Black Student Told To ‘Go Back To Africa’ In Racist Texts At California High School

Sending racist videos and texts to a Black student is nothing to play around with, but a group of students at South High School in Torrance, California, thought so. On Monday, a Black student received a video of teenage girls saying a racial slur along with messages such as, “you don’t fit in with the rest of us” and “go back to Africa,” according to CBS News.

The thing is, the video the student was sent was almost five years old, and had already made the rounds through the students on social media. So, clearly, this is an ongoing issue. Less than 3% of the study body at South High identify as Black. Many of them say now they don’t feel safe going to school.

This was particularly disturbing for South High School junior Jayla Lewis, who, in 8th grade, had two boys tell her “to go back to Africa and pick cotton with her ancestors.”

“There’s barely any African American staff,” said Lewis. “It’s not really anybody I can go to for personal, cultural problems.” Lewis’s issue was never addressed with the boys in question, and she doubts the new incident will be either. She mentions many of those students are in leadership positions in the Associated Student Body and play sports as seniors.

Jayla Lewis’s mother, Linda, wants the district to finally address these issues and make it a safer environment for Black and students of color.

From CBS News:

“My message to the district is to try to find out why these children don’t like African Americans,” she said. “We couldn’t choose our color. What is this that we have done, especially for the students who are going there for academics and trying to get a good education? Why do they feel like we don’t deserve it, but they do?”

The Torrance Unified School District has since put out a statement saying they directly addressed the matters with the students in question and their families.

“I can assure our school community that if ever students have conflicts with one another while at school or a school event, we will work with them and their families to offer the support and supervision necessary to help them address their conflict respectfully and productively.”