On Camera

Last night, I went to the liberal news website Raw Story and discovered something which instantly got my finger a clicking!  "Video posted...Minnesota High School Student blaming minorities for violent crime..."

The story was of a video taken in a public high school classroom, where (what appears to be) a caucasian girl makes some ignorant and stupid arguments about government assistance, immigrants, and crime being committed by "Mexican, Somalia, black" people.  It's not intelligent thought's finest moment, but it is what it is.  The girl is challenged numerous times in the classroom, but seems committed to her ludicrous beliefs.

I'm not quite sure what to think about this video, but I don't like the video itself.  This wasn't some belligerent racist rant in a Target parking lot, the high school debate championship with a full auditorium, a high school jock bragging falsely about sexual exploits on social media or kids getting caught using a phone app to send racist tinged messages.  This is a group of kids in a closed classroom having a discussion about immigration policy.  Regardless of the girl's sincerest beliefs, there is a racist element to what she's saying, but she's also a high school kid, the textbook definition of foolish.  Isn't high school and college, supposedly, the years where you find out the stuff your parents have indoctrinated you with was really their opinion and not necessarily the real world?

I remember my youth in Edina being told by some that Uptown was the 'inner city,' with gangland shootouts, drugged out vagrants and rampant crime.  Then I went there with a church youth group to hand out literature, and realized how wrong they were.  Uptown in the 80's and 90's wasn't the glorified mall it's become today, but it wasn't nearly the dystopian hellscape I was lead to believe.  It was alive and vibrant, full of unique everything.  I loved it, realizing the stale malls and retail chains of my upbringing had little of the pure energy I never knew I craved.  I never looked back.

The Raw Story article makes a misguided attempt at laying the blame for this girls comments at the feet of an obscenely conservative news media.  I agree the media in this country is owned by conservative interests, but this girl learned this stuff form her life, whether it was mom and dad, grandpa, church, or cable news.  These are the beliefs she has been surrounded by, and she really does believe them.  Her willingness to share them so earnestly and freely is all the proof I need she's just repeating what she's been taught at home.

So, how do we look at this video?  Regardless of how much we disagree with some people, a person has a right to teach and educate their kids, in their private home, how they choose.  We should NEVER think we can regulate non-illegal, private residence behavior.  This girl is headed into a yard full of rakes placed there by the people who have filled her mind with such absurdities, but for her to grow, she needs to walk into a few of them, like the one in her classroom, and take the sting back home and ask whomever has lied to her, "why did you tell me that?"  It's called growing up.  Yes, she may refuse to educate herself on the realities she becomes jarringly aware of, but that's her right, as a private individual.  Doesn't mean we have to like it.  That's our right, too.

This was also in a classroom in a high school.  This reeks of private agenda to embarrass and humiliate this girl.  We should be able to educate people who are misinformed without a public shaming which could haunt this girl for years.  Maybe honesty, respecting each other, and what should or shouldn't be made public can be the next discussion that class has.

The one good aspect of the video is the kids themselves had the discussion.  A young man in the classroom challenges her silly arguments, and this leads to conversation.  Reality based human interaction is what this girl needs, and the bite of being rebuked by her peers might be enough for her to start asking the questions she needs to start asking.