I’m sure many of you saw Lt. General Jay Silvieri’s moving speech. The doors of 5 black cadets were painted with racist graffiti at the Air Force Academy, and he used the opportunity to address the students about how this behavior was intolerable.
The only problem? It was a hoax perpetrated by one of those 5 black cadets. Apparently, he was in trouble and thought of abusing our racial sensitivities to create a distraction. Instead of accepting individual responsibility, he played on our group insecurities. Shame on him.
But he’s not the only one. There was a somewhat similar situation that unfolded at Kansas State University. Apparently, as something of a Halloween prank, a young black man wrote racist graffiti all over his vehicle and left hanging nooses on trees. This caused a storm of outrage among the campus community. And now, they have to confront the fact that this was all a joke.
Why do these incidents bother me so much? Well, because it makes it very difficult to judge how much overt racism still exists. Acts like these are prime examples to the public that racist attitudes may still prevail. But when they are fake and used to exploit people, it pisses us off. The Black Student Union at Kansas State actually petitioned the police to charge the offender with a crime. Law enforcement declined.
It also pisses off white people. Lt. Silvieri gave a great speech, but implicit in that speech was the notion that those racist attitudes did indeed exist among the cadets. By basing his moral sermon upon a lie, it dramatically deflates the impact, and can even lead to a backlash. White people are sensitive to accusations of racism, and to manipulate people with these hoaxes is terribly damaging to race relations.
What is also damaging about these events is that it makes it virtually impossible to know when something is real or staged. For example, the door at Lebron James’s house was recently spray-painted with racist graffiti. This caused an uproar of sorts in the media, and James himself lamented that racism still affected black Americans.
But what if that was fake too? How can we know? This distrust is damaging us. As a centrist white person, I have to walk the line between compassion for racial injustice and a simple need to know the truth before coming to conclusions. This is the only philosophy which I can employ that I find acceptable within which to live my life.
And I will end with a sentiment that may surprise some of you. I want these type of events to be fake. If they are real, then that means overt racism is still a problem in our society. It means people still cling to the hateful ideas that poison society. So when I see racist graffiti intended to scare minorities, I would definitely prefer that it were staged. Then at least I know this is one less incident of that hateful ideology rearing its ugly head.