When I first saw the reports about this incident involving a group of black Ivy League alumni who club owners thought would “attract the attention of local gangbangers” simply because they’re black, I barely reacted to it in part because it’s a really common part of the black experience at elite northeastern private schools. I think Lori Adelman really gets to the point here:
It’s true that it feels egregious when well-educated black people are met with blatant disrespect and the same old prejudicial treatment. But must ivy league alumni experience racism before major media outlets will take note? Such incidents should elicit communal outrage no matter the college degree of their victims. Perhaps we might focus less on the offenders’ inability to distinguish who deserves to be treated with dignity and fairness, and more on why there are criteria for such treatment in the first place.
The question I think we should ask ourselves in the aftermath of incidents like these is whether we’re outraged at racism period, or merely outraged because black Ivy Leaguers are merely part of a small subset of black people who have earned the right not to be treated like niggers. I think more people, black and white, are actually reacting to the latter than we realize.
