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A community in Kansas is looking for answers after an 11-year old girl was attacked for the color of her skin.
According to published reports, 11-year old Nevaeh Thomas was playing with a group of friends outside an apartment complex near Shawnee school in Kansas City, Kansas, when an older boy began calling her racial slurs. Not one to back down, little Naveah stood firmly asserting to the bully that her “Black is beautiful”, it was then, mother Brandi Stewart told local FOX affiliate WDAF-TV, that the things turned violent and the teen struck her daughter with a pole–knocking her unconscious.
“She suffered from a concussion,” Brandi Stewart said during the interview. “She has stitches inside and outside of her cheek, she lost her tooth.”
Stewart also added that the incident has left Naveah mentally hurt more than anything, noting that racially motivated attacks are on the rise in the area–even among children as many in the small neighborhood witnessed when the 11-year old was attacked.
“Her feelings are more hurt because of the act of, the racial act. Not so much of the scaring,” Stewart continued.
“Hate speech has become the norm. Violence has become the norm. It’s seeped into our children,” Empowerment Temple pastor, Terry Bradshaw said.
Neighbors like Blair Murphy, who runs a daycare center near the apartment complex say they are shocked by the attack.
“That poor little girl didn’t do anything and now she’s been hospitalized and beaten and for what? Because she’s Black?” said Murphy.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said the 12-year-old boy is charged with aggravated battery, a felony. Howe said hate crime charges could be filed in the case, although proceedings in the juvenile system are often handled differently than the adult system.
Check out the report below.
