Racism is the insidious fourth ‘R’ in our schools

Less than two weeks after the presidential election, slurs aimed at black students were found scribbled on a bathroom wall at San Ramon’s California High School.

It was the fourth incident of racist graffiti in a month, and I wish I could say I can’t believe it happened.

Also in November, at Monte Vista High School in Danville, graffiti was written on a boys bathroom wall marking a row of urinals for “whites” and one urinal for “colored.”

Then in March at Albany High School, “deeply hurtful and racially offensive” photos were posted to Instagram, according to police investigating the cyberbullying. No, a photo of a black doll alongside images of a Ku Klux Klan member, a torch and a noose isn’t just racially offensive. It’s racist. It was also racist to write racially offensive comments under photographs of black girls who are students at the school.

These incidents at the high schools are a reminder that 50 years after the civil rights movement, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Racism isn’t part of America’s long ago history. Racism is alive and well, a contagious bacteria that was weaponized by a xenophobic and nationalistic presidential campaign.

And in the wake of racist images at Bay Area high schools, school administrators and teachers across the country should be talking to students about race.

Seeing the racist word “colored” reminded me of the time my mother pulled me out of the painfully long Space Mountain line at Walt Disney World when I wrongly used it when remarking to my parents that I didn’t see many black people at the park.

My mom gripped my arm tightly as she gave me a lesson in racism that I’ll never forget. I was 9. But what about the parents

who don’t know to teach their kids about race? How do you tell children that white landowners in this great country of ours profited from the forced labor of slaves for almost four centuries — and then after emancipation how laws were established so freed slaves would remain secondclass citizens?

You give it to them straight: What we’re going through now is the legacy of slavery.

We’re so race conscious, but if we don’t talk about race, how are we going to understand why we’ve been conditioned to be the way we are?

If schools teach the basics of addition and subtraction and reading and writing, maybe the basics of how not to be a racist should be added to curriculum.

Really, if there are classes to teach kids to drive, maybe there should be required coursework on human decency.

Race should be taught in the classroom, and not just in February when there’s only enough time to repeat that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, that Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad wasn’t really on rails and didn’t involve trains, and that Barack Obama has a birth certificate that shows he really was born in the United States.

This year to commemorate Black History Month, our current president — the person who led the racist birther conspiracy about Obama — implied that Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became an abolitionist, was still alive.

“Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice,” he said.

Seriously, what can be expected from a person raised in privilege who had to be prompted during his campaign to say he disavowed the support of white supremacists?

Since the election, expressions of hate have become bolder. Hate has been normalized, which is why members of Congress can give each other congratulatory back slaps after voting to ensure that millions of Americans will lose their health insurance.

It’s why a police officer in Texas can shoot a black teenager in the head — as the kid is riding in a car leaving a house party — and then claim self-defense.

It’s why bananas were hung by nooses at American University after a black woman was elected student government president.

It’s why kids in the Bay Area think it’s cool to write or post racist images — and why four Albany High School students suspended for following, “liking” or commenting on a racist Instagram post can shamelessly file a federal lawsuit to argue that their First Amendment right was infringed and that they were publicly ridiculed.

The lawsuit against Albany High School alleges that four students were brought before a makeshift public square at their school where their incensed peers hurled obscenities and berated them.

Whose feelings matter more — the black students who were targeted or the students who were shamed for their behavior?

Yes, people have a right to express hate. But people also have a right to condemn hate.

And for many of us, it’s not just a right to oppose hate but an obligation.

But, man, if only we were all obliged to treat each other fairly and with respect. Just think of how great America would be.