Student fights caused Buffalo school officials to cancel Friday night’s football game between Bennett and McKinley high schools at halftime, with police making four arrests.
The next day, spectators were cleared out of the football game between Kenmore West and Lockport in the fourth quarter after a fight broke out at Kenmore’s Crosby Field. Law enforcement there also responded.
Will the two incidents leave adults shaking their heads at rambunctious youth in both communities who got a little too carried away?
While the incident in Kenmore at a game between two predominantly white schools might certainly be viewed that way – if anyone remembers it at all – the one at the Buffalo game between two predominantly Black schools is more likely to be taken by some as just more evidence that “those people” can’t behave.
But I’m long past marveling at such enduring double standards. While we can hope that the number of people holding such views is shrinking, such stereotyping remains as ubiquitous as Muzak. If you’re Black, it’s just the soundtrack of your life.
At this point, what’s more puzzling than the persistence of such bias is the fact that so many young African Americans seem oblivious to its impact and perpetuate the double standard with their own actions.
They seem unaware of the larger message sent when police have to be called into action at a football game. Or when Buffalo Superintendent Tonja Williams has to start the new academic year by sending a letter home warning kids not to congregate at the Fountain Plaza transit stop because of the large number of fights that have broken out there. Or when the downtown library – not far from Fountain Plaza – had to close early last spring because of rowdy behavior.
It hardly matters that white students cause mayhem too. The reality is that when that happens, no one tars the entire race. Yet when Black kids misbehave, it plays right into the bigotry that…
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