Depending on who you are, race issues and racial tensions may be a large part of your world. The Texas pool party that left a 14-year-old girl mentally and physically scarred, Rachel Dolezal’s claims to be an African-American woman, racist Twitter remarks from presidential candidate Donald Trump and now perhaps one of the most horrifying events in recent American history: the Charleston, South Carolina shooting that took place on June 17.
The horrific massacre was committed by 21-year-old Dylann Roof and left nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church dead and nine families devastated. Many news outlets offered mourning hearts no relief, referring to Roof as “mentally unstable,” “young” or “soft-spoken.” This choice of words is representative of the double standard that exists in this country. The media labeled Roof as mentally unstable before he was even in police custody. Racism is not a symptom of mental illness. In fact, violent acts are not typically indicative of mental illness. Statistics show that people who suffer mental illnesses are far more likely to be victims of violent crimes — not perpetrators. Why was Roof also allowed to remain a “boy” when many, such as 18-year-old Mike Brown, were labeled as “grown men?”
These contrasting views have, and are continuing, to cause many Americans, black and white, to cry out. One person who seems to be fed up is President Barack Obama. On June 18, Obama stated, “I have had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like [Charleston] have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.”
While his remarks about gun control in the U.S. just a day after the incident were criticized, it’s his recent remarks made on June 22 that received the most criticism. In an interview on Marc Maron’s podcast, Obama spoke candidly with the comedian about racism in America.
“Racism, we are not cured of it,” Obama said. “And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”
Many were angry and shocked at Obama’s choice of words. However, I think his statements were spot on. This country is at an unparalleled period in history. Technology, specifically social media, has allowed us to connect in ways that we never imagined. Twitter was abuzz as many young adults expressed their frustration about the state of this country and the fact that we’re focusing more on whether Obama’s statement was “politically correct” rather than on the recent tragedies. Surely Obama is not the first president to use the N-word. In fact, the Chicago Sun Times published an article listing presidents throughout our history who openly used the word in a derogatory way. Obama used the term to prove a point.
Kamrie Risku, a sophomore at NC State stated that she saw no wrong with the president’s remarks. “I think President Obama’s use of the N-word is, first of all, within his right and, secondly, was used in a context that is supposed to shock people — those [people] who still do not fully comprehend the horror of the crimes that continuously occur against black people,” she said.
Media outlets and politicians choosing to focus on Obama’s word choice and not his actual message are a problem, again painting a picture of the double standard that exists within this country. We should instead focus on the “overt discrimination” of which he spoke of. Why are we so focused on tattle-telling on our president for saying a “bad word” when we should be focused on making sure that acts like the Charleston shooting never happen again. There’s no need to search for a motive for Roof’s acts. He made it very clear: He wanted to start a race war.
We as a nation need to be more comfortable with having awkward conversations so that we can resolve these issues. Pretending that racism is not alive is not, and will never be, effective. As students, we need to swallow a hard pill and ask ourselves, “Am I contributing to this problem?” or “What can I do to change things?”
We spend our days tweeting about reality TV, sports and the newest dance craze. But many of us are silent about the issues that really matter for the sake of comfort. Many of us are silent for fear of saying the wrong thing. But silence is not the answer. In fact, your silence can be dangerous. I encourage you to engage in a dialogue with someone about the race issues in this country. Go into the conversation with an open mind that doing so can make our campus and our community a better place.