Sports are an example of people coming together from different walks of life in the name of a team. All of them are playing for the same name on the front of their jerseys. Even though a locker room can beopian, it can't serve as a perfect environment of equality due to what many have gone through.
That is what happened to Tony Humphrey.
The 16-year-old black baseball player walked away from a toxic environment at his former high school after being in the news for his decision. The junior, who has already committed to play baseball at Boston College, has left Iona Prep in New Rochelle, N.Y., to return to play for a local high school after he alleges that an assistant athletic director told him that he gained his speed by running from the police.
That was offensive. Humphrey said there was no reason for him to say that.
I decided to leave because of my current situation. He said he was already going to college. I don't feel like I have to stay at a program where they're going to look at me differently, or at a place that I have to go to Monday through Friday.
This isn't the first time a black boy with dreads has had to deal with something like this. Dealing with racism in this country is something that Black people learn to deal with before they are old enough to understand what is happening to us. While we may not have the right words at that moment, that initial feeling is a gut punch that never goes away.
Humphrey said there were other instances of racism during his freshman year. I took it up with the dean and the higher-ups, and nothing happened to the other student.
In the aftermath of the situation, students walked out of the school in support of Humphrey and the assistant AD resigned while the school tried to stay quiet about everything.
The real story is that Tony Humphrey is the latest one.
When he left UGA for Ohio State, Justin Fields was in the same situation as before, after a member of the school's baseball team called him the N-word. Andrew Johnson was the name that we learned after a video surfaced of a black high school wrestler in New Jersey being forced to cut his dreadlocks in order to compete.
Sometimes these stories are ignored. Sometimes a person pulls out their phone to record what happens because society tends to ignore racism, while also acting as if hate only happens when there is a video to prove it.
Tony Humphrey was a beautiful young man. It proved that he understands his worth. It will inspire someone to do the same thing.
