Is Mason, Ohio A Hotbed Of White Nationalism?
If you take I-71N from downtown Cincinnati, you will reach Mason, Ohio in approximately 20-25 minutes. Located in Warren County, Mason is known as a respectable, middle to upper middle class suburb with a popular amusement park, Kings Island, and one of the largest tennis arenas in the world, Lindner Family Tennis Center, which hosts the well-known Western & Southern Tennis Tournament annually. Mason is also known for good schools, nice neighborhoods, plus reasonably affordable houses.
And in the past month, Mason has become increasingly known as an enclave for racists.
Three separate incidents within the Mason School district have occurred, and none of them speak well of the community. The first to be reported was a high school boys’ rec league basketball team with the charming name of the “Wet Dream Team” and players’ jerseys with names like “Knee Grow”, “Dirp Dirp” and “Coon.” The team played four league games before a coach from an opposing team took photographs of the jerseys, called for the game to be halted, and filed a complaint with the league. What came out of that was a tearful apology and resignation from Mason School Board member, Kerry McKiernan, when his son was named as one of the boys on the Wet Dream Team (though he supposedly never wore one of the “offensive” jerseys).
Back in December, a white middle school teacher threatened a black student with the possibility that his white classmates might lynch him for not doing his work fast enough. The student didn’t report the incident to his mother, Tanisha Agee-Bell, until several days later, and when Ms. Agee-Bell confronted the teacher, Renee Thole, admitted to the racist exchange. The school board hasn’t fired the teacher yet.
Meanwhile, the latest incident involves racist Snapchat messages sent to black students within the school district. While the school board is talking a good game in acknowledging there’s a problem, it seems like there’s much more work to be done within the community. Readers should also note that both Warren and Butler Counties had many “fine, young” men attend the Charlottesville, VA rally for white nationalism led by Richard Spencer back in August. You know, the one where a white nationalist from SW Ohio plowed a car into a crowd and killed Heather Heyer? Maybe it’s time for people outside Mason, Ohio to step in and teach them about human decency and respect. They seem to have forgotten those lessons somewhere along the way.