We all may be uncomfortable around people who don't look like us. But it's not their fault. (Chicago Tribune)

At UF's May 2018 graduation, a unnamed Marshall, a Chemistry Professor, brandished bigotry, tackling and pushing African-American graduates offstage for taking three seconds to celebrate, acting like an anti-literate energumen, a robotic tackling-dummy.  

This brandishes bigotry.

Likewise, so did the parent who made a police call out of  two Mohawk Indian boys from "[New] Mexico" did not look like they belonged on a Colorado State University tour group.  The squirrelly paranoid-parent-snitchs' complaint resulted in embarrassing public police investigation.   Yes, body cam video of Colorado State's police officers showed they responded professionally.  But why did the parent call?

Bigotry.

In hostile DONALD JOHN TRUMP's AmeriKKA, bigotry happens.

Enough.  Speak out.  Teach your children.







We all may be uncomfortable around people who don't look like us. But it's not their fault.

Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., in 2017. The mother of two Native American teenagers who campus police pulled from a campus tour after a parent reported feeling nervous about them said she believes her sons were victims of racial profiling. (David Zalubowski / AP)

By Dahleen Glanton
Chicago Tribune

Over the weekend, African-American students decided to celebrate years of hard work at the University of Florida by doing a little dance on stage as they received their diplomas.

There was nothing threatening about these young men and women. They were future lawyers, doctors and teachers dressed in graduation caps and gowns. Yet they were treated like thugs.

A faculty member hustled the students off the stage one by one as they paused to joyfully celebrate their accomplishments. Some white students were hurried off the stage as well, but much less aggressively.

The choreographed moves, popularized by African-American sororities and fraternities, were symbolic. But someone deemed the display inappropriate.

So in front of thousands of adoring parents, relatives and friends in the audience, a stunning message was sent: Being black is a stigma that even a college diploma cannot remove.

The message — now being repeated in viral videos on social media — was not intentional. It was so subtle, in fact, that most people likely did not catch it right away. But the image of young African-Americans being shoved around allegedly for misbehaving surely registered with someone who filed it away for future use.

This often is how seeds of bigotry are planted and stereotypes are reinforced, without us even knowing it. If you ask most Americans, we will insist that we harbor no preconceptions about people who are different.

But we do, each and every one of us. Somewhere in the recesses of our minds, a tidbit of information has settled in, waiting to reveal itself whenever the time seems right.

For some, it is a matter of self-survival. America is changing, and a lot of people simply aren’t ready for it.

There are too many different faces from cultures they don’t understand and traditions they have never heard of being thrust into the mainstream. To them, America is becoming unrecognizable, and they are terrified.

But for others, the bias appears much less sinister. They just feel uncomfortable around certain people. It isn’t based on anything concrete; it’s just a feeling they can’t seem to shake.

But don’t be fooled. Both types of bigotry are equally as harmful. It is up to individuals to put their bias in check before it goes too far.

Consider the woman who recently called the police on two Native American teenagers who were participating in a campus tour at Colorado State University.

The caller, the mother of another prospective student on the tour, decided that the young men who joined the group late were suspicious because they were dressed in black and one of them laughed when she asked what he wanted to study.

“They were lying the whole time,” she told the dispatcher, adding that at least one of them was Hispanic “for sure” because he said he’s from Mexico.

The teenagers’ outfits made them stand out, she said.

“Their clothing has dark stuff on it, like dark things. … Just weird symbolism or wording on it, and one of them has their left hand in his oversize sweatshirt the whole time.”

Though this is how most teenagers dress, the woman surmised that “they're … definitely not a part of the tour.”

But they were part of the tour. The teenagers had gotten lost driving from New Mexico — not Mexico — and arrived late. They had an email confirmation, which they promptly showed to police.

Even the caller began to question her own biases when she was rattling off concerns to the dispatcher. She can be heard on the audiotape raising doubt.

“It's probably nothing. I'm probably being completely paranoid with just everything that's happened,” she said.

“I feel completely ridiculous. They're probably fine and just creepy kids,” she added later.

In the end, she justified her overreaction by blaming the teenagers for making her feel uncomfortable. Their appearance and lack of communication forced her to make a call she didn’t really want to make.

“If it's nothing, I'm sorry, but they … actually made me feel, like, sick, and I've never felt like that,” she told the dispatcher.

With that, she relieved herself of responsibility for her own bigotry. The problem, though, is that bigots think others have an obligation to prove that they are not who the bigots think they are.

These young men weren’t required to even say hello to anyone in the group if they didn’t feel like it, much less respond to a stranger’s obvious interrogation.

Ethnic and racial groups experience this all the time, often with much worse consequences.

Years ago while shopping in the suburbs, a security guard from the mall followed me to my car and demanded to see my purchases. As other shoppers looked on, I demanded to know why.

He said he had observed me going in and out of several stores without buying anything. Yet I had bags in hand and he needed to see the receipts.

I told him that I would gladly remove the bags from the trunk of my car and carry them back into the mall so that we could open them in front of his supervisor. We did, and there was nothing unaccounted for.

The supervisor apologized profusely and acknowledged that the employee, who actually was off-duty, had acted inappropriately. He had decided using his own biased criteria that I was a thief.

I demanded that the security guard be reprimanded. The supervisor promised to follow up.

But it was too late. The message had already been sent: Being black is a stigma that even a college degree and a good-paying job cannot remove.

dglanton@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @dahleeng