the black panthers were actually fighting for 3 gallons of vodka

I really like my school, and the people in my grade. This wasn’t always true, but this year I started to feel the inevitable effects 7 years of your life spent, 7 hours a day, with the same group of people. I talk to those I haven’t before, I find myself learning things about my peers which have never been offered to me in the past. It’s that senior year warm and fuzzy feeling, which may actually just be a product of sleep deprivation and the near euphoric realization that I won’t have to be in this building everyday at 8:15 AM next year. It makes me very comfortable, like those around me are almost idealized into flawless human beings, the type I can depend on to share their notes or an extra pencil. It also makes me comfortable in the sense that I often find myself wearing pajamas to my very public high school. Either way, maybe that’s why it’s particularly jarring and uncomfortable when our friends just miss the point, and do something racist.

Before I begin, here’s a couple important notes. First, I do recognize I am being extremely critical. This accusatory tone is not what guides my daily interactions with my classmates, and one of the reasons I am taking such a tone in this writing is that I am quite confident Lukas Schwab will be the only one to read it. His feelings won’t be hurt, he won’t be offended, and who cares what that joker thinks anyways. However, that is not to disregard the importance of the situation, and not to imply that things like this should go unaddressed. Second, I do not mean at any point to imply these girls are bad people. They are nice people. I know one of them well, and I really like her as a person. I do not want this to be seen as an attack, for the actions of the group is a result of misinformation, not malice. But ignorance can be racism, even if it doesn’t have vicious roots, and we should get in the habit of talking about these things.

With that overdramatic warning, here’s my (attempted) unbiased recollection of the facts. A large group of people in my grade are a part of a (secret? who cares, everyone knows and makes fun of them for it) scavenger hunt group where they are divided into teams and have to perform tasks like sniffing flour pretending that it’s cocaine, or taking a selfie with a stranger. The team to either complete all the tasks first or have one of their members arrested wins the prize of 3 gallons of alcohol. Now, this whole concept is ridiculous on a variety of levels I do not have the time or passion to explore, but teens will be teens, I guess. My attention was caught one team posted a picture of themselves wearing all black and menacing looks, with the caption “Black Panthers running the streets”.

So, this isn’t that bad. I’m sure no black kids saw this and cried themselves to sleep tonight. I’m not suddenly going to have to sit in the back of the bus tomorrow morning. I checked, and all three Reconstruction Amendments are still included in the Constitution. No serious damage done. However, it is ignorant and insensitive, and when these scary adjectives meet each other around a race issue, it usually indicates racism.

It’s comparing the “rebellious” antics of upper middle class privileged white girls to a history of minorities facing violent opposition fighting for their rights to be socially and politically accepted in this country. True, the Panthers were less innocent than MLK’s famous preaching of nonviolence, but their goal was shared. Facing threats of lynching, government harassment, economic punishment and overall aggression from their communities, being a Panther meant risking your safety to fight for Civil Rights. People were beaten and killed for this cause. Houses burned down, families thrown into poverty, raids and lynchings with no judicial response; all risks taken by those who protested for equality. This is all dramatic, but that’s the point. This movement was not a joke, it’s not something to make light of, it was crucial in the progress of Civil Rights. There is a certain level of respect that should be given to this cause which is inherently lacking in the post.

On top of that, the cause they were fighting for is not yet achieved. Racism is alive and well, showing that the concept of equality which drove activists to risk their lives to defend is not yet a reality. I’ll spare you the rant on unequal opportunity and de facto segregation, but the bottom line is, racism is a given. It might not be for you, because you have never experienced it, but it is a gigantic stain on your country and community that you do not often see. This shouldn’t make you feel bad, but it should make you want to be more aware. The racial equality which the Panthers stood for is not a reality, and therefore the mission statement of their protests should be respected and still fought for today. It’s just insensitive to completely disregard the importance and relevance of the Black Panther cause and sum it all up as beanies and running around at night. I hope this simplification and misrepresentation of the cause is a result of lacking education and not apathy.

Another reason why this bothers me is the issue of cultural appropriation. The Civil Rights Movement shaped black culture. It defines black identity and black social and political standing. The racism and racial unity experienced by a black person shapes the culture, so to take an aspect of this cultures, to grossly warp and devalue it’s significance, and wear it as your own fun accessory is appropriation. It’s like using the N-word or twerking. It is not your cultural identity or property, you do not understand it’s cultural and historical significance, so wearing it jokingly should make you uncomfortable. It definitely makes me uncomfortable.

A bit earlier in this I wrote a cautionary, covering my bases, “I’m not actually this bitchy” pretext. I included this because, as I said, this particular situation isn’t going to make too many harmful waves. I want to end by contradicting that wishy washy paragraph. Situations differ in severity, but the underlying cause that connects every action like this is ignorance. That ignorance produces this neoracism, which is easily excused or ignored because it is not done spitefully. However, it is still racism. It still must be recognized, and hopefully addressed, if there is any hope of attempting to end the patterns which produce it. I don’t think people should be afraid of appearing overly PC or sensitive, as I initially was, because making a habit of exposing the cause of these actions and thoughts is crucial to being comfortable in our communities and socially and politically respected by our society. It’s just an Instagram post, and who really cares, but the biggest danger is not in letting these girls continue their lives thinking the post was harmless. The real danger is accepting and internalizing these acts of micro-aggression and perpetuating modern racism.