By NewsOne
White students at Colorado State University should be in hot water but they are not over a disgusting photo they posted of themselves in blackface. Now they are being defended by the school.
Tay Anderson, who is running for Denver School Board At-Large, posted on his Facebook, “CSU Students wearing BLACK FACE! We should be outraged!!!!!!”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2404847939623338&set=a.306513049456848&type=3
CSU President Joyce McConnell is arguing the students did not violate any school policies in a long email to the Denver Post, which read in part, “Because of the long and ugly history of blackface in America, this photo has caused a great deal of pain to members of our community. We have heard from many of you — and we hear you. Moreover, we respect your voices. We know that images like this one — whether consciously racist or not — can perpetuate deliberate racism and create a climate that feels deeply hostile.”
She conceded that the racist pic contradicts the school’s “principles of community.” However, her solution is for campus leaders to help “educate” about race, racial history and identity. Clearly, there is no need to educate if there isn’t a punishment.
She also added, “CSU is an educational institution committed to respecting every member of our community and to facilitating discussions that can promote honesty, learning, and healing. We are all here at CSU to learn, and we believe that this can be a powerful learning moment that leads to healing and reconciliation. We urge every member of our community to listen, and to hear, all the voices that make up this wonderful, diverse campus family so we can move forward together, stronger than ever.”
McConnell closed with, “We also affirm that personal social media accounts are not under our jurisdiction.”
The story seems quite ironic considering high-ranking University of Alabama faculty member overseeing student affairs resigned after he came under scrutiny for a series of truthful tweets he previously posted about slavery, racism and American history. James R. Riley, the University of Alabama’s now-former assistant vice president and dean of students, abruptly quit, according to the school newspaper, the Crimson White. He had only worked there for seven months.
One tweet that was nearly two years old said that the American flag “represents a systemic history of racism for my people. Police are a part of that system. Is it that hard to see the correlation?”
That assertion, of course, is not far-fetched and has been backed up plenty of times by myriad reliable sources not named James R. Riley.
Another tweet, also from 2017, addressed white privilege and the myth of reverse racism.
“I’m baffled about how the first thing white people say is, ‘That’s not racist!’ when they can’t even experience racism,” he tweeted in October of that year. “You have 0 opinion!”
An educator appears to be punished for speaking the truth while students are not punished for clear racism.
This is America.
This article originally appeared on NewsOne.