At least eight cadets at The Citadel military college in Charleston have been suspended after a picture surfaced on Facebook showing them wearing white sheets on their heads–garb that is disturbingly similar to the garb made infamous by the Ku Klux Klan.
On Wednesday, a woman was checking her Snapchat app when she got a strange message from a man who’d seen her profile on Tinder, a dating site. He was posting videos of several people who appeared to be Citadel cadets singing Christmas carols. The singers were dressed in all white, with white pillowcases over their heads. One corner of the pillowcases had been drawn up into a point–similar to the mask that Klansmen frequently wore in the past.
Apparently these cadets were very well aware of what could potentially happen. The woman told WCSC-TV in Charleston that someone in the video said, “it’s not what it looks like.” Supposedly, the cadets weren’t dressed as Klansmen, but as ghosts. She posted screenshots of the videos to her Facebook page. She and her roommate talked it over; at first she didn’t think it would turn into “a big thing.”
Later, the man who sent the videos asked her to delete the screenshots. She complied, but told The (Charleston) Post & Courier that she decided to repost them because she felt it was “important for people to see.” Even if they were just ghosts, she said, “we all know what they look like and they know what they look like.”
By Thursday morning, the pictures had reached the desk of the Citadel’s president, retired Air Force lieutenant general John Rosa. He struck fast and hard, summoning the entire corps of cadets to a meeting at McAlister Field House to address the pictures. Later that day, he issued a statement announcing that eight cadets–seven underclassmen and one upperclassman–had been identified and suspended for what he described as “offensive and disturbing” behavior. Preliminary indications are that this was intended as a “Ghosts of Christmas Past” skit. However, Rosa says, the cadets’ behavior was “not consistent with our core values of honor, duty, and respect.”
The Citadel’s Minority Alumni Association issued a statement calling the pictures “disgraceful” and applauded Rosa for his swift action up to this point. However, it said that “much more needs to be done” about the prejudice that is still experienced by minority cadets, including a zero-tolerance policy for racist behavior.
The National Action Network, Al Sharpton’s organization, demanded that Rosa be fired. Sorry, but there is no defensible reason to call for Rosa’s head at this point. The cadets were suspended within hours of the pictures coming to light. Under school regulations, suspended students aren’t allowed to reapply until at least one semester has elapsed–a big deal for a military college like The Citadel.
The NAN should have waited to see how the process plays out, and see if school officials give these cadets a slap on the wrist. This wasn’t just kids being kids. This was grossly insensitive behavior for which the minimum punishment should be dismissal, which carries a minimum two-semester departure from The Citadel. According to the Corps of Cadets’ Blue Book, dismissal is warranted for “any act unbecoming to a cadet.” If this isn’t behavior “unbecoming to a cadet,” I don’t know what is.
Several elected officials were quick to weigh in. State representative Wendell Gilliard noted that the incident took place “in close proximity to Mother Emanuel AME Church”–located only three to four miles across the Ashley River–and demanded that the cadets be expelled. State senator Marlon Kimpson also demanded the cadets’ expulsion, saying their behavior “dishonored The Citadel, the people of Charleston, and the people of South Carolina.” He added that Rosa had personally assured him that he would take “whatever action that is within his power” to punish those involved.
However, Kimpson said–rightly–that much more needs to be done to “uproot” racism at the Citadel. For one thing, Kimpson has demanded the removal of the Confederate jack from Summerall Chapel. The Citadel’s Board of Visitors actually voted to remove the flag, but the state’s Heritage Act requires the state legislature to make the final decision. Hopefully this misguided incident brings the legislature to its senses.
