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In today’s episode of Are…Are The whites OK? a rural and overwhelmingly white New York town has reminded us how commonplace blatant racism is in predominately white spaces where the inhabitants of those spaces are left to their own devices.
It’s the kind of environment where high school students can organize “Gangsta Night” and no one sees a problem. Well, no one who isn’t Black, anyway.
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According to the New York Times, months ago, at Windsor Central High School in Windsor, New York, white students organized a themed event at a basketball game where they dressed as Crips and the Bloods complete with accessories that allowed them to be walking Black stereotypes without a thought in their head about the people they were caricaturing.
They may have been trying to imitate Blackness, but based on the Times’ description, it was the whitest sh** ever.
“Some had fake teardrop tattoos, others wore shower caps, white tank tops, and low-rise jeans that exposed their underwear,” the Times reported. “One proclaimed he was from the Bronx and another wore a thick chain around his neck. They flashed hand signals and snapped photos and shared them on Snapchat.”
Apparently, whiteness doesn’t rain in upstate New York—it pours.
Here’s another thing the Times noted that wouldn’t surprise anyone who’s never debated whether daily showers are necessary:
“This is why when images of ‘Gangsta Night,’ a student-organized event at a basketball game, surfaced online this winter and spurred a local debate as to whether they were racist, many white residents here seemed surprised and defensive, while people of color in town interviewed for this story were insulted, and yet not surprised at all.”
This is basically a microcosm of what America generally is—white people being racist then getting fragile when they’re called out on it, and people of color being aggravated but unsurprised.
Source: White Students Face Backlash For ‘Gangsta Night’ Event
