COLUMN: FarmHouse video ‘ignorant’

The portrayal of President Donald Trump chasing Mexicans across the wall by members of the FarmHouse fraternity stemmed from ignorance more so than racist sentiment.

This atmosphere of ignorance is being driven by the attitude prevailing over the country today where such actions against minorities, especially Mexicans, are driven by a satirical interpretation of the narrative that is completely blind to the reality that these people face.

The members of the FarmHouse fraternity probably never even considered the fact that there are thousands of Mexicans each day who are trying to escape the hardships they face, not only in entering the United States even as refugees but long after they have been in this country.

The ignorance of this reality, that the words of some politician or the memes on Facebook could instigate hatred against minorities, is what leads to racist sentiment persisting. Not racism from a desire to hate, but rather racism from a lack of desire to understand.

This, combined with conscious racism that was also recently portrayed at Troy with people shouting racial slurs at some international students, is what halts progress in society.

Educational establishments need to lead the way in the fight against such behavior, but when students end up portraying such sentiment, it not only reflects poorly on society but also shows how we have failed to teach people about the realities of the harsh lives others lead.

We have allowed narrative to dictate our actions, but it’s now time to know that what we do, no matter how harmless the action seems, has grave consequences in the lives of others.

We sometimes fail to realize that the actions we take in jest, which we feel do not affect others, end up enabling and uplifting the narrative of hate against these minorities, which is very divisive for both our campus and this nation.