Last month, the family of a 15-year-old Muslim girl accused a 15-year-old Black boy of beating her because of her religion at Ardrey Kell High School. Now, a schism has emerged between some of the city’s Black and Muslim residents and activists, as recriminations and demands for more investigations continue.
After referring the case to the FBI, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said there was no evidence that the incident was a hate crime, as the girl’s family has alleged. The girl’s family has said the boy bullied the girl in the days leading up to the incident and used anti-Muslim rhetoric. But the boy’s family has disputed this and said the girl was the one who started the altercation — which they describe as a classroom fight that’s been blown out of proportion.
Last Friday, activists held a news conference on behalf of the girl and her family, saying the police investigation had been lacking. They said the girl had never been interviewed. The family is continuing to ask for hate crime charges or additional penalties.
Both sides are also calling for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to release surveillance footage of the incident — but on Monday, CMS said it would not do so, citing student privacy laws. As minors, neither student has been identified.
Dueling news conferences
The increasingly acrimonious dispute has pitted members of two minority groups against each other. Black and Muslim students are both in the minority at Ardrey Kell, which is located in the Ballantyne area near Community House Road.
At last week's news conference, the girl's family also criticized the local NAACP chapter. They were frustrated the boy’s family invoked the group in their statement and suggested the group had taken the boy’s side. Abdulla Nasif, the girl’s brother, suggested the group had failed to support his sister because the boy is Black.
“They were very optimistic and ready to help, however, this optimism quickly shifted once they found out the attacker was African American and that my sister was not,” Nasif said. “This is disgusting behavior that the NAACP has to address at the national level, as this shows colorism. Discrimination can be done by any person within or of an ethnic group, religion, nationality or race to any other single person.”
Jibril Hough, a local advocate within the Muslim community who has acted as a spokesperson for the girl’s family, similarly expressed disappointment in the NAACP’s involvement.
“The NAACP is supposed to be for justice, especially those of color,” Hough said. “Our sister, who is of color, should be included in them.”
But Monday, the NAACP held its own news conference, at the same place, uptown's Government Center. President Corine Mack accused the girl’s supporters of making misleading, inflammatory statements about the incident and the NAACP’s involvement.
“Every statement that had been made, had been made intentionally,” Mack said. “And those statements are causing a racial divide between the Black and Arab community — something we do not need.”
Mack insisted her organization had not taken sides and was not involved in judging the merits of the case, and was calling for those involved to tone down the public rhetoric. She noted the organization doesn’t condone violence against women, but she said the boy’s family had received death threats and their home was vandalized.
“It was a fight between 15-year-olds that escalated and got out of hand,” Mack said.
She and other activists at the news conference specifically accused Hough, who is white, of “hate-mongering” and spreading misinformation to vilify the Black student, even as law enforcement has concluded that the case was not a hate crime. She said he was acting biased.
In a phone call Monday, Hough called the NAACP’s news conference “insulting” and “disappointing.” He pointed to his track record of advocacy on racial justice issues as proof he wasn’t biased.
“My whole life, from the time I was probably 4 or 5 years old, is a story of a young white kid that doesn't fit the narrative,” Hough said. “My mother was with a Black man since I was 4 or 5 years old. My stepfather is Black. Probably all of my mentors have been Black. I've been inspired by Black men to stand up for justice and principle from an early childhood age.”
Hough stood by his activism on behalf of the girl, pointing to his conversations with the girl and the nature of her injuries, which the girl's family said required surgery. He said he couldn’t confirm or deny if the girl did hit the boy first — but that even if she did, it didn’t justify the boy’s response.
“But what I can say is she always told me, and the rest of us, that she didn't hit him first,” Hough said. “That's what I can say, and I will continue to say that, and I will continue to believe her.”
