I didn't want to look at it because I had a feeling I was going to get mad. I was surprised, but I shouldn't have been, at what I got mad about.

There was an incident at a recent ASU game where students showed up in 'black face' in the stands. This was shown on ESPN so you know with their coverage it was bound to be a national story. Interestingly, and some people who are like minded might even say it is a bit conspiratorial, I didn't hear anything about it until I randomly came across an article on the local news website. In the broadcast it was said this was a big national issue and the reporter, a black reporter but frankly that doesn't matter in the long run but is given as a point of information, said that ASU has the school colors of black and red and student were encouraged to wear black T-shirts with the logo on them. The question became if the students went too far.

I felt the reporter was very balanced, because the unfortunate thing that can be said is the students, attending a premiere educational facility, may have been too ignorant to know history and that putting on black face might be considered by many to be offensive. Think of the picture shown. The girls in black face (which when you think about having women do this really is unusual) are surrounded by a lot of ASU students. Some of the students have markings on their face in black. In that whole, large school pride crowd it would appear no one thought it might not be a good idea to have them painted in black.

The reporter had two black professors on who of course felt the black face represented evil racial motivations by the students. While I might think it would be a bit over the top to think of those students as a Jim Crow lynch mob in Mississippi, I do think their actions represents ignorance because of our racial history in this country. When I talked to someone the other day about a minor racial thing I saw occur, they commented that the joy and pain of people thinking of our society as post-racial is we have forgotten about the racial issues of the past. When something like this comes up, while we would want to blame the young as perpetuating old stereotypes, the disturbing conclusion is they don't know what those stereotypes are, what they symbolize, and they act without thinking.

Where I was surprised, which I shouldn't have been, was from the reaction from writers on the feedback page of the local stations website. It was very hard to find someone who actually read or listened to the full article. Many had issue with the black professors, whom, they felt put race in something where there wasn't race. Like the students, they couldn't understand the pain caused by the gesture. Many thought people were too thin skinned about the issue, thinking the symbol was a long ago issue and people should forget about it. It was curious that some felt the need to quote Herman Cain, or in a few instances I saw where people made the assumption (not really clear to see) that one of the girls was black in black face, so it must have been OK.

It is taxing to go down this road but it seems it has to be done again and I will say it with as much blunt force as I can. If you are of another race and you find a black person who will allow you to say Nigger in their presence, it doesn't mean you can assume this will be OK with every black person in America. You do not have a special pass that will allow you to say that in front of other black people. We are not a monolith. We don't have a special symbol, or signal or handshake that gives you a pass to say the word. Just to let you know, there are black people that hate it when black people say the word.

The assumption that if one minority says its OK to say something offensive makes it OK for everyone to do so is so racially blind it's shakes me to the core. That being said, what hurts me more about the posts I read is so many people are willing to ignore the implications of what the students did and what it represents to our society.

In the history of Judaism we are told Never to Forget about the Holocaust. The symbols of Nazi Germany are a sore scar in history. If those same students, trying to show school pride, had dressed up in SS uniforms, I doubt most people would look at it as some college prank gone wrong. There would be questions about how students couldn't know wearing the clothes might be, at the very least, in poor taste. Not many would say 'oh those kids.' We do ourselves as a country great harm when we not only forget our past but allow those past attitudes and symbols to be repeated by our kids, no matter how innocent they may be.