Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this. But let’s also not be naive enough to think that there’s not a chance in hell that it won’t. The minute Ben Crump’s name came up as one of the legal representatives in the potential lawsuit against Northwestern University, its former coach Pat Fitzgerald and university president Michael Schill, we knew race was going to play a major role not only in how this story was going to move forward, but also how it was going to be told, viewed and received. White school, athletes of color at the center, this can’t be good. As Rick Morrissey called it, Northwestern’s “journey to rock bottom.”
So far, we know there exists a possibility of at least 50 potential plaintiffs, most former NU football players but some from other sports, who plan on possibly filing lawsuits against Northwestern and various individuals connected to the football program who had knowledge of the “toxic culture” of hazing going on within the program or who for years failed in their jobs and responsibilities to make sure criminal acts of violence or discrimination didn’t happen to student-athletes on their watch. Most of the athletes have yet to disclose themselves to the public. Most have kept their personal names, images and likenesses anonymous. Smart move. Why open themselves up to the racial bonfires that often arise when people of color legally challenge the wrongdoings of those who don’t share the same ethnicity space as them? Who once had power over them? Even despite the fact that each complaint so far against Northwestern alleges “long-standing issues involving hazing and bullying that takes on a sexual and/or racist tone.”
