Ken Berwitz
As regular readers know, I have, for year, put up a series titled “Real Racism”, which exposes instances where people are treated differently in some way – usually in a very negative way – based on their race.
Well, here is an instance of what, for lack of a better description, I will call “Unreal Racism” – i.e. an instance where a racial incident was created out of absolutely nothing.
Last June the University of Delaware had an alumni weekend event. During that event a number of lanterns were installed on campus, with wire loops to hold them in place. At the end of the event, the lanterns were taken down, but several of the wire loops were not – either because someone forgot to do so or they were just left there for the next time lanterns would be put up.
They have sat there for over a quarter of a year, without anyone make anything of them…mainly because there was nothing to make of them.
That\’s a big so-what, right?
Wrong.
Students at theUniversity of Delaware are taking it hard after the discovery that an allegedhate crime was just a misunderstanding. Some students even insist a hate crimestill occurred.
The incident happenedTuesday night, when students thought they found several nooses hanging from atree. Word quickly spread as campus officials swiftly released astatement condemning the foul hate crime. But come morning, police said a shortinvestigation had led them to conclude the “nooses” were really just theremnants of paper lanterns from an event held all the way back in June.
Unperturbed by the truth, students launched an assembly following theincident to speak as though the hate crime really did happen. According to TheNews Journal, a local paper, the assembly was held “to find ways to change thecampus climate” in the wake of the bad atmosphere apparently exposed by afictional hate crime.
“We are here todaybecause we\’re not returning hate with hate,” Black Lives Matter protesterAyanna Gill said Wednesday, according to The News Journal. “But this is not the end.” It\’snot clear what hate Gill was avoiding the return of, since no hate crimehappened.
Oneadministrator said the climate of hate at Delaware was exposed by the merefact he could even believe the alleged hate crime occurred.
Some students flat-outsaid they thought the university and police may be lying to cover up a crime,even though UD police chief Patrick Ogden made a special video explainingexactly how the misunderstanding happened (NOTE: use the link to Blake Neff\’s article to see the video).
Can students at the University of Delaware – which I know to be a very good school – possibly be so bereft of anything better to do that they will make an issue of this?
And can “campus officials” possibly be so bereft of common sense that they would fall all over themselves to condemn something that, oh, maybe five minutes of investigation would have told them was nonexistent?
There you have it. Unreal Racism at its finest. I hope everyone over at the U of D is proud as a peacock for showing such PC-rrific racial sensitivity.
But why stop there?
I say, ban all lanterns. And anything else that would need a hanger of some kind to hold it in place. Stamp out racism!
Oh, wait. Doesn\’t that mean clothes closets too?
Uh….better forget the whole thing.
