I have started and trashed three versions of this column, and so I am taking a fourth and final run at it. Race is not something people are supposed to mention unless it is to talk about black victims and white perpetrators. In many cases, the mainstream outlets will contort themselves into yoga positions that don’t even have names yet to avoid situations where the reverse is true. There are outlets, journalists, and columnists who will wrestle with the issue, and of course, there are those outliers who take the opportunity to stoke the fires of conflict and/or generate clicks.
But any time you talk about race, someone, somewhere, probably multiple someones in multiple places will accuse you of being a racist. You might use the wrong word or fail to capitalize a word; it really doesn’t matter. Someone will find some way to make the accusation of “racism” stick. And since there is nothing I can do to avoid that, here we go.
The Post Millennial reports that a disturbing incident occurred Friday on a school playground in Springfield, Ohio. During recess at Kenwood Elementary, black students were rounding up white students and forcing them to say “Black Lives Matter.” The white students who did not capitulate were “chased down and escorted, dragged, or carried to the playground” and coerced into making the statement. Police say that one white student was punched in the head. Ryan Springer and Ashley Henthorne are the parents of a 12-year-old boy who was one of the victims. Springer told WHIO TV in Dayton:
I mean I’m angry as a parent but I understand they are children. It’s not okay to hate anybody because of their skin color, or their gender or sexual orientation, or anything like that. Nobody should be hating anybody,” Springer said, adding that there are things that children shouldn’t have to worry about, “they should just be worried about being children. Where was the school staff when all of this was taking place? And why? Why did it get so far?
Henthorne added, “I kept asking him all weekend, are you OK? And he kept saying, ‘yeah, I’m just tired.’ And then when I got the phone call Monday about it, I was like, ‘that explained a lot.’” The boy does not want to return to school. The district issued a statement to WHIO:
The Springfield City School District is committed to providing our students with a safe learning environment, where they look forward to attending every day. The District is aware of a situation that occurred at Kenwood Elementary. We are working closely with the Springfield Police Division on this matter to ensure that we maintain that safe environment. Because this is now a police matter, no additional information is available at this time.
Earlier in the month, video surfaced of two older black males viciously beating a nine-year-old white girl on a school bus in Florida. The child sustained blows to the face, head, and neck and reportedly suffered a concussion. Criminal charges have been filed. WUSA 9 is reporting that in January in Ft. Belvoir, Va., a black girl grabbed a 12-year-old white boy by the mouth, struck him, and gripped him by the throat. The boy’s mother said he came home crying with marks on his throat. The girl was suspended, and the mother secured a protective order from the judge.
In the two above incidents, we do not know what happened before the attacks. Maybe these were acts of racial violence or bullying or there were racial slurs, either overt or perceived. But suppose racial slurs were involved? Does that mean that white students at Auburn University who were offended by the seven-page list of white racial slurs that was circulating around campus have the right to resort to violence? We could be on the verge of setting some very dangerous social trends here.
I do not deny that racism and oppression are parts of American history and that these things occur today. But I wasn’t raised to be a racist, and I’m not one now. Some people will have none of that. They will assert that by the virtue of my race, gender, and age, I am inherently racist. But forcing me to declare myself to be something I am not or confess to sins I did not commit is no way to win my fealty. Mao did that. Stalin did that, and so did Pol Pot. If that is their tactic of choice, they are in horrific company. And the parents of the children involved in the three incidents mentioned above have the right to be concerned about their children’s safety.
Sooner or later, people are going to get sick of hearing how awful they are and decide that they are done with the whole thing. The question is, what comes after that? Will people just start checking out, or will there be serious widespread pushback? And what would that look like?
So what do we do? Occasionally people talk about a national divorce of some kind. But how would we draw the lines? Who will be the arbiter of who goes where? I have known black, Hispanic, and Asian people who were friends and who I would love to have as neighbors. And I have known white people who I would love to refer to a realtor who specializes in properties in Antarctica. Is there a constructive solution to all of this or are we doomed to repeat the same news cycle? As of right now, I am going to take the coward’s way out and say, “I don’t know.”
One thing I did realize is that this is not something one person can address in a single column or even a series of columns. Something like this requires a discussion. To that end, I will be a guest on an upcoming episode of Just Listen Yourself With Kira Davis. You can find her podcast here with links to the platform of your choice. Kira is an Editor-at-large over at Red State and a freelance writer and author. We’re still hammering out a date, and I will keep you posted, but in the meantime, give the podcast a listen and take some time to read her work at Red State and her book. I can’t promise you we will solve the problem, but we may get closer to finding a solution.
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