Saturday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m.—RUTLAND—On Saturday, Oct. 21, “Divided by Diversity” will show at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rutland, at 7 p.m. The film will be followed with a Q&A panel that will include Director Duane Carleton and several film participants. The showing is free and open to the public.
The film, which was released in 2016 and has appeared on VT PBS, tells the story of five high school students from Bronx, N.Y. that attended Mount St. Joseph in Rutland from 2010–2012. These students, who played on the school basketball team, were met with resistance and racism statewide in the form of racist chants, blog posts and interference from members of the community as well as parents of other students. The film explores the roots of the racism aimed at these young men, their teammates, coaches and host.
“They all felt that we were just there for basketball and that wasn’t the truth at all,” Shannon Murray (one of the five players) stated in the documentary.
Saturday, Oct. 21 will be the only showing of this movie in Rutland and will afford the public a one-time chance to meet and ask questions of this group of people directly involved with the story. Q&A panelists will include former Mount St. Joseph coach Mark Benetatos, Wiz Kid founder and coach Mugsy Leggett, players Rob Cassell and Jaskin Melendez, host parent Cam Whittemore, former Burr and Burton Academy student Naomi Johnson and director Duane Carleton. Other players may be added to the panel.
