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In recent weeks I’ve engaged in dialogue on this page (and others) about issues that some would consider racially sensitive, but I think of as current events.  If you’re a frequent visitor to this site, you know that I’ll never characterize myself as being a racially sensitive individual.  Candidates for president and the leadership vacuum in Greater Cleveland are two of the recent topics involving race that have piqued my interest, and I’ve written about them with my usual lack of contrived political correctness.

Regarding the above referenced posts, I received these emails:

• “You know whats wrong with you racist bigots, everything is based on your own viewpoint.  Of course you think Obama should be criticized.  He scares you.  When he wins well show you how the real world works.”

Which was somewhat amusing because it clearly contrasted with this one received the same day:

• “What are you wasting your time for on the black community in Cleveland?  It’s school desegregation, Mike White and Jackson who are killing this city.”

Normally, I get a few of these love notes each week and I accept them with pleasure because it indicates to me that people out there are reading my posts and reacting - and that’s really what this page and The Silent Majority are all about.  I hadn’t given either of these emails much thought until this morning when I happened to catch the tail end of a story on CNN Headline News’ Robin and Company about recent “racist parties” on college campuses.

The story has been fomenting in the news for the last few weeks.  Here’s the lead from the Miami Herald’s version of the AP print story from a few weeks ago:

White students at Tarleton State University in Texas hold a party in which they dress in gang gear and drink malt liquor from paper bags. A white Clemson University student attends a bash in blackface during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. A fraternity at Johns Hopkins University invites partygoers to wear ‘’bling bling'’ grills, or shiny metal caps on their teeth.

At the time of my original quick reading of the story, I thought the Clemson student’s behavior was offensive.  It demonstrated the latent realities of racial insensitivity that our society continues to work to overcome.  The balance of the story did little to elicit much emotion for me other than the Clemson student’s blackface actions appeared isolated and that it was likely that the story’s attention would dissuade others from pulling an Al Jolson at their next frat party.

I tell you this because when I saw the story this morning on TV, my reaction was actually much different.  The CNN story focused heavily on the NAACP’s aversion to all of the students’ actions and characterized them as intolerable - so much so that they are implementing a “Campaign to End Campus Racism“. My position on the Clemson student didn’t change - he was wrong.  But what about all of those other students who dressed up like gang bangers and thugs that black youth culture (and thus American popular culture) have embraced. 

Was it wrong for them to behave and act like the people they (and many young Americans - regardless of race - unfortunately idolize) see on MTV?  How are these parties different than the ones that seem to occur regularly in neighborhoods all over Cleveland every weekend?

What’s the difference?

The people at the urban-themed parties in an inner city neighborhood near you are frequented by African Americans.  The racism exists when a group of exclusively white people behave in a way that’s imitative of blacks.  It would seem that the NAACP is creating a double standard by claiming Hip Hop and Rap as their’s alone.  How racist is that?

Don’t get me wrong, I have no level of tolerance for Hip Hop culture.  Like my grandparents generation’s portrayal of rock ‘n’ roll as devil music, I think of rap as the next step on the downward staircase of our society.  Lyrics paired with loud bass music describing “head down, ass up” behavior holds nothing I find redeeming.  Frankly why black (or white) youths find it worthy of their attention baffles me.  But nonetheless it is “popular”.

The NAACP needs to recognize that it’s the popularity of this culture that the college students in question were emulating.  Perhaps what’s really offensive is the exclusivity of the events at which these behaviors occurred.  And if that’s the case, then that’s what the NAACP should be concerned about.