Teachable moment

As the 2016 spring semester ends for Mercer University, the school has to contend with an ugly incident. A vandal defaced several of the inside doors in Sherwood Hall with a racial epithet. How does this sort of thing happen at such a progressive school, one that set about integrating before other colleges and universities in the South? Just like everything else students bring to a college campus — good grades, high SAT scores and respectable attitudes — some bring a darker side.

We would imagine that whoever the vandal is (Mercer police are investigating) that this is not the first time the culprit’s attitudes about race have come to the surface. Unfortunately, too many times in high school, or even earlier, such racially offensive pronouncements are simply swept under the rug, or the student’s hand is lightly slapped by school administrators or parents. They did the student no favors. They missed a teachable moment and possibly could have avoided this provocation. Mercer President Bill Underwood, in his campus-wide email to staff and students Wednesday afternoon, was quite clear:

“This type of hateful behavior has no place anywhere, and surely not at a university that strives to be a community of respect. Mercer’s continued progress on issues of race over the past fifty years is evident simply by looking around our campus...

“This shameful and ignorant conduct reminds us, however, that the old hatreds have not yet passed.” Underwood ended his letter by saying, “My hope and expectation is that this incident will remind us that our work is far from done and will further strengthen our resolve to eliminate bigotry and hatred within our community and beyond.”

Once found, whoever the culprit is, will finally receive that teachable moment they missed earlier in life.

This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Teachable moment."