Racism Exhibited By Young People Is Very Disappointing

From Think Progress:

School officials are investigating a group of white North Dakota college students after they posted a picture of themselves in blackface with the caption “Black lives matter.”

According to Raw Story, a group of female students at the University of North Dakota (UND) are facing potential reprimand after the image was uploaded to Facebook. The incident comes just days after three other white UND students reportedly stole the phone of an African American student, locked her out of her own dorm room, took a picture of themselves laughing, and then posted the image to Snapchat with the caption “Locked the black bitch out.”

“I am appalled that within 48 hours two photos with racially-charged messages have been posted on social media and associated with the UND campus community,” university president Mark Kennedy, according to Raw Story. “It is abundantly clear that we have much work to do at the University of North Dakota in educating our students, and the entire university community on issues related to diversity, inclusion, and respect for others.”

Wearing blackface, once common among turn-of-the-century performers who mocked black people in their shows, is now widely condemned as racist. Yet the practice has become a major issue on college campuses: just this month, a student at Quinnipiac University was expelled for posting a Snapchat photo of a white woman in blackface with the caption “black lives matter,” as was a white Kansas State University student who posted a Snapchat image of white students flashing faux gang signs while wearing dark facial masks with the caption “finally feels good to be a n***a.” Similarly, students at Fairfield University were heavily criticized in February for hosting a “ghetto” party; although no one was reported as wearing blackface, attendees wore baggy clothes and held bottles of 40 oz. Coors Light.

Obviously, we have a serious problem with racism in this country, and sadly, it is not just among older Americans who grew up under a racist system. It seems that those older Americans have been pretty effective in teaching some young people that racism is acceptable.

This is not true of all young people. In fact, I believe the younger generation (commonly called "millennials") are the least racist generation this country has ever had. They give me hope that someday, probably long after I am dead, this country might finally stamp out racism.

For a while after the upheaval of the 1960s and the passage of the three Civil Rights Laws, it was not socially acceptable to be openly racist. They racists did not go away, but they went underground and only expressed their sick views to others that shared them. That gave the illusion that this country had progressed further in establishing equality that it really had done.

But those racists were horrified at the election of President Obama. They came out from under their rocks in droves, and once again started to proudly and openly display their sick views. They became even bolder when they realized that the Republican Party had nominated a presidential candidate who agreed with their racist views. Now they seem to have passed on their depraved views to at least a small portion of our newest generation.

I hope these young people will realize the error of their thinking as they grow older. If not, they will pass their racism on to another generation of Americans -- and that is unacceptable.