Phoenix High School Students Spell Out Racial Slur With Their T-Shirts

[riversedge]

Source: HuffingtonPost





Phoenix High School Students Spell Out Racial Slur With Their T-Shirts
The district has promised disciplinary action against the six involved.
01/25/2016 02:52 am ET

Ed Mazza


What should have been a fun photo shoot at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix turned ugly when several students used the letters on their T-shirts to spell out a racist word.

The roughly three dozen girls in the original photo lined up in T-shirts each with a single letter or asterisk to spell out BEST*YOU'VE*EVER*SEEN*CLASS*OF*2016:

But six of students got together and decided to spell out a new word:


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Students at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix spell out a racist word.

"I was shocked," freshman Jaden Phillips told the The Arizona Republic. "I didn't expect that, white girls saying the N word."
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District officials promised discipline. .......................

Read more: www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/phoenix-racist-t-shirts_us_56a5a5f3e4b0404eb8f2152b

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[ProfessorGAC]

1. Uncool

Just ridiculous. I'm guessing some wonderfully enlightened parents.

[Ken Burch]

2. Future members of the Arizona legislature.

[MBS]

11. Yes, unfortunately, they seem very much on the same page.n/t

[underpants]

3. Not one parent asked what they were spelling out?

Not one? Not one found out and said HELL NO!

I posted here on Dau a few weeks ago not allowing my child to carry a book (a novel) around with a Nazi swastika on it and got a load of criticism. I appreciate the opinions but I can't imagine allowing her to be a part of something like THIS.

[LittleGirl]

4. +1 n/t

[Ms. Yertle]

7. The letters

and the asterisks were all part of the original slogan. So--the parents probably knew what the letters were supposed to spell, but the girls took it upon themselves to rearrange themselves to make a disgusting, racist statement.

[underpants]

9. Well I understand peer pressure and being a dumbass teenager

We haven't got there yet with ours but I fully trust that my kid would realize what this was. I hope so anyway.

[nyabingi]

5. What I'd like to ask these girls and all the

many white kids who do things like this is simply why?

What kind of gratification and satisfaction do they personally get out of doing things like this? Whenever this type of thing happens, you never see the media ask these people what they are getting out of it psychologically, why it's seemingly so thrilling and rewarding to say or spell out "nigger". Psychologists should be having a field day with this regular occurrence, but you rarely hear much of anything about it.

This is not only hateful but it is bullying, and white supremacy at its core has always been about bullying and intimidation. These girls should be expelled in my opinion.

[Odin2005]

8. The current term for this sort of thing is "being edgy".

Some young people think being an offensive dick makes them bad-ass non-conformists. I blame too much South Park.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Hey, I'd like to ask all the kids who use anti gay slurs why they do that too.

nt

[sulphurdunn]

13. Being an adolescent asshole

is not an expellable offense. If it were you would just add pious victimization syndrome to the assholery of it. They did it because they knew they could get away with it, that lots of other kids and adults would approve. This moronic stupidity has crawled out from under its rock and become respectable again.

I see a slow developmental pattern to the resurrection of this and other expressions of rightist supremacy with Nixon's Southern Strategy, the corporate consolidation of mass media after the his resignation, the suspension of the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan that unleashed rightwing talk radio, and the launching of FOX NEWS. The pattern shows me an aggressive return to the racial divide and conquer tactics of the American ruling elite against the common people.

LBJ had this to say about it: "If you can convince the lowest white man that he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket." It's been working for 450 years.

[nyabingi]

20. I think it goes a lot deeper than

simple moronic stupidity or adolescent mayhem. It shows that far from today's youth learning anything from the past and this country's racial history, the old school racism is being perpetuated just as strongly as it was back then.

I know these kids probably won't get expelled, but my ultimate concern is not their punishment, rather the psychological toll this kind of "fun" has on the targets of their jests. It's no different than the overweight student who's ridiculed and made fun of, the gay student who has to endure insults and sometimes physical violence - it's bullying, and these young white kids do it on a scale that affects every Black person who has to witness it. It takes a mental toll on you, and it angers me to think that the Black students at this high school are having to deal with it, because I know first hand what it does to you.

[sulphurdunn]

22. No one can appreciate

the psychological toll this kind of 'fun' has on its victims without seeing it or experiencing it first hand. I have seen it in a rural Virginia high school where I taught that had a thousand kids, nine of whom were black, and I saw exactly the same thing in a Prince George's County high school where I taught with nearly a thousand kids, six of whom were white. The minority kids always suffered at the hands of their majority peers. Why do you suppose that was, and why do you suppose it continued regardless of what the staffs at both schools did to try and end it?

[GreatGazoo]

6. They need a lesson in Unity and Kindness....

[gvstn]

10. I really hate the "n" word bit.

You hate using a word but it is still a word. You don't hatefully call someone a nigger but it is still a word. Why is it banned?

What is the "f" word? Does that mean Faggot or Fuck?

Just say the word and let others understand your meaning or intention of using that word.

I've seen articles where they want to rewrite Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because he used the word nigger which was casual in his time. What? You don't edit a book because it isn't proper to say a particular word in the wrong circumstances or situation, today. It is still a word, albeit an ugly one such as faggot, but still a word and should not be reduced to just a first letter.

[SansACause]

19. I feel the same.

Using a word to refer to another word makes me crazy. It doesn't really make the original word go away, and it confuses matters.

[Bad Dog]

14. They were sussed out straight away.

A black student unscrambled their faces and named them.

[sulphurdunn]

23. However stupid and insensitive

these kids are, they are still adolescents. Had they been accused of criminal behavior their identities would have been protected. Identifying them to the whole world was inappropriate. If any of them come to harm it will be the fault of whoever did this.

[Bad Dog]

25. They were identified by another student.

A black girl who'd had enough of racists at her school.

They won't come to any harm, quickly forgiven by a white community that's quick to demonise black victims of crime.

They'll probably end up as cheerleaders for Donald Trump.

[Android3.14]

15. Not all learning moments are heartwarming epiphanies

But I have a feeling this lesson will have an impact.

[Ace Rothstein]

16. Yep. I hope their picture was worth their lives turning into hell.

Idiots.

[Akicita]

17. Sad this still happens.

Maybe they heard that word in a rap song or on the View. That derogatory word should not be used by anyone.

[DinahMoeHum]

18. They should experience some lessons in humility. . .

. . .not a permanent vacation from school.

I'd have them serve out their suspensions/detentions by:
sweeping the hallways,
cleaning the bathrooms and toilets,
other kinds of scut work that other people, particularly people of color too often have to do as a living on a permanent basis.

(the custodians, meanwhile, can enjoy some vacation time, with pay)

[WhoWoodaKnew]

21. Why do they want to fire the principal???

She didn't do anything except be the principal at the exact moment when these six girls went brain dead. That's nuts.

[Dont call me Shirley]

24. Teens call each other "ni**a" now all the time, no matter what skin color. Undo the

Raygun Deevolution. I'm tired of the hate.