On Jan. 26, 2024, Grand Ledge’s girl’s basketball team played away against Howell. Going into the game, many of the girls claimed they had “high hopes” and were excited to play.
After arriving at the gym, their whole mindset had changed.
“No one really paid attention to our team while walking in, until Kiara did. She was in the back of everybody, towards me, and it felt like everyone’s eyes had shifted to her and felt like they were almost shocked to see her,” senior Olivia Navin claims.
Kiara Page is a mixed-race senior at Grand Ledge High School and the only player of color on the girl’s varsity team this year. She has been playing basketball for 10 years.
In the 21st century, there are still struggles with racism and inequality all over the country, however, this has not been an issue at any home sporting events this year. Traveling to Howell was a huge culture shock for many of the players on the team.
As the girls were playing out their game in Howell’s gym, Page had to undergo a great amount of racial comments and verbal harassment.
“It affected my gameplay a lot. It was affecting the way I went for a shot and how I played defense and offense,” Page said.
To put the situation into perspective, the environment was not comfortable for Page or the people close to her. There were students, parents, and fans who were making racist comments such as “monkey”, “blackie”, and even calling her names such as “cotton picker”. Along with these comments, there were moments during the game where Howell’s student section was making “monkey noises”, specifically while Page had been shooting free throws.
Being the only player of color on the team, Page was greatly impacted by this game.
“This was my first time experiencing open racism like this. It opened my eyes to the fact that it was so close to home. Experiencing racism firsthand has made me insecure about who I am as a person,” Page said.
With Grand Ledge being a predominantly white school, Kiara mentioned that this experience has made her more cautious and uncomfortable about the color of her skin while even just attending school.
“Ever since this incident, I’ve thought about it constantly throughout the day at home, at school, and even during basketball,” Page states.
Howell has been known for their association with the KKK for decades, and in 2014 after Howell had won one of their basketball games, many of the students from Howell High School had posted racist tweets about members from their opposing team. There are many accounts posted online about how the KKK still has a presence around that area and more than a handful of claims of verbal abuse with the use of racial profanities.
Page’s team has stated the fact that they feel sincere empathy towards her and what she had to go through.
“After the game was when me and Kiara had talked about it and I started crying then so did she – Alayna was also being super supportive. After we had talked to the coaches about what was happening, everybody went up to Ki and gave her a hug to support her. We were overall very upset and affected by it,” Navin, one of Page’s closest teammates said.
Even though the girls had lost their game, that is not what was affecting them. Since this event, the Grand Ledge athletic administration has reached out to many higher powers in Howell’s school district. The Grand Ledge athletic director, Steve Baker, had taken the initiative of removing Howell from any future schedules in hopes of avoiding putting anybody in this position again.
“This experience has had a huge effect on me and hopefully this spreads awareness to how racism is still continuing in our world,” Page said.
