I admit it, the part of me that went to college with frat boys is very happy to see any of them get punished for being jerks, but I worry that many are going too far in their calls for punishment. Expulsion from school. Death threats. Social media vilification. It's all happening fast for them. And it's easy for all of us to jump aboard on that train.
I worry, though, that we are scapegoating them and letting the real culprits off the hook.
And already we are getting the obligatory apologies that including statements that so and so is "not racist."
How do we go beyond a conversation about whether Adam Kemp (the "not racist" guy from above) or Parker Rice (BTW he is also “a good guy and NOT a racist.”) does or does not have hate in their heart? How do we go to a larger conversation about how these young people learned racism?
Parker Rice issued an apology and in it he said:
"I also completely ignored the core values and ethics I learned from my parents and others."
Former Dallas Cowboys and University of Oklahoma head football coach Barry Switzer, an honorary SAE said:
"I know the majority of our students don’t condone or participate in bigotry. These incidents are not a reflection of the true spirit of our campus."
The reality is that:
THEIR ATTITUDE DOES REFLECT THE COMMUNITY. IT REFLECTS THAT RACISM EXISTS STRONGLY IN AMERICA.
CAN WE STOP PRETENDING IT IS NOT RAMPANT? CAN WE ACTUALLY LOOK AT WHAT IS GOING ON?
I like stand up comedy. I easy for a black comic to get get roars of laughter by simply saying "Hey White people!". "OMG! Someone talked about racism," we all think. We drink our 2 drink minimums and keep smiling. Then we go home and forget that racism exists.
I'm a white person. My hometown was fairly diverse. I went to public school. And still when I was with just white friends and someone had something to say about another ethnic group, we would look around and hush our voices and then say something vaguely racist. We never did a chant but we, like all white people, knew the drill. We knew how to keep it under wraps. Am I bad for admitting this? I don't think so. I would bet my 401k plan that most white people in America have done this exact thing.
I love comics books but if Captain America was revived today his primary concern wouldn't be the Red Skull. It would be the Black President....
Exactly how is racism taught? I don't know for sure but I think it has something to do with:
* Jar Jar Binks
* Criminal justice system
* The need of economic elites to divide the country so they can vote against their interests (or can't vote at all)
* That people often just feel shitty and will use any excuse to feel better.
I'm sure there are tons and tons more examples of how racism exists on a level much grander than Adam Kemp or Parker Rice. Please feel free to list them in the comments below.
I'd rather SAE gets a slap on the wrist and that we make a big point about how racism still exists rather than beat down a few people. No death threats. No vilifying these two people. We keep kicking out the "evil" and "racist" white guys (Donald Sterling, Cliven Bundy, or other dopey old white guy are a 1940's super soldier serum away from being Captain America) but racism persists.
And it persists in probably every American.
Look at this heartbreaking video of racism in little kids of color.
Destroying the members of SAE will only make racism go underground. It makes for more Paul Ryan code words like "inner cities."
As Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote:
"Elegant racism is invisible, supple, and enduring. It disguises itself in the national vocabulary, avoids epithets and didacticism. Grace is the singular marker of elegant racism. One should never underestimate the touch needed to, say, injure the voting rights of black people without ever saying their names. Elegant racism lives at the border of white shame. Elegant racism was the poll tax. Elegant racism is voter-ID laws."
We need to ask the members of SAE the question: "How did you learn this?" or more to the point "How did we all learn this?" Do we settle for arresting a few street thugs here or do we use them as informants to go over the real bosses and crooks?
And then we can all ask ourselves: "Why do we keep pretending racism is an individual problem?" Is resisting racism like resisting a cheesecake? Where you "fail" if you do something naughty or is it something bigger? Can we see beyond that to the system? I hope so.