A deeper examination of the sheer joy of Oklahoma students chanting about hanging n*gg*rs from trees

Money, during a bad economy, doesn't actually disappear, it just moves around into different hands and different accounts. If a whole segment of America all of a sudden doesn't have money because of shifts in the economy, it just means that it has shifted to another group, but please understand—that money still exists—just not in your wallet.

Racism is like money. It changes hands. It shape-shifts and finds itself a new carrier, a new account, a new way to express itself in changing times, but it never actually disappears. Suppressed racism is no less real than money in a savings account, but rest assured, suppressed racism always has a way of telling on itself—sometimes in the most despicable, hurtful, and shocking ways.

Before I dig into why a group of white University of Oklahoma college students from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, clad in tuxedos and ball gowns, so giddily chanted about "hanging n*gg*rs from trees" let me clear—racism is dangerous. It's not funny. It's not just words. It's not kids being kids. It's not playful. This is shit is real and it's dangerous.

Racism is the fundamental dehumanization of an entire ethnic group. READ MORE