First, there was the Compton Cookout, an off-campus party involving University of California, San Diego students which celebrated Black History Month by encouraging guests to mock blacks via ghetto stereotypes. Then, a noose was discovered in UCSD's library. And that's not all. On March 2, a KKK-style hood was found on the UCSD campus. What in the world is going on?
Perhaps if these incidents were only occurring at UCSD, they could be written off as the acts of attention-seeking students there trying to score as much notoriety as those who organized the Compton Cookout did. But these racially-charged incidents have spread beyond the San Diego campus. At UC Davis recently, a Jewish student found a swastika carved into her dorm room door, the Associated Press reported. Also, at UC Santa Cruz, known in the University of California system as being a left-leaning "hippie" school, the image of a noose was found scribbled on the inside of a bathroom door with the words "San Diego" and "lynch" written on either side of it, according to AP.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently spoke out about the series of racially-tinged incidents occurring throughout universities.
"I am deeply troubled by the horrific incidents that recently took place on various campuses of the University of California system," he stated. "There is no excuse for this kind of behavior in our system of higher education or anywhere else, and it will not be tolerated."
Unfortunately, these incidents aren't just taking place at the University of California. A Los Angeles elementary school became the latest site of a Black History mockup when three white male teachers decided to "honor" the occasion by having students carry portraits of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul in a Black History Month parade. Children from other classes at the school displayed photos of more appropriate black role models, such as Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman and President Barack Obama, AP reported, but these teachers thought it would be funny to honor Black History Month by choosing less than honorable figures as heroes (although I personally have no issue with RuPaul. Unlike the other two, RuPaul has not been in trouble with the law, to my knowledge.) The teachers responsible for the stint have since been placed on administrative leave, and rightfully so. If they object to Black History Month, that's their prerogative, but involving impressionable young students in their mockup was outright irresponsible, not to mention unbecoming of an educator.
Last in my roundup of insensitive Black History Month stints are the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Missouri. At Reno, a white actor in a student comedy troupe appeared in blackface to portray President Barack Obama, AP reported. The same actor told another student in the troupe, playing a Secret Service agent, to hold a gun like a "gangsta." What's more is that the actor portrayed Obama eating chicken and talking about his love for basketball. Seriously? A comedy troupe thought that it would be hilarious to trumpet the same tired stereotypes everyone has heard about black people a gazillion times before. A six-year-old telling a knock-knock joke would have gotten more laughs. This brand of racial stereotyping is so clichéd it's hard to be offended by it anymore. Frankly, it's so uninspired it's boring.
Now, for the University of Missouri. There, two students have been arrested on suspicion of hate crimes after cotton balls were scattered outside the school's Black Culture Center, AP reported. I give these kids credit for resorting to racism a bit more nuanced than the blackface/fried chicken/watermelon/ghetto fabulous variety. The cotton balls the duo scattered were supposed to symbolize the cotton picking blacks were forced to endure during slavery. For mocking slavery during Black History Month, these students received their just desserts--suspension from school.
And that wraps up my list of offensive Black History Month stints at campuses across the country. Now, the question is what's responsible for these incidents? Is this part of a backlash from young non-blacks who resent the fact that the nation now has a black president and African Americans have an entire month dedicated to their contributions to society, or is another reason to blame? Your thoughts?
Comments
Unfortunately, for blacks, death, taxes and racism will always be with us. Its not about the individual incidents, they are repetitive and unimaginative as you mentioned. I am beginning to believe this is a spiritual attack targeted against blacks that has been occuring since biblical days. Why do these events repeatedly happen who knows? The perpetrators probably don’t even know why they participated…its just a spiritual question that may never be answered in our lifetime. But we are obviously important enough to continuously harass…
Get your facts straight. The noose at UCSD was put up by some dumb girl playing rope with her friends, and she is a minority.
The Compton Cookout was put on by a black comedian with friends at UCSD. http://www.jiggaboojones.com/Compton_cookout_Final_Official_Statement_jiggaboo_jones.htm
The TV station does whatever it can to upset people by using its free speech, and has included a student shooting porn that no one….no one wanted to see
As a student at UCSD, I would have to say the portrayal of the events that have occurred are not as simple as they have been written to seem in this blog. The Compton Cookout was not a party at UCSD. It was an off-campus party that some UCSD students attended, but this party was in no way affiliated with the school itself. Secondly, there was a noose discovered in the UCSD library, but the student who claimed responsibility for it argues there was no intent to terrorize or threaten. Whether or not this is true, I cannot say. However, she claimed to have “accidentally” left it there, and doesn’t the legal system generally honor “innocent until proven guilty”? As for now, there has been no verification as to whether her story holds truth. But I believe it is quite misleading to state there was a noose found in the library without any attempt to provide background information. That’s how rumors tend to start. Lastly, I do not know enough details on the “KKK style hood” so I will decline to comment on that event.
