Cashmere High School Grad Says He Was Subjected to Racial Abuse Daily
I wrote about that for Crosscut recently and include a few additional details about the story here
*Trigger warning: this post contains vulgar language not suitable for any age. The most offensive content is behind the paywall. Reader discretion is advised.
On the evening of Friday, June 9 Felix Dotson graduated from Cashmere High School. That morning, Crosscut published a piece I wrote about Dotson facing daily racial abuse from his mostly-white peers. Dotson said he heard the N-word an average of 100 times a week at CHS. Sometimes it was directed at him, and other times it was used in his presence.
Dotson said that sometimes it was used in a call-and-response game where one student would yell: “I hate!” and others would respond: “N-words!”
On May 4, Dotson said a classmate assaulted him in class while using the word.
“He whispered in my ear: ‘Listen here, this is my word and I can say it whenever I want, OK?’” Dotson said.
Another student who was in the room and witnessed the entire thing confirmed Dotson’s account of what happened. After the assault, Dotson went to his girlfriend’s home and told her and her parents, Karlye and Kevin Risdon, what had happened.
Kevin took notes and helped Felix draft an official letter of complaint to the school. The two hand-delivered that letter to CHS the next morning.
They also contacted me.
I spent the rest of the month interviewing Dotson and the Risdons and then reaching out to his peers, Cashmere School District officials, OSPI, the NAACP, mental health professionals and more.
While I was working on the story two CHS ripped down Equity Club signage featuring a rainbow heart (a notable Pride symbol) and another graduate rode through town in the back of a truck wearing the Confederate flag like a cape during the Senior Parade on June 8. The senior parade is an annual tradition in many communities. In Cashmere seniors ride through town in the back of pickups, boats, ATVs and even on horseback.
But I want to focus on the main story, which is laid out in my Crosscut piece here, and address a few things. A few people asked me why we didn’t publish the slur in question or name any of the individuals who used it, including the young man who allegedly assaulted Dotson.
1. The Word
The decision not to use the racial slur in direct quotes or even “the N-word” in reference to it was deliberate. It was made after much consideration and discussion with my editors at Crosscut. The Associated Press Style Guide provides advice on what to do with words like these. My inclination was to leave it in direct quotes and use the commonly-used reference to it. But the guidance on sensitive topics like these is always evolving and the most current AP guidelines advise to avoid using the word or even “the N-word” when describing it, so I deferred to my editors. They make the final call for their publication.
However, I do want to provide more context to the story with a few screenshots from a group Snapchat thread in a minute.
2. The Names
When your subjects are high school students it’s important to exercise a high degree of rigor to ensure you’re not naming minors. In this case, most of the subjects are legal adults. But my editors decided to refrain from naming any of Dotson’s classmates by name.
However, the young man who Dotson said assaulted him on school property is over 18. And his bullying of Dotson only intensified after that incident was reported. At one point he attempted to organize his peers to “egg” Dotson’s house.
I want you to see how much the slur was used as well as how much abuse Dotson was subjected to. So here are a few screenshots from Snapchat that illustrate how fixated many of the senior boys were with using the word in a space where they knew a young black man was watching, as well as some of their reactions after they realized screenshots of their conversation had been taken.
Here’s the exchange that I reference in the Crosscut piece in which one boy tells the others to stop using the word because “it’s racist.”