A Small Tragedy

Friday morning on Mizzou's campus, some ignorant people sprinkled a cotton balls all over the lawn of the Black Culture Center. Their actions were offensive to everyone: not only the black race, but to all Mizzou students, because this is a reflection on all of us.

A couple friends organized a clean-up, and I went with too. But when we got there, someone else had already cleaned up, so we went inside instead to offer our apology. We weren't apologizing on behalf of our race, as some people thought. Sure I'm white, and the people who did this are probably white, but I'm not responsible. I'm apologizing because I'm human, and these people are human, and they are insulting someone based on the color of their skin.

I think it's a tragedy that something like this could occur on a college campus, where I expect to find people who are forward thinkers and diverse global citizens. I guess I assumed too much.

But I think the real tragedy are the reactions of uninvolved people. Too many people were apathetic, too many of my friends said they had better things to do than help clean up. Far too many people found it funny.

I think what I am going to walk away with from this experience is that the difference between actions and words is huge. I grew up with people who sometimes said insulting things about other races; sadly that's just the midwest. But this kind of deliberate actions, rightly classified as a hate crime, is a whole other matter, and is completely inexcusable.

But how is any of it excusable? When do we jump the gap between saying and doing?

UPDATE: Two male students were arrested Wednesday in conjunction with this, and have been suspended from Mizzou. I believe they are being tried for a hate crime.