I do believe that the Compton Cookout event was insensitive and offensive, to say the least. However, I feel that all this attention placed on UCSD as being incapable of creating a safe atmosphere for minority students is being blown out of proportion. Up until the Compton Cookout event that was not even a UCSD affiliated event, I haven’t heard any desperate cries regarding the lack of safety or acceptance on this campus, with the exception of the LGBT community who have had public events discussing this issue.
I understand that all these events are emotionally draining, especially for the African American community. However, I think this has unfairly been turned into an outlet to express all the anger, resentment, rage and injustice they have felt throughout their lives, not just because of this incident. The university cannot possibly be expected to solve problems of racism and the lack of African American/other minorities attendance.
Firstly, racism exists not in any way because of the university, but because of the students who attend it. How many people can honestly say university educational awareness programs will radically alter racist mentalities? These things stem from sources way deeper than any 45-min educational session on tolerance can solve. These mentalities come from families, from the media, etc.
Secondly, the lack of African Americans/other minorities at UCSD is not UCSD’s fault. It’s a sign of problems that exist in the greater African American community. It’s not as if UCSD is one of a few schools to have a low African American population. It’s a problem that many colleges face. In my opinion, I’m sure colleges (UCSD included) are eager to accept students of diverse backgrounds for the sheer fact that there is a lack of it at their schools. The blame put on UCSD for the lack of minorities is a ridiculous inference.
The spotlight is on the lack of African American students on campus, so what to do now? In my opinion, instead of wasting time and effort demanding increased funding for various minority activities, I would suggest taking an alternative route. Work with African American youth to inspire them to want to attend college, to stress the importance of education. Changes as great as these don’t come overnight, and they certainly aren’t solved with increased funding for minority student organizations. Changes come through generational change. In my opinion, my grandparents are much more racist than I would like to think, yet to see how my parents and myself view race is amazing in that there is such a big difference in ideals and views, especially on issues like race. There will always be racism, and it exists in many forms. But I believe greater change comes quicker and more effectively from empowering your own community rather than trying to change others’.
Chelsea, I changed it to say “an off-campus party involving University of California, San Diego students” rather than call it a UCSD party, lest I give the impression it was a school-sanctioned event. As for me not giving enough background info, that’s why I provided links to AP articles and to a blog I already did about the Compton Cookout throughout this piece. There have been too many incidents for me to rehash point-by-point what’s happened, so if you want the complete story, please click on the links I referenced. The point is lots of racist stuff has happened at different schools recently, and it doesn’t matter if a minority was involved or if some of the perpetrators apologized after the fact or if the perpetrators claim they were just joking or if the students had their racist parties off-campus or on. My question is what’s responsible for these incidents. Is this part of a bigger backlash? Is this related to President Obama? Are race relations actually devolving? And on that note, Death, Taxes and Racism, you raise some interesting points about the spiritual ramifications of racism.
RuPaul should be honored! And not put in the same context of the other two! Look what he has done with his career. Hes had hit records,hit tv shows, movies, hit radio shows, and multi million dollar endorsement deals including being the first celebrity face of Mac Cosmetics-which he helped raise over 40 million dollars for their Mac AIDS charity fund. He has built a sucessful career for himself on his terms, regardless of the many discrimanations he faces because hes not only black and gay hes a drag queen. I just got done reading his latest book, and he has an amazing outlook on life and the lessons hes learned and talks about in the book can be inspiring. And I never tire of hearing his saying he lives by “If you cant love yourself how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” If more people viewed this world like he does and listen to his words of wisdom and inspiration, then maybe the world would be a some what better place.
Let’s remember the more accurate and updated definition of racist:
RACIST: 1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive term for a white person. 2: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, if promoted by white people. 3: a belief that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, if promoted by white people.
Thanks Nadra, I really appreciate the change.
The problem is that this racist agenda is being pushed onto our people as a divide and conquer tactic, but there is even more to it than that. Do you want to know why racism is getting so much publicity in the mainstream media? Why would someone want to divide us through such a thing? The answers are at http://www.subvertednation.net With the economy collapsing and the country falling apart at the seems, the last thing your masters want is unity out of you. Do you want to see America embroiled in race wars, or would you rather know who is doing it and why so that it can be stopped? It’s your choice…don’t ignore help when it’s offered.
