Ladies and gentlemen, the kids are not alright. In fact, they’re baby racists perpetuating hateful ideologies and getting away with it. Over the past few days, there have been a couple of incidents where White students decided to publicly express their disdain for Black and Jewish people. One was the
Alabama high school students who posted a video on social media saying they “just need niggers gone” and other horrible things. https://twitter.com/yourrightscamp/status/1103456683253149696 The other incident was the students in California who engaged in underaged drinking,
used their Solo cups to make swastikas and took pictures hailing Hitler. https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1102967506329878528 I’m not at all surprised about this B.S.—these kids are learning how to be bigots from social media, their peers and
their parents. And these days, I’m just not shocked when racist White people do racist stuff. Frankly, I think there are other things to be infuriated by. Like, how these students feel
emboldened to freely post racist videos and pictures on social media and the slap on the wrist they receive as “punishment.” But most importantly, I’m concerned about the
mental and physical well-being of Black, Latinx, Jewish and LGBTQ students who go to school with these kids. How are they supposed to carry on and be productive in spaces with people who clearly harbor hate towards them? I mean, these kids have gone to sports games and been heckled with
racist and homophobic taunts. An 11-year-old Black boy refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in school was ultimately
arrested. Sounds a lot like that
school-to-prison pipeline thing to me. https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1097226454297968640 And if we want to throw in threats of violence and hate crimes, a White student in New York was caught on Snapchat talking about how he wanted to
lynch Black people while in another racially charged bullying incident a student in California assaulted his classmate in
. Neither of these students were charged. In fact, the student who assaulted his classmate was merely transferred to another classroom away from his victim. But this
Black student in Oklahoma who knocked a MAGA hat off of another student’s head is facing criminal charges and people are calling that a hate crime.
Another one bites the school-to-prison pipeline dust. https://twitter.com/Condor_Law/status/1100511471769800704 Meanwhile, to address the situations in Alabama and California, the police are
holding their usual investigations and the students at Spain Park and Newport Harbor High Schools had to attend assemblies to
discuss the racist videos and anti-semitism. Whoop-de-do. https://twitter.com/Multi_American/status/1102759723294588928 Look, I’m not condoning any forms of violence or aggression but I understand students feeling angst or the need to defend themselves when faced with physical, verbal or symbolic racism. And with a
rise in hate crimes in schools, we can probably expect things to get worse before they get better. I honestly don’t know what the remedy will be but I cannot stress enough how much I don’t want your
apologies for being racist or raising racist kids. https://twitter.com/hannahdaffin/status/1102591032368209920 I’m not interested in hearing politicians
condemn racist acts when they have the power to impact education policy linked to diversity, inclusion and cultural competency. https://twitter.com/AsmCottie/status/1102387241333092352 And I’m definitely not interested in hearing people making excuses for lopsided disciplinary practices when it’s a well-known fact that
White students have it easier when it comes to discipline. So here’s what y’all can do. Try your best to raise your kids to be decent human beings by breaking generational cycles of prejudice and racism. Make schools the
safe spaces they were intended to be. Mandate more culturally diverse and rich curricula, thoughtful conflict resolution and develop community partnerships to compensate for where they fall short in resources and professional development. Insist that White students who display signs of aggression and racism face the same punishments that Black kids face and not just the threat of these acts following them for the rest of their lives. https://twitter.com/nikkibamdad/status/1102306574674980864 And when students tell you they’re the
targets of some kind of harassment, believe them and nip the issues in the bud. Parents need to fix this. Schools need to fix this, policy needs to fix this, America needs to fix this!