Campus Cops’ Racism vs. Volleyball Students Spark Fightback

BROOKLYN, November 22—A multiracial group of twenty-five students, teachers, and parents armed with chant sheets and signs returned to Brooklyn Tech High School where school security agents had treated the students like criminals weeks earlier. Students and members and friends of Progressive Labor Party are leading the fight against racism (see student letter, page 6). We are giving School Safety, the arm of the NYPD that criminalizes mainly Black and Latin students, a taste of what an organized and committed group can do.
NYPD Criminalizes Students
On November 1, the volleyball team from Park Slope Collegiate High School (PSC), comprised of Black, Latin, and South Asian students, arrived at Brooklyn Tech for the game that would decide their entrance into the playoffs. Immediately upon arrival, they were treated like criminals by security. The team was forced to line up against the wall. The team’s managers and supporters were not allowed into the game and were told that only people on the roster were allowed in, even though for the last ten years of playing games at the school they were never asked for rosters. One student yelled, “What, are we in prison?”
The team’s captain protested a security guard’s abuse, saying, “This is racist!” to which the security guard yelled, “Keep your opinions to yourself.” The coach overheard another security guard saying, “That’s what happens when you go shopping.” This comment was in reference to the last match the team played where a member of the team was implicated in the theft of a phone, which was immediately returned. The implicated student was not in attendance as a consequence of these events. While these students were being treated like criminals, another school, made up of mostly white students, was allowed to walk right into the gym without being checked or made to line up.
This discriminatory treatment from School Safety is part of the racism that is necessary for capitalists. Capitalists need to maintain the lie that Black and Latin kids and teens are criminals, in order to justify mass incarceration and police terror. This ideology also justifies unemployment, low wages, and homelessness, even though huge numbers of white workers suffer the same oppression. Anti-Black racism is why oppression and terrorization of Black workers is not taken as seriously as other struggles like DAPL (see front page).
Students Fight Back
That our students felt the indignity of racism while simply trying to play a game understandably angered and upset members of the volleyball team, student body, staff, parents, and alumni from Tech. Unwilling to take the racist treatment of the other team lying down, the team met with members of the student government to tell their story and asked for help in preparing a sit-in if the three agents who treated them horribly refused to apologize.
In preparation for the sit-in the captain of the team wrote a letter about the experience, which was sent to every teacher and parent in our school asking for support. Parents e-mailed and made phone calls to the principal of Brooklyn Tech and other higher ups in school safety demanding that these agents apologize to the team.
Knowing the team’s intention to have a sit-in, the principal and assistant principal of Tech greeted everyone and invited them to a meeting with the head of School Safety. The team received apologies from all three but the students were not having it. The team’s demand for an apology from the actual agents that treated them like criminals baffled the lieutenant who came to give lip service to the NYPD’s “Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect” motto. She assumed her apology would be enough and tried to relate to the parents and students in the room by pointing out that she’s both Black and a parent. Our students and parents still weren’t having it. When the students wanted to go through with the sit-in, the Tech principal Randy J. Asher said that he wouldn’t stop the officers from arresting the team. He would rather have Black and Latin students with their hands behind their backs than being treated with simple dignity and respect.
Our school community is used to fighting back whether that be against racist budget cuts, school segregation, or school scanning that makes our students feel more like criminals than students. This fightback and the multiracial, teacher-parent-student alliance that we have built over the years has forced the powers that be to respond much faster to this incident. We have been told to expect an apology from one of the three officers any day now. If we don’t, we’re prepared to keep fighting for it.
The leadership the students have given to this fightback has been amazing. They have stood up against racism and criminalization of Black and Latin students. We are up against a segregated and therefore inherently unequal school system. This system is no accident. Capitalism needs racism to survive, by dividing white from Black and Latin students and workers so that all can be oppressed and exploited for profit. Mayors, governors, and presidents claim that Black lives matter that police brutality needs to stop; meanwhile their troops on the ground (the police) brutalize and terrorize the working class. Capitalist leaders don’t actually care about Black and Latin workers, and that is what we saw. The higher-ups were hoping that their willingness to say the right thing would satisfy us, while their agents continue doing exactly as they’re supposed to—terrorize our students.
It is a victory every time we stand up to racism. All students and workers need to be ready to take action over and over again. Racism isn’t going away as long as we have capitalism. Fighting smaller battles steels us for bigger battles ahead. We are now even more committed to the struggle against racism and students are more confident in themselves and each other. This struggle is just one more nail in the bosses’ coffin. We are one step closer to building class consciousness and one step closer to defeating capitalism. Stay tuned for more fightback!