Racism is thriving and we need to talk about it

Talking about racism will continue to be uncomfortable for those who do not experience it until we talk about it, and talk about it, and talk about it some more.

By its very nature, racism is vile and ugly, a pervasive corruption that tarnishes everything it touches.

So when racism appears in our schools - in whatever form - it must be confronted directly, not set aside as unfortunate incidents or one-time events.

Early in 2021, the Bluffton High School community got a harsh reminder, as if it needed one, that racism was alive and well within its walls. A Snapchat photo taken by a white student spread on social media. The photo of three Black students was labeled with the words “f------ monkeys.”

After the photo appeared, Beaufort County School District Superintendent Frank Rodriguez announced the district would form a task force to tackle racism and said the student who took the photo faced disciplinary action.

But many months later, three Black Beaufort County school board members are frustrated at a task force, known as the Student Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion, that they believe appears to be nothing more than window dressing.

In interviews with our reporter, they called out the group for a lack of transparency, diversity of opinion and, perhaps most importantly, its failure to address the photo that brought them together.

Board member Melvin Campbell called it “a political move. (Rodriguez is) projecting what appears to be an initiative.”

At a recent school board meeting, Lakinsha Swinton, the administrator in charge of the task force, told the board that the students met early this summer and defined what diversity meant to them, talked about their experiences, took photos with Rodriguez and received certificates of appreciation.

But did the group ever actually discuss the photo labeled “f------ monkeys?”

No.

The task force’s membership, board member Earl Campbell argued, also didn’t actually include the type of students who might benefit most from it. “I’m looking for the other students. The students who could have been responsible for some of the things that generated this in the first place,” he told The Island Packet.

“Once you can stomach it, that (racism) does exist, you can start working to change that,” fellow board member Will Smith said.

Smith is right.

Racism is not a one off. It is thriving and we have to admit it.

School districts and corporations can form diversity task forces and bandy about the terms diversity, equity and inclusion all day long, but until these conversations happen racism isn’t going anywhere.

Three days after Rodriguez announced the creation of the task force, students from May River High School spray painted Nazi swastikas and several racial slurs on the construction site of an unfinished Hardeeville hotel.

They included “monkey” written on an unfinished elevator shaft. On the roof, “white power” and the N-word were written in orange spray paint.

As punishment, those students were required to write a three-page essay about hate crimes, pay $1,083 in restitution, and do 50 hours of community service.

DId those punishments have any long-lasting effects? Only those students know what is in their hearts and minds.

What we do know is that Beaufort County and every other school district in South Carolina must accept the challenge not only to admit racism exists, but to embrace being antiracist.

“No one is born racist or antiracist; these result from the choices we make,” the National Museum of African American History & Culture notes on its website.

What schools must do is demonstrate to our children that those choices must be made each and every day.

The task force was a first step, but we urge Beaufort County schools to make the group’s mission clear to the public, find a way to measure its progress, and challenge the beliefs of students like the one who posted that original image.

Other school districts should put themselves in Beaufort County’s position and consider their own responses to the racism coming from within.

How will they respond the next time someone scrawls the N-word on a desk, appears at a party in black face or posts a hate-filled video?

Talk about racism now.

This story was originally published September 22, 2021 at 1:10 PM.