After the Mississippi NAACP made accusations that a black high school student had a noose thrown around his neck by white students, others are now speaking out refuting the broad claims of racism.
Last week, the state’s NAACP President Derrick Johnson told local media that a black student at Stone High School in Wiggins, Mississippi had been “accosted with a noose around their neck,” by white students.
Johnson said the student, a football player, was taking a practice break with the rest of his team when he had a noose thrown around his neck by white teammates as they yanked it backwards.
After the alleged incident, the student returned to football practice.
Immediately, the widespread accusations of racism and hate crimes by the NAACP were picked up by The New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press and Salon.
The NAACP held a press conference where they demanded the students responsible for the alleged incident be charged as adults, even claiming that the mother of the black student was advised not to file a police report because of one of the students’ connections to law enforcement, according to the AP.
Local Sheriff Capt. Ray Boggs said that accusation was untrue, saying he told the mother of the black student that pursuing charges could lead to a more difficult time for her son in high school.
But now, students at the high school are speaking out against the claims, saying they are largely overblown by the NAACP.
One football teammate Tytan Lee said “It was a prank gone wrong,” according to the Sun Herald.
Other students like Dennis Rojas said the NAACP failed to mention that one of the students accused of the racist hate crime is actually “good friends” with the black student.
Rojas, as well as other students like Mikayla Shaw and Breanna Hull, told the Sun Herald they agreed with Lee’s characterization of the incident.
In fact, Hull said the incident never became an issue at the school until the story was picked up by the national media and the NAACP held a press conference on the matter.
A longtime resident of Wiggins, Mississippi, Gail Collins told the Sun Herald she had never experienced racism in the town she calls home, saying “I haven’t really experienced any (racism) myself.”
“It’s all good,” Collins said. “All you have to do is trust and believe in God.”
The NAACP is continuing to call for a federal hate crime investigation into the alleged incident.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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