Dear America: Whatever happened to that “post-racial society” you said was coming into existence?
Funny how quickly that Caucasian-created term dissolved into nothingness, like the morning mist, after Barack Obama ascended to the Oval Office. Not only did racial animus increase under Obama (including attacks on the Obamas that were never made on other first families), the country’s racial divide has gotten substantially wider under the leadership (or mismanagement) of Donald Trump.
Suddenly, White supremacists are emboldened to march through important cities like Charlottesville, Virginia, shouting anti-Black and anti-Semitic rhetoric without fear of any real consequences. Suddenly, White nationalists feel free to discharge their firearms into crowds of peaceful protesters, putting lives in peril. Suddenly, White students have the audacity to attack Blacks on school property, in broad daylight, and post it on Snapchat.
Take exhibit A as an example. Police in Virginia are now investigating a group of White athletes after seeing a video shared on Snapchat that showed the Caucasians pinning down Black students and simulating sex while shouting racist slurs at them.
Parents in this Richmond suburb are demanding answers from the leadership at the Short Pump Middle School. Advocate groups want more than police intervention; they want a federal investigation launched into what happened.
One parent described what happened as White players holding down Black kids while “dry humping them” and shouting racist comments.
“What’s up with you Blacks,” one student asks in the video.
Another student grunts, “We gonna f— the black outta these African American children from Uganda.”
Principal Thomas McAuley has tried to extinguish these engulfing racial flames by calling the SnapChat video “appalling, disturbing and inexcusable.” He also said he hopes to put procedures in place to keep this from ever happening again in the future.
“We will include staff, parent, administrator and student representatives in this dialogue,” his letter reads. “Our hope is to use this very unfortunate event as a meaningful learning opportunity.”
The Short Pump Middle School football team has been forced to forfeit the rest of the season as a result of this incident coming to light.
