Friday, April 4^th was the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I reflected on his life and his legacy while listening to a retrospective of his speeches on WJMZ radio. I was feeling pleased that his life was being given more attention with a ceremony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, which has been converted into a civil rights museum.

The following day I read about the rally in The Greenville News. But there was another article that day that caught my eye as well. The headline read, “Middle School Student Arrested Over T-Shirt.” A Bryson Middle School 8^th grader was arrested for disturbing school and suspended after he wore a t-shirt with a KKK symbol and a picture of a noose on it. Nathaniel Cary reported that later in the day, students at Bryson Middle passed notes saying some were planning to wear similar shirts, which would lead one to believe this wasn’t an isolated incident.

If this story doesn’t clearly illustrate the racial insensitivity and the ongoing issues of racial division that we face not only in South Carolina but nationally I don’t know what would. TV talking head Lou Dobbs was recently frothing at the mouth with indignation over the fact that some including Secretary of State Condolezza Rice believe that America still has a racial divide. Secretary Rice spoke of a birth defect in America, making it difficult to address the issue and deal with it effectively. Lou Dobbs would have none of this talk, he claims because America is such a racially diverse country that there is no racial problem. Dobbs and so many other white people in America apparently feel that black folks should just forget the past and move on and the sooner the better.

That 8^th grader at Bryson Middle School wasn’t born a racist; he was taught these beliefs by his parents or adult guardians. I am absolutely appalled that any 8^th grader in America would be so ignorant of the significance of the noose and the Ku Klux Klan that they would find those symbols amusing or entertaining and want to display that by wearing them in public. The horror of lynch mobs murdering black men is very fresh in the memories of many South Carolinians. Segregation is something they lived through and with as well. Who could forget Strom Thurmond’s racist vow to keep the “Nigra’s out of our schools?”

It may come as a shock to insular folks like Lou Dobbs and many others but America does indeed have a racial divide and racism is a very real and very painful issue today.

By refusing to acknowledge the problem they only make it worse. Nothing can be solved until it is acknowledged.

Rather than suspend this middle school student, I think they should send him and his family to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee for a history lesson. After that maybe he can sit and talk to some of the members of families who’s loved ones were lynched or assaulted by members of the KKK. The only way we will ever begin to heal the racial divide in America is to recognize the sins of the past and honor those people like Dr. King who peacefully led us to change. This may take awhile but we could start with Bryson Middle School today.