"Halloween in the Hood"

Comment board: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1006/372071.html#boards

more links to articles:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.hopkins01nov01,0,5974361.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=wn&ncl=http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1216757.php/Mock_lynching_puts_fraternity_on_carpet

You know, I thought Halloween was supposed to be something fun, it always was when we were younger, but now - I'm not so sure. On my way to work one morning a radio station was asking people to call in about obnoxious costumes people saw out last night... one caller said someone had dressed as a dead amish girl. I almost started crying while I was driving. Then this article was posted by one of my friends on facebook. The comments absolutely sickened me. I was shocked to read the article, because, you would hope that Johns Hopkins University would house students who have awareness of such issues ... but obviously not. And maybe it takes just one student to make a bad rep for the college, but still - hanging a stuffed african american from a roof with a noose ... is this for real? Are we really in 2006 and students (Johns Hopkins!!!!) think that it's "funny" to joke about slavery? This is someone's comment from the comment page "People complain too much. Just shut up and laugh about it once in awhile and stop being so insensitive. It was meant to be funny not racist." Meant to be funny huh ... it's not funny, it's just not at all funny. The fact that someone thinks it's funny makes me so angry, and then utterly sad ... because I only hoped that somehow this world was changing ...

This really hit a personal note for me - I'm in an interracial relationship, and have lost friends because of it. Lost friends, because of who I'm dating. I'd be lying if I said to you all I didn't look around and see color, everyone "sees" color, but not everyone judges color. It has taken me a long time to realize that because of where I grew up, and because of what I have watched on the news, what I once "believed" or thought to be fact about African Americans, or any race, is not what I really believed, but what I was taught and raised to believe. (I hope that made sense.) Society seems to be a breeding ground to make people believe certain things about certain groups of people, whether it's through the media, maybe where you're from - I don't know, and I don't care what the reason is - for me, it's this simple. Maybe I've said this before on the blog, but when I was in sixth grade, my teacher told us, "we're all pink on the inside." We are all pink. I wish people would really take the time to think about that, really think about it. We're all tied together, because we're all humans.

Granted, what happened to certain groups of people will forever be a part of their past, and what happened at Johns Hopkins is inexcusable.