XPost: alt.activism, alt.activism.children, alt.activism.student   
   XPost: alt.galactically.pointless   
   From: black.lies.matter@abc.com   
      
   Reap what you sow.   
      
   When the Beaumont Bulls, a youth football team in eastern Texas,   
   decided to take a knee at a Sept. 10 game, the response was   
   swift — and vicious.   
      
   Hate mail poured in from people who were outraged that the all-   
   black team and its coaches had refused to rise during the   
   national anthem. Some people called the 11- and 12-year-old   
   players racial slurs and even threatened to have them lynched   
   and burned.   
      
   In the face of all that, the Beaumont Bulls executive board   
   stood behind them. So did the Bay Area Football League, which   
   the team is part of.   
      
   “There are scenarios occurring in society that until this point   
   in time, we have not had to address,” the president said at the   
   time. “We support the Beaumont Bulls.”   
      
   Within a week, however, on the eve of the next game, things   
   began to unravel. Tensions erupted between coaches, parents and   
   league officials. Shortly after, players began to drop out.   
      
   Now, a little more than a month after the team’s protest, the   
   league has canceled the team’s remaining games, as KBMT reported   
   Tuesday. The reasons behind the decision are in dispute. The   
   league’s athletic director said the season was cut short because   
   too many players left. The head coach, however, has suggested   
   that it all stemmed from the protest.   
      
   It’s the latest controversy to rattle an athletic club in the   
   weeks since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick   
   took a knee during a preseason game in protest of racial   
   injustice and fatal police shootings in the U.S. Athletes from   
   professional teams all the way down to the junior level have   
   joined him, igniting provincial battles over whether it’s   
   offensive or improper for players to mimic his display.   
      
   The Beaumont Bulls’ decision to kneel during the anthem was not   
   the work of just a couple wayward players. After mulling   
   Kaepernick’s protest in September, the team’s players and   
   coaches agreed that they would all take a knee at the Sept. 10   
   game, according to Bleacher Report, which spoke to the team.   
      
   But before they did, they asked for permission from the league   
   and the Beaumont Bulls executive board.   
      
   They got it.   
      
   When the hateful messages and death threats came in, team and   
   league leaders backed them.   
      
   [Crowd hurls slurs at all-black youth football team as some   
   players kneel during anthem, coach says]   
      
   “It is our hope and desire to cultivate young men that will be   
   leaders in our communities that will make a difference in this   
   world,” the Beaumont Bulls executive board said in a statement a   
   couple of days after the game. “And though their stance was not   
   seen by all as a sign of progress, we believe that it was and we   
   will continue to support them.”   
      
   As the following game approached, the team discussed whether   
   they would continue. Most of them took a knee, while five others   
   stood by with locked arms, according to Bleacher Report.   
      
   It was around that time that things spiraled out of control.   
   Parents, coaches and officials clashed at meetings where they   
   discussed how to deal with the threatening messages. Details are   
   murky and conflicting, but head coach Rah-Rah Barber told   
   Bleacher Report that he was suspended because he had allowed   
   parents to speak to the media and players to continue to protest.   
      
   Parents followed him out, and took their players with them, he   
   said. By Oct. 1, the team had just 15 players left, down from   
   two dozen, KBMT reported. Within days, not enough players   
   remained to meet the league minimum and the season was nixed,   
   according to KBMT.   
      
   League and team officials, however, said it had nothing to do   
   with the protest.   
      
   “We are an African-American board,” league athletic director   
   DeCarlos Anderson told KBMT. “Our membership is diverse. It’s   
   not a race thing.”   
      
   Anderson said Barber, the Bulls’ head coach, was suspended   
   because he pushed two assistant coaches out when they said they   
   didn’t want to continue with the protest.   
      
   “The athletic director is the only one who has the authority to   
   remove an assistant or head coach,” Anderson said. “He tried to   
   remove an assistant coach and child from his team because he   
   didn’t have the same beliefs that he had.”   
      
   In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Barber fired back, saying the   
   board “reprimanded” them for protesting and that many parents   
   and players on the team quit in solidarity. At least one coach   
   resigned with them, according to Bleacher Report.   
      
   “Until the coach is reinstated they decided not to attend   
   practice or games in an attempt to make the board pay for their   
   actions,” Barber said, adding, “I have accepted the outcome and   
   moved on.”   
      
   Barber and league officials didn’t immediately respond to   
   requests for comment on Tuesday.   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-   
   mix/wp/2016/10/19/these-youth-football-players-took-a-knee-but-   
   is-that-why-their-season-got-   
   canceled/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_3_na   
           
      
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