The confederate battle flag on the hat? :shudder: No self-respecting white racist would be caught dead in such a ridiculous get-up.
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At least they aren’t history professors. Now that would be awkward AF.
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Imagine all the white people who would still have a job and a decent reputation if they had paid me a meager $200 fee for consultation.
“Joey B., do you think I should call the cops on that black family at the park?”
No, don’t do it.
“Joey B., I know I’m a college professor and really ought to KNOW FUCKING BETTER, but I was thinking about dressing as a confederate soldier with a noose at a party. Do you think this is a good idea?”
No, don’t do it.
Think of how much better the world would be, and how many of my bills I could pay…
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How wildly out of touch do you have to be to not realize how insane this is?
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…we are deeply sorry to everyone who is rightfully hurt and offended by these images.
Could anyone be wrongfully hurt and offended? Is he saying allies and empaths aren’t allowed to be hurt and offended?
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You would think that a college professor would know how to use commas to clarify what an adverb is modifying. LOL /pedant
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…or you could argue that a LOT has happened in the world, especially w/r/t racial awareness, etc in the past 7 years, and perhaps people’s views and actions have changed drastically already based on other this, even without punishment?
Unless they grew up on mars, every white person has some bits of racism or ignorance cooked into them at some level, and every half-decent person has unlearned some of it at some point. Some people did it later in life than others. Does this mean every person should have job loss and eternal public internet shaming hanging over their head for the last racist thing they did? I’d hope not, otherwise it doesn’t really give people who aren’t avowed white supremacists any incentive to improve themselves or empathize with a progressive movement at all.
For all this, there’s a ton of questions brought up by this article that it doesn’t address at all: why did these photos sit around for 7 years? Why did they come out now? Why is this woman being grouped in with these people despite not wearing a costume or bringing a prop? I’ll bet there’s more to this story (and perhaps some reflects even more poorly on these people), but I doubt we’ll hear the rest on here or CNN.
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I never said that? But I don’t see why we have to ignore facts… or straight up manufacture them, like saying it was a group shot; the photo in the article is pretty clearly a composite of two candid photos.
If somebody says Hitler killed 12 billion people, are you an Hitler apologist for saying it was 12 million? There’s plenty in their actions to be upset about, so why make stuff up? Thanks for elevating the discourse.
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Came here to say this, but knew in my heart it was already said.
Just to be clear, your point is that having consequences for racist actions dis-incentivizes people from changing their racist actions? Whereas giving a free pass on all past racist actions incentivizes them to change?
We as a society have already tried white-washing and overlooking past racist actions in the name of moving forward to an obscene degree. All its done is perpetuate those racist actions.
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But the precious feelings of racists! /s
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Mw mm b mm mm mm mm wb mw mm mm mm mm m MN wwv
A lot has happened, sure, but not that much…
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Thanks for giving me the chance to clarify. No, I’m not saying that consequences = bad. I’m saying that delaying those consequences for 7 years, and not taking into account anything that these people might have done in the intervening 7 years is bad.
When people from the middle/slightly-more-conservative part of the political spectrum look at stuff like this, and see people losing jobs/etc for a costume they wore a long time ago, do you think it encourages them to look at their own actions and think “Well, I should change.” Or does it make them look at their own actions and say “This is a complete overreaction to something I might have done. These people are wrong to apologize, and I’m going to listen to Charlie Kirk.”
I’m not saying that what these people did was okay and they shouldn’t receive any discipline, just that we have VERY little information aside from a photo and a formal apology and there is zero nuance in anything here.
It’s just photographic evidence that they publicly dressed in racist outfits, it’s not like they did anything bad.
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Then no one should EVER be held accountable for their actions, because they’ll just double down. /s
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We’re really not playing “*Won’t somebody think of the racists?”, are we? We are?
Here’s the thing: these are educators at a university with 23% Black students. Your concern is focused on the wrong people. Are you telling me that these folks have learned so much in the last 7 years that they now treat all students equally? Not a chance. Considering that there is measurable bias among educators who don’t celebrate the Confederacy, slavery, and lynching at parties, I find it very difficult to believe these fine people have swung that far the other way.
All of those questions can be answered with two words: white supremacy. That’s why no one made a big deal of it at the time; why it hasn’t been elevated to a serious level before; and why it wasn’t taken seriously until there was a public outcry.
In the context of “we shouldn’t hold Nazis accountable for the Holocaust - that was half a century ago and they learned their lesson” - yes, those are the words of an apologist.
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Yes, actually I do. People rarely respond to social consequences (from past or present actions) by admitting they’re wrong. But they certainly do look around and see that if something will get them fired, there not about to do that. I do think these sort of consequences positively change people’s behavior regardless of whether they’re resentful of those consequences.
And back to the obvious point, lack of consequences for past actions (usually with an argument of avoiding resentment) has been tried over and over and over and over and over again, and we know unequivocally that that doesn’t work
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More and more, certain people seem totally unafraid to come right out with naked racism.
No fear, no attempt to hide it or even downplay it. These will hem and haw now of course that they have been found out and try to distance themselves from their own acts.
But the fact they thought this was a fun idea and even took pictures and posted them tells you far more than is comfortable about their real attitudes.
(Old white male here. I didn’t used to think racism was as deep or prevalent as it obviously is and I do apologize for the blinders, I had. Black lives must matter or we have utterly failed.)
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