The term “racist” has been overblown by the left in recent years and it’s thus become out-of-fashion to even describe racially discriminatory incidents as such because they lose power in condemning instead of being things truly worth abhorring. This leads to the difficulty of determining of what actually constitutes true ignorance and a moment that lacked grace but is generally forgivable on the spot. In the case of a Wisconsin high school graduation, the sudden shoving off the stage of a black superintendent by a white father in Wisconsin as his daughter is humiliated is an example of what I would consider legitimate racism for a variety of reasons. Let me explain.

            The man involved in pushing the superintendent off the stage, Matthew Eddy, comes from a school that was previously the subject of a New York Times story where fifty students were let off the hook for giving a Nazi salute in a photo. Whereas that salute could theoretically be part of a joke or satire when confined to a one or even a few people owing to the unreliability of small sample sizes, the larger sample sizes in polling produce more reliable results regarding the intentions of the students involved. When you have teenagers who have short-attention spans getting together for a choreographed picture of a Nazi salute, there are going to be some, if not most of them, who are unironically doing that pose for the purpose of showing their dedication to a dangerous political and social ideology. I’ll leave it up to your speculation who is sincere and insincere about their innocence or guilt regarding their intentions in the photo.

            This background leads to the question of if the school district has a larger racism problem going on under the surface than it is letting on. The county it is based in, Sauk County, is 97% white making it one of the whitest counties in the United States making the sight of a black American a rare occurrence, something even more important to mention when considering the northern segregation of schools into city-county schools where minorities are often lumped into city district schools where they are less-funded and supported than suburban whiter county schools.

            As for Matt Eddy, I want to be careful in my prescription of intentions to his treatment of Superintendent Rainey Briggs as there may be some grievance that is unknown as of yet that surfaces that makes a retraction of my comments necessary in the future. However, it would appear that if there were one of these concerns present, Eddy would have requested that his daughter not interact with Briggs before the ceremony instead of suddenly storming the stage right at the moment where she would be shaking hands with a black man. It also doesn’t help his case that the level of force that he uses to usher him off the stage is palpable according to the video and the aforementioned embarrassment in the eyes of his daughter who seemed excited to shake the hands of Mr. Briggs implies that there was no fault on the part of the Superintendent. In short, while I again cannot prescribe intentions as of yet, the optics look incredibly bad and racially insensitive for Mr. Eddy.

Students Who Made Apparent Nazi Salute in Photo Won’t Be Punished – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauk_County,_Wisconsin

Collin Rugg on X: “NEW: Wisconsin father rushes on stage during a graduation ceremony and stops his daughter from shaking the hand of the black district superintendent. What an awful person. The man, Matt Eddy, was seen rushing onto the stage at the Baraboo High School ceremony while his daughter https://t.co/I0AodTAk1L” / X

            However, this video should also bring attention to how ceremonies like this one in 2024 have been ruined, cancelled, or generally compromised for the Class of 2024 in a series of unique ways. Between the illegal rioting of anti-Semitic protestors cancelling or disrupting college graduations, the COVID lockdowns that cancelled the 2020-2022 graduations for the high school students, and the random weather and violent events that have manifested in other parts of the country that have surrounded the ceremonies, one cannot help but to feel sorry for average students caught in the crossfire. Imagine being an average student doing the work to become successful and your reward that was granted to my generation is denied to you: you would probably feel unappreciated or forgotten about.

As a sign of encouragement for the new graduates just trying to get through the difficulties of the modern day, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel had an entire musical ensemble play some of her favorite songs in dedication to her. This is one of her songs and it is an emotional listen to hopefully uplift you through your day. Stabsmusikkorps – Für mich soll‘s rote Rosen regnen (Großer Zapfenstreich für Angela Merkel) (youtube.com)