The three African American River Valley High School (Yuba City, CA) football players who participated in a mock “slave auction” held a press conference apologizing for their actions and saying peer pressure had a lot to do with their involvement.
After a video surfaced of white and Latino students bidding on the three brothers, school district officials swiftly disciplined participants, leading to the cancelation of their football season. “I did not want to do it but looking back I wish I had done more to stop it. When the video was made, I was not feeling good about it and I froze,” said sophomore Adrian. “Part of me knew it was wrong when it was happening and I didn’t have the courage to stop myself or my teammates and I wish I would have,” said Marcos, a junior.
But the kicker is, zero white student athletes, the ones who organized the mock slave auction offered an apology. And that’s not all. The three Black students who were pressured into participating, and who experienced the humiliation of the moment and the shame of the aftermath, were given harsher punishments than the organizing white students. Please explain that one to me.
