MadameNoire
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A summer camp in Martha’s Vineyard has all eyes on them after an incident between a Black child and a white child that occurred seemed racially motivated. According to a report, a white child took a strap and wrapped it around a Black child’s neck, looking similar to a lynching, while playing at the Chilmark Community Center.
In the report, which was released last week by the Chilmark Town Affairs Council, said there was no “use any racial slurs or use racially charged language before, during or after the incident.”
During their time at the camp, Camper A (the Black child) and the other white children in his group, Campers X, Y and Z had not been playing well together. The report described Camper Z as problematic, being unkind, hitting other children at the camp, name calling and acting out. Due to Camper Z’s disruptive behaviors, the counselors for his group had asked that he be removed but the director of the camp instead helped them put together a plan to help them manage his behavior. Camper A and Camper Z also had an altercation, which led to Camper A suggesting that none of them play together anymore. This was agreed upon.
On the day of the incident, July 29, Camper A was playing with a strap by a tent. Campers Y and Z then joined him in the play and Camper Y then took the strap and “used it to tie up Camper A, wrapping it around his neck and around the tent pole. Camper A resisted, saying ‘no’ and/or ‘stop,’ but Camper Y continued. Camper Y was holding one end of the strap, Camper Z was standing there watching, but Camper A was able to break free.”
According to the Associated Press, the parents of Camper A said that he had been bullied throughout his time at the seven-week program. Their legal representation from Lawyers for Civil Rights said that Camper Y pushed him, kicked him and called him a “stinky rat.”
It was also reported that the parents of Camper A have not been offered the chance to meet with the parents of the children involved in the incident.
“This has been a really challenging month for them,” Lawyers for Civil Rights’ Sophia Hall told the AP. “They have been at a loss for how this happened.”
Even though the report said the incident wasn’t racially charged, Hall begged to differ.
“You don’t need a swastika or the n-word for it to be a racial incident,” she told the AP. “There are other ways racism rears its ugly head. It’s clear here that one of the few children of color at this camp was targeted.”
