America’s Not A Post-Racial Land After All

Do you expect to find this in the library?

What is going on in San Diego?

Incidents at the University of California San Diego campus provide the latest example that America has not entered the post-racial era many claimed was ushered in by President Obama’s election.

On February 15, the middle of Black History Month, students held the Compton Cookout party off campus. Invitations, sent via Facebook and copied to many sites, echoed similarly-themed “ghetto parties” held at other colleges, with guidelines attendees were expected to follow:

For guys: I expect all males to be rockin Jersey’s, stuntin’ up in ya White T (XXXL smallest size acceptable), anything FUBU, Ecko, Rockawear, High/low top Jordans or Dunks, Chains, Jorts, stunner shades, 59 50 hats, Tats, etc.

For girls: For those of you who are unfamiliar with ghetto chicks-Ghetto chicks usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes – they consider Baby Phat to be high class and expensive couture. They also have short, nappy hair, and usually wear cheap weave, usually in bad colors, such as purple or bright red. They look and act similar to Shenaynay, and speak very loudly, while rolling their neck, and waving their finger in your face. Ghetto chicks have a very limited vocabulary, and attempt to make up for it, by forming new words, such as “constipulated”, or simply cursing persistently, or using other types of vulgarities, and making noises, such as “hmmg!”, or smacking their lips, and making other angry noises,grunts, and faces. The objective is for all you lovely ladies to look, act, and essentially take on these “respectable” qualities throughout the day.

Needless to say, many people, including the black students who comprise 2 percent of the school’s enrollment, were offended. Despite this being a private function, university officials had to answer for the Cookout.

A campus television show responded by making fun of the situation. While no clips have surfaced, protestors were allegedly called “ungrateful, ghetto and dumb niggers.” The students who made the comments are affiliated with The Koala, a campus “humor magazine” with a history of being racist, although the editors call it an edgy celebration of freedom of speech.

Then the tension was raised to another level when a noose was found in a school library.

And now a KKK hood has been discovered atop a campus statue. The local district attorney and FBI have been consulted as the perpetrator may be charged with a hate crime. (If you have any information, please send it to detective@ucsd.edu).

It would be easy to lay the blame for these events on white racists. But at least two of the events were perpetrated by people of color, proving that ignorance comes in all shades.

Jiggaboo Jones, a black comic, has taken credit for the Compton Cookout, claiming he organized it to help promote an upcoming DVD. Furthermore, in an interview with the right wing World Net Daily that could have been a deleted scene from Bamboozled, Jones said he’s been throwing these parties since 2005 and usually calls them Nigger Nights, but changed it in this case to avoid controversy.

A student, whose hasn’t been publicly identified but claims to be a minority, accepted responsibility for the noose. She gave an incredulous explanation of playing with a rope with a friend when she “innocently marveled at his ability to tie a noose” and subsequently carried the noose with her to the library, where she hung it by her desk and forgot to take it when she left. She has been suspended.

When a person thinks a noose is something to play with, it is time to give serious thought to how the history of racism is communicated to youth.

I think focusing only on positive moments — Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the success of the Montgomery bus boycott – and minimizing Emmitt Till, COINTELPRO, the Scottsboro 9, Birth Of A Nation, and other examples of the brutality black people have faced can induce historical amnesia to the point that young people don’t understand why the Compton Cookout may not have been a good idea.