During Black History Month, Jabari Talbot was introduced to the criminal justice system at an early age. On February 4th, the sixth grade student made headlines when he refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance. According to reports, Talbot refused to stand because “the flag was racist and the national anthem was offensive to black people.” From there, the eleven year old’s teacher allegedly responded by telling him that he could leave the country if he hated it here so much. Talbot told his teacher, “They brought me here.” His teacher fired back, “Well you can always go back.” The argument concluded with his teacher calling the main office and the school’s resource office arresting Talbot. In the weeks following the incident, a number of entities have offered their support including Roc Nation.
The system tried to force Jabari Talbot into diversion. Jabari did not commit a crime. Guilty plea refused. Case dismissed. We applaud and support you Jabari. #JabariTalbot pic.twitter.com/H5MKzQ6bdK
— Team Roc (@teamroc) March 1, 2019
Today, Team ROC, a philanthropic division of Roc Nation, announced that they were able to get the case dismissed. Following the case’s dismissal, Alex Spiro of Team ROC stated, “Jabari is a courageous and intelligent young man who deserves all the credit for standing up for his beliefs.” He added, “He should’ve never been arrested or entangled in this situation—his freedom of speech rights were clearly protected under the 1st Amendment.”
Team ROC has also taken on a number of other civil rights cases including 21 Savage‘s immigration case.
