Flash mobs, race relations, and ignorant mayoral comments

I heard about it on a beautiful, peaceful Sunday afternoon while playing frisbee with some friends across the street from the Nelson-Atkins museum. "Did you hear what happened on the Plaza last night? A mob of hundreds of teenagers descended on it. The police came out in force and even had to use pepper spray to break it up."

It was shocking. This didn't sound like the Kansas City Plaza. When I later watched the video footage, my heart sank even more. Even though the reporters' words continue to call the mob "unruly teenagers," the video reveals something more. It was a group of black teenagers. I could almost feel the racial tension instantly rise in this city that already struggles with racial tension.

Hoping my fears were misplaced, I brought up the story in my classes today. At Kansas City Kansas Community College, the majority of the student population is African-American, and I knew my students would have opinions.

I showed them the short news video footage from this morning, and their reactions were immediate.

"Oh, I see. It was a bunch of BLACK teenagers. That's why people were scared."

"Is this why they don't want us in the Power and Light District? Now they're going to start a dress code for the Plaza, too."

And then, after Mayor Funkhouser's unfortunate comment (he does seem to make a lot of those), "We had sort of a Westport night in the Plaza," the reaction was strong.

"See. There they go, blaming the black people."

And it's true. Scroll through the hundreds of comments, and you can see the inevitable. A large number of people are insulting the African-American community, blaming the race at large for the unruly teenagers.

Several of my students were incensed at the teenagers' behavior,

"If they're going to act like idiots then that's the way they'll be treated and they deserve it," one said with many nodding in agreement.

When mob mentality takes over, people do stupid things. I'm concerned for the teenagers that got carried away with this, for the Plaza patrons and residents, and especially for the health of inter-racial cooperation, respect, and relationship in Kansas City. This could pull us apart even further, or it could force us to work together with open minds and the perseverance to seek real solutions beneficial to all.

I gave all my students the assignment to read the latest reports from this story and be ready to discuss their thoughts and reflections tomorrow. I will share their feedback on this blog.