what happened and insisting on consequences. She will be able to make sure the system follows through: she’s also a teacher and coach. Her integrity and my nephews’ reputations are totally above reproach. There will be no questions about “believing” my nephew’s story.
Why do I think the timing of what could be an isolated incident is suspicious? As I said, nothing like this has EVER happened to either of my nephews before. More subtle stuff: Yes. In fact, their whole football season has been a slow-motion disaster because the coach consistently overlooks a half-dozen talented players on his team--who just happen to be black--and favors a handful of clueless kids whose poor skills and even worse work ethic should put them on the bench. I know this sounds like the perspective of an Aunt playing favorites. But it’s the parents of white students--not my sister, who kept mum--who called the coach out on his behavior, because he was also constantly yelling at the black players, like my oldest nephew, for everything and nothing. My oldest nephew is BELOVED at his school: elected captain of every team he’s ever been on; fave of teachers and fellow students alike. Turns out none of the parents liked the fact that the whole team suffered because the coach wouldn’t play the good players, and treated them like shit to boot.
Western Michigan is heavily Republican; the Grand Rapids airport is the Gerald Ford airport, and Ford’s museum and burial site is there. Several fundy colleges make the region their home. My sis has sadly reported that fundy parents pressured the school to end the Gay-Straight Alliance, and that some high school seniors who will be voting for the first time mindlessly parrot winger talking points learned at their parents’ dinner tables. Traffic was paralyzed recently near where she works when W himself dropped into town for a private fundraiser.
So this incident occured in a strongly right-wing region of a (hopefully) Blue state. Has this “N”-word flinging kid on the opposing football team absorbed something from the poisonous McCain/Palin environment of the past few weeks? I don’t know. I just know that my beautiful boys have lived 15 and 17 years without ever having this slur hurled at them. I hoped the day would never come, although of course I feared it would. Why now?
Sorry my first diary had to be so personal. The personal has become political of late, I’m afraid.
One request: Please don’t use the actual word in the comments. I can’t bear it.