Nadra, that was a good article, and I came across it by accident while researching the frequency of racial incidents in schools. Since you asked for thoughts at the end, and I am obviously interested in the subject, let me then first agree with you and “Death, Taxes and Racism” that this is not going away and it is spiritual. Whether you are African-American or not, my first question to you, if I had the opportunity of interviewing you, would be “why are you so interested in race relations?” You are apparently a well-spoken, undoubtedly well educated, obviously intelligent, beautiful and successful black woman. The title of your article also is interesting: “Flurry of Racist Incidents on School Campuses Raises Concerns.” The real deal is that this country of ours has laid down its foundation in racial inequality when it decided to compromise its ideals of freedom for economic security by encouraging the slave trade of Africans. In doing so, the forefathers, most of whom were churchgoers, have knowingly engaged the nation in a racial struggle, which their posterity (you and I and all Americans) will have had to deal with. The founders of this country already knew that this would be the case. They had raised the concerns. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a couple of his letters to friends that slavery was like holding a wolf by its ears;” and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.” They were too cowardly to deal with it then, and just like Attorney General Holder alluded to, white leaders are too cowardly to deal with it today. The second point is this: “Why is this country originally thought to be blessed by God rushing to its economic and political doom?” I believe it is because those who claim the country to have a Christian foundation are not even doing much to rectify the wrongs of the past. They are either passive followers, or active participant in the evil deeds while the Christian God is waiting for them to emulate righteousness, justice and love. That is the spiritual component. And that was my take on this issue.
Hi Nadra,
Your blog came up as I was researching “How to talk with your children about race.” Reading through it has convinced me that it is vital to educate myself even further. My son is eight and there have been incidents at school. They are in 3rd grade – they don’t know enough about their own minds yet to know whether or not they are racist. But they may be coming from households that have either overt issues, or unresolved issues, around race. I became involved because my son shared his confusion and fear when he saw a friend of his being bullied and he was not aware of an adult presence. He felt confused by not knowing what to do and worried that his friend might get hurt. Unfortunately, the kid being bullied is white, the kids that were bullying are black, and all of a sudden I was smack in middle of racial tensions I wasn’t even aware of. We live in Boston, and my son is in public school; there is a history here – not a good one. I was wondering if you might recommend resources and/or programs that address how parents can talk to kids about race. I found one source that says the ages of 5-8 are critical and I would like to find a program that the school could offer to all parents. Clearly the kids are facing the issue; it seems appropriate for the parents to be doing the same.
For starters, I would visit the section of the site called “Race-Conscious Parenting” and click on any links I’ve mentioned there. I know I’ve linked to the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have good resources about kids and race.
After 2 years of constant racial propaganda and insults from the president, white people view racism against blacks as fair game. After all when the president is telling you that your ethnic group is the problem then all bets are off.
Racism will never die – that IS the reality. It is a vile ugly disease spread by adults to their young.
While I see that media may distort details, as well as blow some things out of proportion, it’s virtually a pattern that some white punk terrorizes a minority , as it’s always anti Latino, anti black, the swastika or another anti [insert minority] statements. Blind hate clearly still comes naturally to the devil’s offspring.
These are acts of terror. They’re not simply regular beefs or ‘pranks’, as they’re statements about oppression and violence that target entire demographics.
And why is it always whites chime in with downplays of racist behavior by other whites? In the past, many mainstream whites used to support the KKK.
luxsorian is a good example. He spewed that ‘white people’ are tired of the racism by Obama and therefore ‘justified’ in harassing minorities (he missed the racist past), which sheds light on how long standing, deep and severe racism has been in America. Its current perpetrators have no conscience about lying to others face about who’s really guilty or not.
It’s obvious that they can’t point to any example that would define Obama’s attitude as “racist” against whites. But white Racists are the first to call him that. It’s because they can’t stand seeing a non white President. That alone is a ‘tragedy’ to the racist right, let alone racist.
The same vile ilk that never had any guilt about genocides, slavery or segregation, is today seen grotesquely crying racism wantonly. They’re attempting to change the word’s meaning, to stigmatize it from themselves, which is pretty self delusional, as well as beyond disrespectful. On the other hand, rogues can’t be expected to be respectful, since they’re bad people.
Sorry to keep posting. I meant ‘de-stigmatize’ from themselves.