The stupidity of college students can be boggling at times. It makes one wonder about the quality of American education, particularly how well or how much young people are taught about history.
Had three University of Mississippi students fully understood the story of Emmett Till, we would hope they would not have thought it cute or clever to pose, holding long guns, in front of an already bullet-riddled sign in Tallahatchie County memorializing Till’s premature death, or to post the photo onto social media as some type of a boast.
It also was not very smart, as their actions reportedly caused the FBI to look into the matter, and could still prompt a Department of Justice investigation as to whether what they did constituted a hate crime. Unless there is more evidence to unearth, that’s probably a stretch, as the photo was taken at night with no one else around (other than possibly the photographer), and the social media post by one of the three students sounded more like a bad inside joke among friends than an attempt to harass or intimidate people of the opposite race.
Nevertheless, Till’s life and death are no joking matter. Till’s murder — made worse by the racist attitude of jurors that empowered them to acquit his killers despite their obvious guilt — has been a curse on Mississippi for more than six decades. Every boneheaded and racist act, such as this photo, only continues to reinforce the negative stereotypes about this state in the national consciousness.
