A Brunswick, Ohio high school football player has been subjected to racial backlash for kneeling against racism on Friday, Sept. 2.
Cleveland 19 News reports that 16-year-old Brunswick High School student Rodney Axson Jr. claims members of his football team used the n-word in the locker room.
While the slur was not aimed at him, he asked them to stop, but players continued to toss around the slur.
In a Sept. 9 interview, Rodney Axson Sr. tells reporters that he moved to the neighborhood to get away from gun violence. He did not expect his son to subjected to racism.
“It was a few players in the locker room saying ‘We’re going to us the N-word with a hard ‘R’ tonight,’ ” Axson says. “They didn’t know my son was in the locker room. At that time, he came from where he was and approached the guys and said, ‘Excuse me, what do you mean by that?’ They said, ‘This don’t include you. You’re from Brunswick.’ He said, ‘I’m African-American, it does include me. I appreciate if y’all didn’t say that.’ ”
The 16-year-old has a 3.5 GPA and did not plan on kneeling before the Sept. 2 game. This incident prompted him to take a stand.
Subsequently, Rodney says he received lynching threats in addition to the racial slurs.
His father says that students called him “a worthless N and that Rodney is making Black people look worse than they already are.”
After a week of bullying, the district’s superintendent has disciplined the students involved in the incident.
