Oblivious To The N Word........

To be young, is to be oblivious to some extent. A lack of knowledge, empathy, and sensitivity are often the results of inexperience. But the fact of the matter is that many children are either not taught or have the luxury of living in an insulated bubble. Even they have a view of the world from where they are, they cannot see. Most likely because it is not incumbent upon them to do so. How else do you explain doing something so stupid, so hateful, and so blatantly racist. Even if they had a full understanding of what they were about to do, and were fully aware of the impact of their actions, the fact that they made the decision to expose themselves to such scrutiny shows extreme ignorance, and dillusion.

Students at Desert Vista High School in Ahwatukee, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, took an offensive picture proudly wearing shirts spelling out a racial slur that swept through social media on Friday.

The students can be seen in the picture below wearing shirts that, when standing side by side, spells the N word.

The students wore these shirts on the day of the senior class’s annual yearbook picture. Students are “allowed to wear pre-approved shirts with lettering or messages.” Their shirts were supposedly part of a larger message that reads “BEST * YOU’VE * EVER * SEEN * CLASS * OF *2016”.

According to school officials, no faculty member saw the offensive configuration of the lettered shirts until the picture surfaced online. A school spokeswoman was quoted as saying that the display is “unacceptable and does not represent the student body or the district.”

The school’s Black Student Union defiantly responded by tweeting a picture with a group of white and black students smiling together under the banner #thunderstrong. They also echoed the district’s sentiment that the six girls who wore the shirts spelling the racial slur do not reflect the Desert Vista High School student body.

The incident that occurred today at Desert Vista High School does not reflect the beliefs of the student body! pic.twitter.com/WkOQpkqtaN

— DV BSU (@dvhs_bsu) January 22, 2016

When the Tempe Union High School District was made aware of the picture, representatives said they were “aware and outraged” and that they took “swift disciplinary action.” While they declined to publicly reveal the nature of the punishment, students of the school were found on Twitter bemoaning that the culprits only received a paltry five day suspension. 

PR