Racism in Sports is a Systemic Issue
Set off by a racist TikTok video from a CVU athlete, a wave of activism by Vermont sports teams has brought to light a multitude of systemic issues underlying this one incident. Multiple girl’s basketball teams decided to postpone games with CVU because they felt the school’s response to the post was inadequate. Read the article about it here.
We have two questions in response to the Open Letter to Vermont Students published by the CVU administration about this incident:
What do you mean by “a restorative process”? It’s important to tease out the needs of both those who were harmed and those who caused harm by recognizing that we all cause and experience harm. Those who are facilitating a restorative process need to be able to hold the tension of understandable feelings of rage and honor the needs of the harmed while staying rooted in the principles of restorative justice: healing, community, dignity, and respect. Learn more by watching Esteban Kelly speak.
How are you holding yourselves accountable as a school where a student sees this as acceptable behavior? All schools should be providing education that ensures greater safety for all students, as defined by the state Inclusive Education Quality Standards (currently in the process of being approved). Bringing an ethnic studies lens to all aspects of learning will help students recognize power and difference preventing incidents like these from happening. Building community creates connection and empathy that helps all people in the school see others as people who also experience pain and joy.
One person – a student no less – is being pointed at for the failure of an entire system. Similar incidents happen regularly in Vermont. These incidents have recently made the news. There needs to be accountability AND empathy for the student who caused this most recent harm. It can be easy to turn to a punitive response to feed a desire for revenge. The Education Justice Coalition advocates that we break the cycle of harm by responding in a way that does not create more harm. Cancel culture encourages us to follow community values out of fear rather than intrinsic motivation and care. To learn more about cancel culture, read On Cancel Culture, Accountability, And Transformative Justice. We should not be separating people – particularly young people – from society through punitive action. Instead, we should be providing them support to be welcomed back into their community and clarity about the kind of conduct that is expected. Examples of support could be educating them on the community’s values, offering an accountability partner, or giving them space to reflect and learn.
From Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising the Black Power fist during the 1968 Olympics to the U.S. Women’s National Team recently fighting for equal pay, activism has been no stranger in sports. Read Timeline: A look back at some of the most prominent sports protests over the years to learn more. We see the actions of the Burlington girls basketball team, Rice Memorial girl’s basketball team, and CVU’s Racial Alliance Committee as part of a historic and ongoing movement to use sports as a tool to fight racism.
What you can do:
Support the BHS girl’s basketball team and other youth activist organizations like CVU’s Racial Alliance Committee. Check out their response to the incident.
Support the Inclusive Education Quality Standards (EQS) and checkout this Teaching Practices Toolkit to see implementation examples.
Make sure your district has an equity policy that is created by and for the community, especially those who will be the most impacted – the students. Here is an example by Essex Westford School District.
Use this form by the VPA to report concerns from grades 5-12 sporting events. “The goal of the form is to identify any patterns that may benefit from localized interventions and any additional VPA support.”
