Bananas bring racist allegation

An Ohio high school football game was the site of a lockerroom incident that one school feels was racially motivated. Officials are now trying to determine if there is anything in that claim.

As reported by the Richland Source, Mansfield’s game at Ashland saw the Mansfield team arrive to a locker-room with bananas left throughout. When the team then arrived on to the field, they were reportedly had bananas thrown at them with another person in the stands dressed as a banana.

Mansfield is a school with a majority African-American population and told the Richland Source that his players were upset by the bananas in the stadium.

“There were a lot kids, black and white, who were hurt, whose feelings were hurt, and some of our kids shed real tears,” Mansfield coach Chioke Bradley said. “I take great offence at anything that causes kids heartache and pain.

“I just don’t understand in today’s day and age, 2018, why there would be bananas left in a locker-room with a predominately African-American football program coming in. Why not tell us beforehand?

“Don’t wait until afterward when everything has unfolded. It may have been in good faith. It happened though. Our kids walked into it. It’s easy to say after it’s over and done with that they didn’t do anything deliberately . ...

“It is what it is. I hope it doesn’t get twisted up and turned around in no way. I am a Mansfield graduate. I am African-American. I love all my kids, regardless of their colour. Everyone of those kids, regardless of their colour, their feelings were hurt and they played with a chip on their shoulder.”

The Ashland administration said the incident was a simple misunderstanding that emerged from a long-standing tradition by the school’s cross-country team.