At a middle school basketball game in Southwest Virginia the opposing team showed up to their opponent’s Gym and waved Confederate flags while yelling racial slurs. The home team has mostly black players on it. Remember these are just middle schoolers doing this crap!
Explain to me like I'm five why this team wasn't kicked out and the school not permanently banned from participating in sports? Explain to me why they were allowed to stay, why the police weren't called, why they weren't shamed, punished and penalized? Why are the bad guys winning?
Let me say this as plainly as possible.
At a middle school basketball game, little kids showed up waving confederate flags and yelling racial slurs at a team with mostly Black players.
Middle schoolers.
And somehow… the game continued.
No immediate removal. No police. No public accountability in that moment.
Explain that to me.
Because if behavior like that doesn’t stop the game instantly, what message are we sending?
That it’s tolerated? That it’s not serious enough? That the people targeted just have to endure it?
People will say, “They’ll handle it later.”
But harm happened in real time. And the response should’ve matched it in real time.
When accountability is delayed or invisible, it feels like the wrong people are getting away with it.
And that’s how you lose trust.
Do better.