Racism is prevalent, should not be ignored

Column by Taylor Shelton

Sometimes I can’t keep myself from talking back. In fact, I think I’m predisposed to it. If you read the Kernel online, you’ll often find my comments on articles – whether they are responses to comments on my own columns, or even my unprovoked criticisms of something written by one of my colleagues, it is hard for me to avoid it. In fact, I find it to be one of the most important roles of someone in my position – to stimulate, and continue, conversations about the issues that are important to each and every one of us.

In light of the Oct. 29 event, I think we need to be having a new conversation. This conversation shouldn’t so much be about Joe Fischer or Hunter Bush and the criminal charges that are being brought against them, but more about any number of individuals who are associated with UK. What makes these individuals important is that, for whatever reason, they fail to see the fault in Fischer and Bush’s actions – a lot of people, as hard as it is to believe, have condoned their actions. Take a gander at the online comments on the Lexington Herald-Leader’s coverage from last week and it won’t take long to see what I’m talking about. Look at the comments on the Kernel articles and you’ll see something a bit different.

You don’t get so many people who call Barack Obama a terrorist Muslim hell-bent on destroying the fabric of American society (although they do exist), but you get something that is equally problematic. What you’ll read is a number of comments from individuals who don’t believe there is any difference in hanging an effigy of a black man, who has become symbolic of our country’s possibilities and hope for a new direction, and the hanging of an effigy of an upper-class white woman who has drawn the ire of citizens across the country for her blasé and disinterested approach to governing and running for the second-highest office in the land.

Disregard the difference in the individuals and realize that of the 4,700 lynchings in our nation’s history, approximately 4,000 instances were blacks being lynched by whites. There is no significant history of women being lynched, or of whites being lynched by non-whites. Very plainly, the facts show that blacks were disproportionately the victims of lynchings at the hands of whites who sought to inflict terror into the hearts of other blacks who might be too ‘uppity’ – a term that has, on more than one occasion, been used by prominent and influential Republican politicians to describe Obama, a man they will soon be calling president. The racial undertones of both the actions and language associated with this act aren’t so discreet when you get down to it.

Regardless of the intent in the effigy hanging, the act showed a gross distortion of the intelligent political discourse that should be commonplace on our campus; instead, we have reduced ourselves to lousy acts of faux-violence that arouse even more damaging racial attitudes that are seemingly (and unfortunately) prevalent in our community. The events on this campus in the past year show us that, despite our best wishes, race is a factor. So for a large cohort of individuals to call ‘double standard’ as soon as racism is evident in order to protect themselves from criticism, is equally a betrayal of thoughtful and respectful discourse on both social and political issues. To ignore the prevalence of racism in our state and on our campus is irresponsible, and should be considered a crime just as much as the burglary, theft and hanging effigy are. Whether you’re black, white, Hispanic, Asian, multiracial, or consider yourself to belong to any other ethnic group, you’re affected by racism – we are all the victims here, and we should all start taking the steps to be part of the solution, too.