If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, I’m sure you’ve come across people doing videos where they are making a wife, husband, or anything else they may desire. Some videos will show someone in the kitchen stirring a fictitious batch of creation, while others will utilize cups of water with notes under them as the ingredients to said creation. I’d like to talk about the latter.
Today I came across an article addressing a racist TikTok video I seen about a week or so prior. The video is of two Caucasian teenagers from Georgia.
In their video they are explaining “how to make ni***rs. Yup, you read that correctly. Two teenagers decided to get on social media and demonstrate to the world how stupid and bigoted they are.
Personally speaking, as a proud Black man with Nigerian ancestry, I have no issue with their open display of racism. In fact, one of my all time favorite movies from my teens is a film by the late great John Singleton entitled, Higher Learning. In that movie there’s a scene where an African American college student confronts an openly Nazi affirming college student and he simply and eloquently states: “It aint what a person say, it’s what they think.” I’ve always remembered that. And for that reason alone, I have zero issue with bigots telling the world that they are bigots. I’m happy to know who and what they are before ever engaging.
The issue isn’t that these simple-minded teens are showing off their racism. My issue is that now the young lady in the video is trying to dissociate herself from the video and her boyfriend who was doing all the “cooking.” Keep in mind this is a video that she happily participated in, recorded, edited, uploaded and I’m quite sure enjoyed. However, like most things on the internet, they never ever disappear and she is feeling the effects of her actions.
She took to social media to address the video and blame it all on her boyfriend who “normalized his racism” on her.
Her name is Stephanie Freeman. And poor ol’ Stephanie is doing what so many Caucasian women have done since the beginning of time, painting herself as a victim. A defenseless victim who emerged only after being ousted and bashed on the same platform she thought would embrace her. That age-old tactic coupled with the tears of white women have been a recipe of forgiveness for so long. Thankfully, it’s not working!
Stephanie has been expelled from High School. Her school acted swiftly by condemning her, the video, the message of said video and promptly expelled her. Well done Carrollton High School. Of course, that wasn’t enough for Stephanie, somehow no one told her that she should be quite and hopefully things would pass over. Nope, she doubled down, stating how she’s extremely sorry, that she’s just a stupid teenager, and that she’s now going to dedicate her life to serving God. She ended her pleas with asking people to not contact the college she planned on attending this fall.
Just that quickly, Stephanie forgot the power of the internet. By asking people not to reach out to her school of “higher learning” people did exactly that. She quickly learned that by requesting the good members of the internet not to do something, she simply gave them instructions on what to do. According to her, her university hopes is gone. So, like with Carrollton High School, well done to whichever fine institute opted to not allow her to attend.
Schools should be a place of learning, growing, and acceptance. It’s also a place of teaching, and she is being taught some pretty valuable lessons by both institutions. Or so you’d think. Apparently, Stephanie isn’t one to grasp the power of social media or concept clues. After breaking the news of her university, she went back to the person we all knew her to be, a racist. She yet again took to social media to broadcast her true feelings and prove that her apologies were nothing more than caca. In her own words: “Black people ruined my life. They can’t function in a society so they took my future. They’re mad me and my boyfriend proved a point. All they know how to do is act ghetto and racist and low class. WHITE POWER. I DO NOT CARE ANYMORE.”
The irony and comedy in that post is she allected to insert a picture of her crying. Remember what I said about a white woman tears? LOL, I guess she added the cry photo for effect, as if her original video and current rant deserved some sort of sympathy. Poor ol’ Stephanie.
Her situation should be taught in schools for children. Show them the power of the internet. Show them that the things they do and say often have pretty harsh consequences. Allow other children to see her short comings and hopefully make better decisions for themselves. If cautionary tales were a person, she would be it. Oh, and if being bashed on the internet, getting expelled from High School, and losing out on attending the university of your choosing isn’t enough to speak to the power of karma… according to her, she now has...
Baseem S. Gregg
www.baseemgregg.com
written 4/27/2020