Monday night on X (formerly Twitter) a guy posted a video showing a packed cruise ship pool deck filled with an overwhelmingly Black crowd dancing and having a good time. His caption/question was “Name something you’d rather do than take a vacation on this cruise ship.”
Now maybe his question was about the fact that it was crowded, and that loud music was playing. Maybe the question was not racially motivated. That’s giving him the benefit of the doubt. But he could’ve picked a video of another crowded cruise with a crowd of white people or a crowd with all kinds of people in it.
The comments below his video left little doubt about the inherent racism of the people posting them.
“At least they are not tearing the place up and attacking each other.”
“Black people need to get the memo that white people don’t want them around anymore. It’s time to make the divide.”
“Can you look up a cruise’s demographics before buying a ticket?”
“I’d never take a cruise with that many blacks. It’ll turn into absolute degeneracy. Guaranteed. We should offer all black cruises, and then return them to Africa. That would be fun.”
Those are all real comments (there were some that were even worse) stated by people using their own X accounts. There was no shame. The comments should be shocking, but in 2025 America they aren’t even surprising. And the vast majority of it went unchallenged.
I too let these comments go unchallenged, but the sage advice of my father stays with me “Don’t get into a pissing contest with a skunk.” Arguing with racists on X is like challenging a massive pack of skunks.
Yesterday marked the 160th anniversary of Lee’s surrender that ended the Civil War. And yet over 16 decades some of us have not evolved one bit from the outdated hatred that manifested itself into open rebellion and warfare.
Bigotry is one of America’s original sins. For years many white supremacists would make comments about what Black people should do. Things like “they should get educated, get married before they have kids and they should work hard.”
Then in 2008 we elected a Black man who had done all those things to be president. And yet they still hated President Obama, even to the point of concocting wild conspiracy theories about him and about his wife.
Today open bigotry is once again allowed to go unchecked. It harkens back to a time in 2017 when white supremacists marched through Charlottesville with confederate flags, swastikas and chanting things like “blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us.” On Jan. 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol was overrun by people fueled by lies and hate, a number of them carrying confederate flags. They had done what Robert E. Lee never managed to do: raise the confederate flag in the Capitol.
These comments and demonstrations cannot be characterized as outliers or dismissed as jokes anymore. We’ve crossed a line where supposedly funny racist remarks have manifested into oppression and hatred. We’ve set an agenda where the history of anyone who is not a white male is being scrubbed from government institutions.
We’ve crossed a line where normalization of dehumanizing beliefs gives weak-minded people permission to act. This is how some can justify a man kneeling on the neck of a Black man for over seven minutes and killing him. This is how some can justify denying human rights like free speech and due process to people who are ethnically different from the ruling class.
This is not some far-off fascist state. The denial of the inalienable human rights that founded this nation is happening and is officially sanctioned every day in America.
As a white male, these things may not scare me personally. But as a man who understands the bigotry that met Italians when they came to this country, and as a man who wants this to be a nation for all people, there are emotions that come to mind.
As a man who has read the words of a grandfather who died years before I was born, there is an expectation of foundational values that are almost genetic. Almost 80 years ago Angelo Paterno stated words that were a call to action in 1945 but are a warning for us in 2025 in a nation where many want to turn the clock back.
“The forces of intolerance and hate are on the march today. The seed of hate and discord is being sown all around us. It is our task to indicate OUR worthy ideals into the warped minds of the weakling before the seed takes root.”
Maybe people think it is funny to spew old stereotypes. On many of the same social media platforms we saw people celebrating with a new administration we could forget all that “politically correct” crap. One post I saw celebrated how “great” it is to again be able to openly use slurs for gay people and individuals with intellectual disabilities.
It is not great. Open intolerance comes from the darkest recesses of our souls where the politics of resentment find fertile soil for oppression’s seed to take root. Look at the history of the world. The gap between unfettered bigotry and hatred to unchecked oppression is not a big jump.
There is a sad truth in human nature; weak-minded people always seek to tear others down. It is far easier to tear others down than to elevate oneself to a higher plane. At a time when aspirational leadership needs to point the way for all Americans toward the next summit, we find no such guidance coming from Washington.
The result is that in 2025, given tacit approval, many have chosen to bully others down rather than to continue the ongoing march towards a more perfect union. That is as un-American as it is un-acceptable.
