Disclaimer and trigger warning: The accusations in this article are alleged until otherwise proven in a court of law. This article also discusses terminology that reflects racial slurs and sexual violence. Caution is advised.
The scapegoating of victims of racial violence is a vintage tactic of white supremacy used to normalize Black inferiority and propagate fear among Black people for daring to be seen as humans worthy of dignity. As a weapon of control, racialized violence, for centuries, has been a method of erasure and a tool of indoctrination to convince the status quo that Black people are subhuman. In the hate-mongering imaginations of bigots, the conditioning of Black inferiority is the inroad taken by those who aim to exploit in the name of power. In Mead, allegations have bubbled to the surface of what seem like racially motivated violence in a lawsuit that has found its way to the Spokane County Superior Court.
At Mead High School, four Black football players are alleging that, over a two-year period, they were victims of racial harassment and sexual assaults by white teammates, and school officials were informed and aware for several months but did nothing to address the behavior or protect them. The allegations include claims that a victim was pinned down, stripped, and sexually assaulted by a battery-powered massage gun. Similar vulgar acts were reported against other Black students. It is also alleged, as reported in other media outlets and in court documents, that intimidation tactics were used in combination with racial slurs and epithets to further humiliate Black students. Allegedly, language like “money,” “the N-word” and “dirty Q-tip” were used. Early in December, head football coach Keith Stamps was fired by the Mead School District leadership for failing to investigate and report player misconduct. This situation feels eerily reminiscent of ritualistic, racialized violence not uncommon in America’s colonial and post-colonial past. There is a saying that chickens come home to roost.
Conjured-up trespasses were often concocted to legitimize lynchings; chief among them were accusations of sexual violence perpetrated by Black men. Hypersexualization of the Black male was used to substantiate violence against them. According to the “Timeline of the History of Sexual Violence in the U.S.,” developed by Tulane University, “Sexual violence against and scapegoated upon Black men is also an important foundation of rape culture in the United States. Its underpinnings lie in slavery, which used sexual violence and other power-based violence as tools to maintain a racial hierarchy based in white supremacy.”
Additionally, mob violence was used against Blacks to reinforce dominance and to send a message of weakness and justified exploitation. Social programming rooted in racist rhetoric and propaganda characterized Black people, particularly men, as perpetrators of violence, not victims.
“The mob wanted the lynching to carry a significance that transcended the specific act of punishment,” wrote the historian Howard Smead, as quoted in the article “How White Americans Used Lynchings to Terrorize and Control Black People” published by the Guardian.
Compounding the issue of racialized sexual violence is locker room culture within sports that reinforces toxic masculinity steeped in boundary invasions, hazing and complicit thinking that “boys will be boys.” Hazing and horseplay only bastardize the reality of sexual assault and become the lesser evils when compared to a federal hate crime. When these lines are blurred and historical relevancy is muted in a case like Mead, racialized violence hides in plain sight.