Just When I Thought I Couldn't Be More Ashamed...

After the disaster in South Bend, I was hoping to find a sympathetic article in the sports section of the Daily Bruin website. Instead, I find this editorial.

Now, say what you will about reparations. I agree that impact of slavery on African Americans is difficult to quantify, and I doubt that any mere cash handout or services rendered to African Americans would adequately address any social inequalities. What offended me was the Daily Bruin editorial board dismissing the Brown students who protested an anti-reparations ad in the Brown Daily Herald as "curious."

Now I'm not African American, but I'd imagine that if I were, knowing that:

1. the American government supported the enslavement my people
   
2. the American government continued to oppress my people through Jim Crow and segregation laws
   
3. society's images of my people are either as sports stars, thugs, or crack pushers/heads
   
4. I am statistically more likely to go to jail than to college
   
5. I am as likely to get a fair trial as anyone in Guantanamo Bay
   
6. I am more likely to be stopped by the cops than the white guy next to me
   
7. And people are actively trying to turn me away on Election Day

...if someone were to put up an ad that even SUGGESTS that my people don't deserve some payback, I might just be a LITTLE BIT PISSED, wouldn't you? It's one thing to question reparations, but the Daily Bruin ediorial board actually believes that outrage over slavery today is simply unfathomable! For American students, who learn about slavery and African American history in school, the lack of thought and empathy in this editorial is down right insulting. I'd expect this kind of crap from an egocentric columnist, but not from the editorial board. Just shameful.