A community in Irvine, California is rallying together to show support for Makai Brown, a Portola High School basketball player who faced disturbing racist taunts during a recent road game at Laguna Hills High School. John Pehrson, the principal of Portola High School, stood in front of the crowd before a home basketball game on Wednesday and addressed the incident, ABC 7 reports.
“Unfortunately, we experienced some egregious, inexcusable behaviors,” Pehrson said, standing on the court with a microphone. “And it’s not OK. Those types of remarks are not OK anywhere, and we want to make a statement on that.”
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Many more administrators, community members and advocates around the country have been speaking up after seeing video of the harrowing incident. The footage reveals several racist remarks from a Laguna Hills High School student who taunted the teen when he was standing at the free throw line.
“Where is his slave owner? Chain him up. Who let him off the chains?” the perpetrator can be heard saying in the video. “Who let him out of his cage? He’s a monkey.”
Saddleback Valley Unified School District Superintendent Crystal Turner issued a statement, describing the taunts as “inappropriate and inflammatory racist comments.”
“The language and connotations expressed by the words used do not represent the culture, attitudes, or feelings of the students and staff of LHHS, nor those of Saddleback Valley Unified School District,” Turner said.
Sabrina Brown said her son heard the racist comments when he was looking at game footage the next day.
“I’m angry. I’m hurt. I’ve had emotions that have covered the spectrum,” she told ABC 7.
The devastated mother also pointed to previous racist incidents she has seen at Laguna Hills High School.
“Last year, a parent from Laguna Hills High School kept referring to my son as ‘boy’ on the basketball court,” she said. “We are from the South, and it is a racial slur for someone to constantly — and I mean repeatedly, throughout the game — call my son ‘boy.'”
