Great Barrington — At the next two Spartans football games at Monument Mountain Regional High School, a lot of people might be on their knees.
In the aftermath of a report that racially charged threats were made to an African-American Monument football player after he protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem, Dennis Powell, president of the Berkshire County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said he will attend the next two upcoming Monument Spartans team home games – Friday, Oct. 14, and Friday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. – and will “take a knee” during the national anthem.
San Francisco 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick was the first to turn the gesture into a protest. Now it is spreading, and the Monument player told school officials he thought it had led to threats against him the week after he kneeled at an away game in Athol.
The student reported he was threatened with “lynching,” “hanging” and “beating” by another student, who is white and now suspended, according to Monument Principal Marianne Young. Young said the suspension was not “open-ended,” but she did not indicate the length of the suspension.
Dennis Powell, president, NAACP Berkshire County branch.
Both the Great Barrington Police Department (GBPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had been involved in the investigation. GBPD Chief William Walsh said today that more information is forthcoming. FBI spokesperson Kristen Setera previously told The Edge that she could not comment on whether the agency is investigating, but said it was aware of the threats.
The incident caused a stir both in the Berkshires and at Monument, where students at an assembly last week said racism is alive and well in its halls. At the assembly, Young said that perhaps she and the administration hadn’t done enough over the years to deal with it.
Young told The Edge in an email that, while the student who was threatened expressed his concern to the administration that the threat was made in retaliation for his taking a knee at the game, “the investigation did not result in any information that linked the two.” She also said, however, that the concern that there is a link “remains.”
Rumors have circulated that the threats were made via Facebook. To that, Young wrote, “the incident reported to me involved one student talking directly to another student about a third student. The report was investigated, and the investigation did not result in any information indicating that it occurred on social media.”
NAACP’s Powell said he is going to kneel at the upcoming Friday night games in support of the student, who, he said, requested his support.
“It is important that we, as adults, support young people who are willing and have the courage to stand up against injustice,” Powell said. “In this community it’s usually the adults. So, when I see young people realizing it’s now time to have a voice and commit by taking a stand, I have to support that.”
While Powell said other community groups were planning to join in and that his NAACP Facebook post, intended to spread the word of the upcoming games, got more than 2,700 hits, he says it isn’t about the groups or how many people show up: It’s all about the player who says he was threatened.
At a Monument High assembly last week, Principal Marianne Young said she would work harder to combat racism at the school. Photo: Heather Bellow.
“We need to let him know he has a community behind him to support him without fear of intimidation,” he said.
Shirley Edgerton, executive director of the Rites of Passage and Empowerment program for girls, said she would come to the games to support the student and would talk to her organization and the Women of Color Giving Circle about the possibility of others joining her.
Multicultural Bridge President Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant, who was contacted for support by the student after the threats were made against him, said she would also attend the upcoming home games.
Edgerton said that as a protest, in light of an historical “evil” that has led to present conditions, as well as “unintentional and unconscious acts,” taking a knee “is a very strong and silent act, with no harm to anyone, clear in message and intent. It’s a great way to educate people.”
She also echoed school officials who said they believed a barbaric, vitriolic style of national political debate was exposing an underbelly in American society. “There’s permission to be more vocal and open and visible, to be negative about groups of people,” she observed.
Powell said racial hate talk is nothing new in the Berkshires. Going back 15 to 20 years, his son, then playing for St. Joseph’s High in Pittsfield, was considered the best football player in western Massachusetts.
“Unfortunately, when he played at Monument, he was met by the N-word by adults…and just two years ago black players [at Monument] were taunted with monkey sounds made by fans.”
Powell says the type of threat alleged to have been made to the Monument player was particularly chilling and egregious and that it likely comes from within “the household.”
“To use lynching as a threat clearly is taking us back in history, and it’s clearly a parental teaching because most kids are too young to know about this,” Powell added. “That type of history isn’t being taught. We have to stop this type of hate teaching and start teaching love and respect and to remember that everyone is a human being first.”
Equality should extend to protesting, too, Powell said.
“People really have to understand that protesting is not a white privilege; it is a privilege for all human beings and all Americans.”
And Powell said kneeling during the national anthem made a lot of sense.
“If we lived by the words of the national anthem, then we wouldn’t be having the problem that we’re having,” he said. “People have to be reminded that this is supposed to be the home of the free and the brave.”