It’s important to note that Black and her son are African Americans in a predominantly white area and that Indiana still has an overt KKK presence. In fact, in 2016, KKK recruiters were knocking on doors passing around fliers in Black’s neighborhood.
“I worked in Greenfield and I experienced these things. I worked where someone had hung a noose on a tree. These things still happen here and Hamilton valley is not that diverse,” said Black.
Educational opportunity — if you’re white
“It’s been almost two years and I’m still pushing this because I feel like I did this to my son. I put him in this school, and I knew there would be some microaggressions, and he might hear some vulgar talk, but I felt like, for both my kids, they would be able to get through it,” said Black. “And the goal was them graduating from Hamilton County, they would be able to go to any college and they would have a much easier path than I did.”
But Black didn’t initially think her son was a victim of racism. She thought this was just standard schoolyard bullying as the new kid found his place among his classmates. And even now, she says the kids that bullied her son were not the problem — the teachers and administrators who failed to protect him were.
