Mark Wright’s Blog

In the past few blogs I have written how excited I am that people were able to look beyond skin color and elect a presidential candidate who they thought would do the best job.  I like to believe that the younger generations are the future to helping end the mindless enterprise that is racism.  This morning I read something that makes me wonder.

A University of Texas lineman was dismissed on Wednesday for violating team rules.  Probably what he was dismissed for was a Facebook posting in which he railed on the election of Obama as president and threw a racial slur in for good measure.  I guess the story is that he posted a text message that he received about Obama’s victory that contained a racial slur.

He has apologized for the incident and said the obligatory things such as “those who know me know this is not a true reflection of my character.”  I don’t know the kid so maybe it is not a true reflection of his character but what is done is done.  He is no longer playing football and will be forever stigmatized as a racist. 

I do not understand the need to use social media such as MySpace and Facebook to express inflammatory views.  There have been numerous instances in which people have put photos of themselves drinking and partying while awaiting trial for committing an alcohol related offense.  People put photos of their boyfriends and girlfriends while they are still married.  Now I am not a psychiatrists but it almost seems to me that these people want to get caught.  If you have a website, you probably don’t want to put a bunch of incriminating stuff on it.  It is a simple concept but many seem to have trouble with it. 

The problem of racism is worldwide and all encompassing.  Chances are in any country, there is going to be another group of people that hate someone else because of the color of their skin or ethnicity.  Hate is an incredibly draining emotion.  It takes a lot of energy to hate someone.  It would be amazing to see what could be done if all the energy people use to hate could be refocused into something productive.