Sometimes, you read something that a celebrity said or did and you say that it kills your faith in humanity … but really, celebrities aren’t usually representative of the average person.
This story, however, might crush your faith in humanity … and in this next generation of young people. Just a little.
Because the heinous video that went viral, which we have below, was made by teenagers.
(Of course, it was also brought to light and condemned by teenagers before anyone else got involved, so … keep that in mind)
It is sadly not new information that racism is alive and well in the United States of America.
If you were somehow able to ignore that before, the last couple of years have made it truly impossible to miss.
Hate crimes have spiked, and we’ve seen Nazis marching on American streets more than once this year.
A particularly infamous Nazi, Richard Spencer, is speaking in Florida this afternoon, and everyone in the local community is afraid of what might happen if his supporters show up and go after his protesters.
Some worry that, some time tonight, Florida could see its very own Charlottesville. Hopefully not, but the fact that people are worried about it at all tells you a lot about how prevalent and emboldened racists are feeling now in 2017.
While many racists — Nazis and others — come to feel that way because they feel marginalized or threatened that other people exist and have decided to blame their own shortcomings on, for example, people of color.
Others are taught racism — not just institutional and cultural racism that we all have to unlearn — but explicit, unapologetic racism from a young age.
These people tend to grow up thinking that everyone’s family "talks like that" behind closed doors.
(Then, thinking that everyone thinks and acts the way that they do, they assume that "political correctness" and not common decency is responsible for racists getting shamed)
We don’t know if these girls all learned it at home, but a group of teenage cheerleaders made a very, very disturbing video.
A group of Ogden Weber High School cheerleaders appeared to be gleefully chanting a racial slur in a bizarre, soul-crushing video.
The Utah school district is investigating after the video surfaced on Twitter and gained a lot of attention.
The girls appear to be saying (and we say "appear to" for good reason) "f–k" followed by the N-word. Gleefully, they yell again and again and again into the camera.
Yes, they recorded this themselves.
It’s widely believed that the video is a reversal of what they may have been originally chanting: "Serggin Cuff."
"Serggin Cuff" might sound like the name of a Star Wars character, but unfortunately it’s meaning is not nearly so whimsical.
Pronounced backwards, "cuff" sounds like "f–k" and "serggin" sounds like the N-word.
While someone could conceivably be tricked into saying or even repeating that word on video, which could then be reversed in order to defame the poor dupe … that wouldn’t explain their glee as they chant it.
The video was shared privately at first, but then discovered and posted to Twitter by an understandably distraught black Weber High student.
Along with the video, he included this message: "I thought people were better than this especially my so called ‘friends.’"
Outrageously, he has reportedly been contacted by the families of the girls shouting slurs in the video, who are said to have demanded that he apologize for posting the video.
That is … well, that tells you about what sorts of families that at least some of these girls come from, doesn’t it?
While this video was reportedly recorded some time ago before being circulated around the student body.
Lane Findlay, spokesperson for the school district, has spoken about the video.
"Right now the focus is on the investigation and trying to answer all the questions that have come up."
Findlay’s initial response, mentioning that the video was old and that it had not been recorded on school grounds, did not receive a warm reception.
(Schools have never before hesitated to take disciplinary action over events happening off of campus.)
It sounds like Findlay understands that the public needs assurances.
"It’s being taken very seriously. We realize it’s affected many students at the school, but we want to be fair and thorough and ask for everyone’s patience."
While a resolution is expected to be reached early next week, the cheerleaders might receive counseling (which we’d say that they clearly need), removal from the cheerleading squad, or even expulsion.
We would say that expulsion is the wrong course.
One, they are teenagers and this inexcusable behavior was certainly a learned behavior.
Two, more importantly, the student who posted the video on Twitter could face reprisals if they are expelled. High school students can be brilliant, but they can also be not brilliant, and they don’t always have a great sense of perspective.
But these girls definitely need counseling. And it would be very appropriate for them to be removed from the cheerleading squad.
How they behave in the next few months could determine whether any colleges or universities will even accept them.
Here is the video and be warned: obviously, the language used is absolutely monstrous.