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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

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Facebook, America's Racist Photo Gallery!

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The cultural diversity that exist in just about every nook and cranny of this country sometimes blinds people of the ignorant, immature, and, in some cases, overtly racist actions of our more idiotic counterparts. We, Americans, like to think that we’ve come a long way since the 1960s and that the battles to destroy prejudice is somewhat obsolete, but every so often high profile cases, like that of the Jena 6, comes along and kicks us in the ass reminding us that we still have a long way to go.

A group of white Louisiana college students, with the help of a cell phone and Facebook, has brought a superb example that not much has changed in our culture. In the wake of the Jena 6 marches that have been happening all over the country, this group of students decided to dress in blackface and reenact the Jena 6 assault, and post the photos and video clip on a Facebook album entitles “The Jena 6 on the River.” The video, which can be seen on The Smoking Gun website, shows the students giggling as they cover themselves in mud (blackface and all), and “attack” one of the students, while making comments such as “Jena 6” and “Niggers put the noose on.” One student posted the photos, above, on her Facebook album, but later removed them after controversy arose. She later apologized for them, saying, "We were just playin n the mud and it got out of hand. I promise i'm not racist. i have just as many black friends as i do white. And i love them to death.” She later added that they were drinking and things “got a little out of hand.”

We would love for the story of blackface albums to end there, but apparently white college kids love to profess their racist ways on Facebook. The Smoking Gun has dug up photos of college students from Texas, Connecticut, and South Carolina that decided to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a different light.

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The moral of this story...some people just need their asses kicked!

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