Gassen: Is ignorant better than racist?

The Desert Vista High School class of 2016 needs a new slogan.

Students at the Phoenix-area high school gathered on senior picture day wearing black shirts to spell out: “BEST*CLASS*YOU’VE*EVER*SEEN*CLASS*OF*2016.”

A group of six young women figured out they could spell something else.

As you have likely seen by now in the photo that took off on the Internet, the six white girls arranged themselves to spell out “NI**ER.” Convenient that they had the asterisks to use, isn’t it. They put their arms around each other’s waists, tilted their heads just so and smiled for the camera.

The rest of the world was not so amused.

One of the young women has publicly apologized. School officials haven’t announced disciplinary action, but privacy laws can limit what they are allowed to say about individual students.

Rachel Steigerwald, who was the “R” in the photo, spoke at a press conference Monday: “I know people have been offended from what I did. I have come here to say I am incredibly, incredibly sorry. I have love for everyone in my heart. I am not a racist, and I am asking everyone for forgiveness of me. That’s what I’ve come here to say.”

It’s possible to take an action or say something that is prejudiced, but still not see yourself as being prejudiced — the “but some of my best friends are black/Hispanic/gay/women” school of bigotry.

If they’re not racists, does that just mean they’re ignorant? And, if so, is that somehow better?

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Michael Lambert, of Laveen, Arizona, said at a protest, as posted on the Arizona Republic website, “Black people have used the word N-I-G-G-A,” spelling out the word. “Maybe we shouldn’t be using that, maybe we should. Kids use it, kids don’t.”

He goes on to say that nobody uses the N-word, and he spells it out fully. “Unless you’re doing it for hateful acts. Period. And the fact that you took a picture. Lined up, spelled it correctly and put smiles your face. That’s premeditated. You knew what you were doing.”

He’s right. The young women — they’re in high school, these aren’t kids — didn’t do this by accident. Someone had the idea, someone got them organized, someone took the photo and someone posted it on social media.

How did they think this was a good idea? It’s the same question that arises every time we hear about some group, usually of young white people, having “Pimp and Ho” or “gangster” parties, or “Mexican” parties.

I’ve taught college students for more than a decade. I’ve heard a few of them say some pretty ridiculous things, and we’ve had discussions. A lot of times they just hadn’t thought of it “that way.” They didn’t recognize the discrimination, presumption and harm embedded in their words or assumptions about others, usually people different from themselves.

I think a young woman named Alyssa Stiggers, who is the president of the Desert Vista Black Student Union, has had one of the best responses to the situation:

“We’re going to start a campaign: ‘Spread the word to end the N-word.’ And that’s what our action is. We have to do something. This is our call to action. We have to do something to bring light to this situation.”

We do need to take action – we need to talk about race, racism and discrimination with our kids and make sure they understand they don’t live in a sheltered and selfish bubble world.

Because thoughtlessness isn’t an excuse, it’s a failure.