Racist Tweets From NY High School Students Draw Outrage

A colorful voter participation Twitter message from "Britt D"

In the wake of Mitt Romney's defeat, dimwitted reactionary Twitter messages from the likes of  the perpetually-embittered increasingly-delusional Donald Trump (“Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.”), or
from the marginally-funny 2nd tier SNL alum Victoria Jackson ("Thanks a lot Christians, for not showing up. You disgust me.") were to be expected.


But a very different kind of trickle-down theory seems to have taken root via Twitter.

The months of coded language, attempts to marginalize and negatively portray segments of the population outside of the Republican base and conjure up fears based on the color of the President’s skin have also come home to roost in the halls of some US high schools.

According to the New York Daily News, the Website Jezebel.com first brought widespread media attention to a couple of disturbing Twitter messages written by two New York high school students in the wake of the re-election of President Obama. Sixteen year-old Ricky Catanzaro (no doubt the pride of Brooklyn’s Xaverian High School…) first posted the message “No nigger should run this country!" on his Twitter page known as Madhouse1245. 

While over in Suffolk County, Long Island, Lou LaDonna, a senior at West Islip High School took a slightly more poetic approach to his poet-election anti-Obama fervor when he posted, "When in doubt, kick the nigger out." on his Twitter page.

While scrolling through Sunday morning television news programs over brunch this morning I caught an interview with Jezebel.com editor-in-chief Jessica Coen, on CNNs Reliable Sources. I personally agree with her decision to publicize a series of these virulently racist tweets even though such words are protected by the first amendment of the US Constitution.  

Incredibly, when Jezebel.com posted the article about the racist Tweets about Obama, they received a flood of even more racist Tweets defending the rights of the kids to vent hate messages directed towards the President. Read a sample for yourself but don't expect coherent arguments about policy, proper spelling or a grasp of punctuation. Much of it is a mix of rage and ignorance, but it's important for Americans to see it and understand what's really going on in this country.

For many in this nation the divisive nature of the 2012 presidential campaign seems to have uncorked something unpleasant that’s not so easily poured back into the bottle.