What Repercussions Do These Racist TikTok Teens "Deserve?"
Some might argue that it's unfair to ruin a teenager's life over one mistake. But this wasn't a mistake.
TikTok
Two teens—a girl and a guy, presumably a couple—stand in front of a bathroom sink. "Hey, today we're making..." says the girl.
The guy finishes her sentence with the n-word. He says it in full, straight up, with a hard "r."
The teens proceed to reveal pieces of paper with words written on them—"black," "don't have a dad," "eat watermelon + fried chicken"—to stand in for ingredients in their racist recipe, placing each in the sink and pouring a cup of water over it. At one point they reveal a piece of paper labeled "make good choices," but there's no water in that cup. Ironic.
It's almost bizarre watching these two white high schoolers spew the most blatant racism they can think of in a TikTok video that they almost certainly thought would only ever be watched and laughed at by their friends. Maybe it's the fact that, regardless of whether or not they thought their little skit was funny, they're so clearly not joking about the ideology behind it. Their proverbial masks are entirely off. These two high schoolers are undeniably blatant racists, and they feel so comfortable with their views that they saw no issue publicly releasing such a video.
Perhaps nobody would have seen it if not for Camden, a fellow student at Georgia-based Carrollton High School, who bravely posted the TikTok video on Twitter in an attempt to call out the racism. "Okay I know this probably isn't going to get a lot of views but I just thought I'd show everyone how racist the kids at my school are," she wrote.
The video went viral, garnering millions of views and leading to "Carrollton" trending on Twitter.
Backlash was swift, with Carrollton High School expelling the students, both of whom were seniors, essentially not allowing them to graduate high school.
The male student, who had aspirations of becoming a pro wrestler and took classes at a pro wrestling school, received an extra blow when an actual pro wrestler, Sugar Dunkington, called him out for "train[ing] at a black-owned facility." This led the wrestling school, WWA4, to terminate the student's membership.
Meanwhile, Twitter users found out what college the female student had been accepted into and took it upon themselves to email admission en masse.
Undoubtedly, the disgustingly vile, racist video that these two teenagers released into the world will change the course of their lives forever. They won't graduate high school, which will almost certainly retroactively affect their potential college acceptances. They'll be barred from multiple future career paths. Most importantly, anytime anyone Googles either of their names, their video will show up.
The repercussions of their actions are severe, but while many social media cancellations feel overblown or extreme, this one feels "deserved."
Yet, some people might argue that it's unfair to ruin a teenager's life over one mistake.
A lot of the time, that's fair, but it's important to recognize that this video isn't just a few stupid high school kids messing around and making one mistake. Creating something like this is the result of deep-seated racism, most likely backed up by an unchecked racist upbringing.
If by the time you are 17 or 18 years old you don't understand that this sort of video is unequivocally wrong, then you might be beyond help. In fact, their young age, and the fact that they've grown up with access to all of history at their fingertips, only reinforces the egregiousness of their conduct. And lest anyone think that their racism might be due to lack of exposure from within an insular white, southern community, Carrollton High School appears to have sizable non-white demographics.
No, these teens are facing the real-world punishment for being a racist dirtbags in modern society. And that punishment is that the only people who will want anything to do with you are other racist dirtbags. Nobody else will want to work with you or have you in their employ. Nobody else will want to talk with you or interact with you. Nobody else will want to help you succeed. Regardless of whether or not any high schooler "deserves" to have their life ruined, the consequences fit the offense. Racism is disgusting, and sometimes that lesson needs to be learned the hard way.
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