Comments like “You can understand what we are saying, our accents, we use actual words. Black people do not,” and other racist remarks abound in the video.
While it is difficult to envision that such racial hatred and dogma, as evinced by the video, formed without approval from close social circles, the parents of both kids have vehemently denied that they approve or support racial prejudices in their children.
One of the girls and her mother issued a formal and open apology published in Gainesville Sun. The statement mentioned: “I’m writing this so that I can tell people how truly sorry I am. I could never, in a million years, have pictured this happening with me involved. I wasn’t raised to hate people for their race, and I still don’t….” The statement went on with the teenager expressing her apology,”Seeing the video later on, I realized how bad it was and how ignorant we looked. I couldn’t believe it was myself that I was seeing. It seemed like another person. I cannot even defend myself for the video, because I know how stupid it was and how immature it made me look. I can only say how sorry for everything I am and take the consequences for my actions.”
The statement further explains, “I know people are wanting to blame the parents for this, for our opinions and what we said, but I want it known that I wasn’t raised how I portrayed myself in that video. My parents never taught me hate or to judge someone like that. I honestly don’t know where that came from, but it was wrong no matter what. I understand how I sound in the video, but I’m not a racist person.”
However, eight police officers visited the campus last week upon the girls allegedly receiving death threats in response to their videos.
Without going into much detail, the Gainesville High School principal David Shelnutt said in reference to the comments made by the girls, “There’s no place for comments like that, that video here at GHS,” Shelnutt told the station. “There’s no place for that in the Alachua County Public School System, and my opinion, no place for that in society in general.”
Once the video became known, the girls claimed to have faced harassment and expressed fears for their personal safety. One of the students was reported by the Gainesville Sun to be hiding at a relative’s house during the time of her mother’s absence from home.
The second girl’s mother claimed that the vicious public reaction has made her daughter go into a depression and that she hopes the community would forgive her and stop the harassment. She stated to the Gainesville Sun:
“While we can never take back the words and actions that these two children have said, we have to start to heal and forgive IMMEDIATELY. Stop the violent threats to our homes and our children, stop the anger, because this will solve absolutely nothing, and most importantly, look at yourself for change and love.”
Some strong opinions floating all around…it’s called ‘external attribution of blame’ in social psychology. Something that goes hand in hand is ‘passive aggression’ – the adoption of an attitude where the aggressor takes a stance that he/she is the victim of the actions of the target.
This seems to be a classic example.