Some of you Negroes won't be thrilled about this post, but every now and then we have to get real with each other and have a serious talk about some of the racial issues facing our country.So there has been an epidemic of young white college students co-opting black culture in a mostly negative way. They participate in what they consider stereotypical black behavior, and they more often or not imitate or mimic the worst part of our culture.
In most cases this type of behavior is rooted in racism and ignorance. Please don't ask me how I can tell the difference between what is racist and what is not. Let's just say many years of being black on this planet has given me a unique racismdar. (Not a real word, I just made it up.)
There are incidents that are easy to define. This one, this one, and this one come to mind. ( Memo to white college kids:Dropping the n word is never good when you try to use it while wearing your blackface.) My racismdar says that the examples I linked were more out of what we now define as racism than ignorance. And all the students who participated in those incidents should be forced to pick up a book and read about the history of this country.
There are other cases, though, that are not so easy to define. Take, for instance, a recent incident that took place not too far from here in Philadelphia where I reside, at a wonderful institution of higher learning called Albright College.
Here are the details:
"Albright College in Pennsylvania has suspended two students after a blackface video mocking the Black Lives Matter movement went viral.
The video, which was uploaded to one of the girls’ Snapchat accounts, shows a girl named as Carly Dickinson wearing blackface makeup.
She calls herself Karlisha and mocks the movement throughout the video. Halfway through, she is seen with padding stuffed down her pants and twerking.
The other suspended student is understood to have recorded the offensive video.
The students were asked to leave the Pennsylvania campus immediately and an investigation is ongoing. Albright, a private college, recently received an award for its diversity.
Poor Carly has made a bad decision, and it might cost her in the long run. It has already cost her time in school, and I suspect that things could go downhill for her from here.
Now here is the thing- and this is where some of you black folks might come at me-most of you know that I abhor censorship, and so even in the cases of clear racism as some of the examples above, I would not have banished the students involved from the rest of the student population. Expose them? Yes. Debate them? Yes. But expulsion, IMHO, seems a bit much.
But back to Carly Dickinson. I know a little bit about this case, because I have some inside information from some very good sources.
First, the other young lady who was filming "Karlisha's" Negro impersonation was black. Second, by all accounts, she (Carly Dickinson ) was dating (or has dated) an African American young man, and she was living in the most diverse dorm on campus.
Now all of this doesn't mean that somewhere deep in her heart she doesn't have a deep-seated hatred for black folks. (Slave owners raped their slaves and even had children with them.) But my racismdar is just not going up over this one.
Sadly, I am afraid that the good folks at Albright College might have overreacted here. I know that some of the students there are angry, but sometimes you just have to hold the reins and say, let's all step back and engage each other.
"For Niani Marz, a video featuring an Albright College student wearing blackface was not a joke to be ignored or overlooked.
Marz, an Albright senior from Brooklyn, N.Y., was one of many students who attended a campus forum Friday to discuss the video. She wore a sign on her chest that read: "There is nothing funny about the color of my skin."
"I am offended," she said, "I am hurt. It hurts that this happened on our beautiful, diverse campus."
Niani, you should be hurt, but you should be hurt because Carly Dickinson will no longer be on campus to tell you what the hell she was thinking.
*Pic from wikipedia.org.
She calls herself Karlisha and mocks the movement throughout the video. Halfway through, she is seen with padding stuffed down her pants and twerking.
The other suspended student is understood to have recorded the offensive video.
The students were asked to leave the Pennsylvania campus immediately and an investigation is ongoing. Albright, a private college, recently received an award for its diversity.
“As we continue to investigate the matter, we have learned that multiple students of multiple races were involved. We will continue to review the facts of the matter so that the most appropriate sanctions for those who took part can be determined,” the college announced on Facebook."
Poor Carly has made a bad decision, and it might cost her in the long run. It has already cost her time in school, and I suspect that things could go downhill for her from here.
Now here is the thing- and this is where some of you black folks might come at me-most of you know that I abhor censorship, and so even in the cases of clear racism as some of the examples above, I would not have banished the students involved from the rest of the student population. Expose them? Yes. Debate them? Yes. But expulsion, IMHO, seems a bit much.
But back to Carly Dickinson. I know a little bit about this case, because I have some inside information from some very good sources.
First, the other young lady who was filming "Karlisha's" Negro impersonation was black. Second, by all accounts, she (Carly Dickinson ) was dating (or has dated) an African American young man, and she was living in the most diverse dorm on campus.
Now all of this doesn't mean that somewhere deep in her heart she doesn't have a deep-seated hatred for black folks. (Slave owners raped their slaves and even had children with them.) But my racismdar is just not going up over this one.
Sadly, I am afraid that the good folks at Albright College might have overreacted here. I know that some of the students there are angry, but sometimes you just have to hold the reins and say, let's all step back and engage each other.
"For Niani Marz, a video featuring an Albright College student wearing blackface was not a joke to be ignored or overlooked.
Marz, an Albright senior from Brooklyn, N.Y., was one of many students who attended a campus forum Friday to discuss the video. She wore a sign on her chest that read: "There is nothing funny about the color of my skin."
"I am offended," she said, "I am hurt. It hurts that this happened on our beautiful, diverse campus."
Niani, you should be hurt, but you should be hurt because Carly Dickinson will no longer be on campus to tell you what the hell she was thinking.
*Pic from wikipedia.org.
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