Racism

As someone from South Carolina, which is nearly 30% black, it's hard to imagine being from a state that is 97% white. Then again, I don't suppose the size of a racial minority says too much about the inclusivity it will find. In fact, greater numbers can probably impede assimilation to the whole and led to the formation of a separate community. Honestly, I think it's fair to say that most white and black South Carolinians interact primarily with white and black persons, respectively. Is this such a bad thing? Well... maybe it's not a good thing. I mean, personally I enjoy hanging out with international or non-white American friends.  I think it's good to get outside your comfort zone and challenge your world views and have meaningful interactions with those from different backgrounds. But I'm not out to force some diversity on everyone's interpersonal relationships. People may naturally tend to drift towards those they consider most similar, and who am I to try and tell everyone they can't have their best friends and significant others be of the same ethnicity?

On the topic of the n-word, I'm not sure how much I have to say. It's one of those arguments that's been going on for so long and has so often devolved into such nonsense that I've become pretty apathetic towards it. On one hand, a single word can only have as much power as you choose to give it--I think that's the whole idea of re-appropriating the word. Of course that doesn't mean there aren't certain words you should be sensitive enough to avoid using, sure, and it's not illegitimate to be upset by the use of hateful language. But the whole "nigga" versus "nigger" distinction is so vague and pointless to me; all that's changed is the pronunciation. AAVE is largely non-rhotic, so the difference isn't more significant than between "better" and "betta", or "after" and "afta."

And as our good friend Huey (in reference to a controversy surrounding the n-word) wonders above: when making these arbitrary standards, who really gets to decide when a word is and isn't acceptable to use? Who gets that right? How can you tell people they can't use a word because it offends you, while you continue to use it in spite of other black people  (i.e. Oprah, the NAACP) having made it perfectly clear they find the word just as despicable when you use it? How is that fair or logical? That being said, I don't understand, nor will I ever understand, the white people who feel personally victimized by the fact that they don't "get" to say the word. Is the status-quo hypocritical? Sure. Is not being able to address random black guys on the street as "nigga" impairing your quality of life? Probably not. So get over it.

As for the whole SAE video... yeah, sadly there's really nothing shocking about it. It's pretty damn racist, but nothing new when it comes to southern fraternities. It's probably only fair to acknowledge that none of these boys, in all likelihood, endorse lynching. Not saying much, I know. It isn't an excuse to say they're normal college guys being idiots, falling into mob mentality, thoughtlessly singing a racist chant that seems relatively harmless within the particularly insulating community of which they're a part. They should face consequences for their actions, starting with the ridicule of their peers and the national fraternity. A public university expelling the students may a little troubling in terms of freedom of speech, but we can always ignore those wider implications for the sake of conveniency.