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Thursday, July 2, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS
‘The perfect storm’: Mbogo Mwangi speaks on race in America
today, and how the lacrosse community needs to do better
Growing up on Manhattan’s
Upper East Side, Mbogo Mwangi
never dealt with race as an issue.
St. Stephen of Hungary, the
private Catholic school that the
junior defenseman attended, was
a microcosm of New York City’s
melting pot. Because Mwangi
and his classmates all came from
different ethnic backgrounds,
race became a moot point. No
one was ever treated differently
because of how they looked or
dressed.
But in 2011, his family left
the city for Radnor, Penn., a
predominantly white, affluent
suburban
community
on
Philadelphia’s Main Line. That
was where Mwangi first learned
that he would not go through
life without being judged by the
color of his skin.
Transferring
to
Radnor
Middle School, a school that
was 99 percent white, Mwangi
struggled with cases of subtle
racism daily. People touched
his hair. Curious eyes glanced
over at him during his history
teacher’s measly day-and-a-half
lecture on racism and slavery.
He was excluded from social
events because his classmates
feared their parents would be
mad that he looked or dressed
“differently.”
“As a black kid growing up in
this environment, you are slowly,
calmly and subtly reminded that
you are different because of the
color of your skin, and you will
be treated differently because
of that,” Mwangi told The Daily.
“It’s difficult, because when you
don’t have anyone that looks like
you around you, there’s nobody to
really talk to. You don’t go home
and talk about the issues you
have with your parents because
(the issues) are so small. … They
are just kind of this undertone
that walks around with you with
every single interaction that you
have.”
Sometimes, it wasn’t so subtle.
He remembers playing a game
with a ball on a trampoline in
eighth grade with three of his
closest friends at the time. When
the ball fell out and onto the
ground, one of Mwangi’s friends
suggested that he go get the ball.
When he refused, the friend
called him “his slave” and the
n-word.
It was the first time anyone
had called Mwangi that word.
“In that moment, it was as
if I was in a Matrix-type space
where it was just all white
around me and I was just kind of
shook to the core,” Mwangi said.
“It was one of those moments
that I’ll never forget. … It seems
like time kind of stops. You go
within yourself and just start to
question everything. It doesn’t
seem real. And until you have
had an experience like that,
I can’t really explain what it
means.”
The Main Line is one of
the hottest lacrosse breeding
grounds in the country, and
all of Mwangi’s friends at the
time were playing the game. He
thought it seemed like fun, so he
decided to give it a shot.
But
even
Mwangi’s
first
encounter with lacrosse was
touched by racism. Playing a
sport where only 4.4 percent
of its NCAA Division I student
athletes were black in 2019, he
was judged by the color of his
skin from the instant he stepped
on the field.
Mwangi had never even picked
up a stick before, so he naturally
struggled at his first tryout for
Radnor Youth Lacrosse. Unable
to pick up ground balls with his
stick, he crouched down every
time the ball came towards him
and picked it up with his hand.
“I
was
the
worst
out
there
obviously,”
Mwangi
remembered.
“It
was
very
evident that I was definitely out
of my element.”
The next day, one of Mwangi’s
classmates came up to him and
asked him why he went to the
tryouts. Instead of offering words
of encouragement, his classmate
suggested that Mwangi should go
play basketball instead because
“he’d probably be better at that.”
“As a Black person in America,
you kind of learn what people
mean when they say certain
stuff,” Mwangi said. “That was
one of those things when (I
realized) that I’m not going to
be able to play this sport without
my race being a part of it.”
Mwangi stuck with lacrosse,
and as he grew older, his skills
developed rapidly.
Still,
he
was
treated
differently on the lacrosse field
due to the color of his skin.
Opponents yelled racial slurs
at him on the field. He was cut
from his summer club lacrosse
team twice, suspiciously in favor
of players Mwangi deemed less
talented, before finally making
it on his third try. When he
decided to attend the Haverford
School, an all-boys prep school
and lacrosse powerhouse near
Radnor, many people told him
that he wasn’t good enough to
go there and that he would never
play.
But
Mwangi
used
Black
professional lacrosse players like
Kyle Harrison, the first Black
man to win NCAA lacrosse’s
Tewaaraton
Award,
as
his
inspiration
to
keep
pushing
forward. Any comments that
doubted his ability or stake in
the game were absorbed and
used as motivation. Harrison’s
legacy showed Mwangi what was
attainable for Black men who
play lacrosse.
When
Mwangi
arrived
at
Haverford, he met his best
friend, Isaiah, who is half-Black.
For the first time since leaving
Manhattan, he finally felt like
he had someone to talk about the
racial injustices he was dealing
with.
For the first time since moving,
he found someone like him.
“Having my best friend also
be Black helped with (all that)
because (I was) with someone
who (looked) like me,” Mwangi
said. “We dealt with the issue of
subconsciously being reminded
that you’re not gonna be like
everyone else (together).”
And on the lacrosse field,
Mwangi saw the merits of his
hard work pay off. The Fords
won three consecutive Inter-
Academic League championships
during his four years on the
team. In 2018, Michigan coach
Kevin Conry offered Mwangi a
spot on the Wolverines’ men’s
lacrosse team, making him the
only player from his middle
school class that would go on to
play Division I lacrosse.
***
Two
weeks
ago,
Mwangi
led a Zoom video call with his
coaches and teammates. The
topic of conversation surrounded
the issue of race in America,
a response to the murder of
George Floyd and ongoing Black
Lives Matter protests.
Having felt the burden of
racism on his shoulders his
entire life, he finally felt like he
had an opportunity to speak on
the issue.
“I never really thought that
I’d have a platform to speak
on this,” Mwangi said. “Prior
to everything going on, if you
would’ve asked me if I would be
the one to stand up and speak to
a group of people that I trusted
and are my friends about the idea
of race, I would’ve told you that
you were lying.”
Over Zoom, Mwangi shared
his experiences as a Black man.
After explaining how he gets
pulled over by the police in his
friends’
neighborhoods
back
home; after revealing that he
has had job applications ignored
because
of
his
name;
after
pouring his heart out about how
this is an issue of human rights,
not politics, Mwangi hoped his
coaches and teammates would
begin to take the time to listen,
to educate themselves and to
pursue a more active role in the
fight for racial justice.
Mwangi spoke of the idea of
a “perfect storm,” in which the
culmination of three “waves”
have allowed the previously
apathetic white population to
become cognizant of the ongoing
racial injustice that has festered
in the United States for 400-plus
years.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MBOGO MWANGI
Defenseman Mbogo Mwangi has dealt with racism since he moved out of Manhattan and began playing lacrosse.
DREW COX
Daily Sports Writer
See ‘THE PERFECT
STORM’
, Page 12